Tafseer of The Overthrowing · At-Takwir · 81:8
And when the girl [who was] buried alive is asked
Important: The Arabic source text is always authoritative. This translation is a study aid and has not been verified by scholars — do not use it as a basis for religious proof or for deriving rulings (ahkam). When in doubt, always consult the Arabic text and a qualified scholar.
His statement: وَإِذَا الْمَوْءُودَةُ سُئِلَتْ * بِأيّ ذَنْبٍ قُتلَتْ ("And when the girl buried alive is questioned, for what sin she was killed") (81:8-9). The Qurʾān-reciters (al-qurrāʾ) differed over the reading of this. Abū al-Ḍuḥā Muslim ibn Ṣubayḥ read it as وَإذَا المَوْءُودَةُ سألَتْ * بِأيّ ذَنْبٍ قُتلَتْ ("And when the girl buried alive asks: for what sin was I killed"), with the meaning: the girl buried alive asked those who buried her: for what sin did you kill me?
* Mention of the report concerning that:
Abū al-Sāʾib related to me, saying: Abū Muʿāwiya related to us, on the authority of al-Aʿmash, on the authority of Muslim, concerning His statement: ( وَإذَا المَوْءُودَةُ سألَتْ ) ("And when the girl buried alive asks"), he said: she demands satisfaction for her blood.
Sawwār ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-ʿAnbarī related to us, saying: Yaḥyā ibn Saʿīd related to us, on the authority of al-Aʿmash, who said: Abū al-Ḍuḥā said concerning ( وَإذَا المَوْءُودَةُ سألَتْ ) ("And when the girl buried alive asks"): she asked those who killed her.
If a reciter, among those who read ( سألَتْ * بِأيّ ذَنْبٍ قُتلَتْ ) ("she asked: for what sin was I killed"), were to read it thus, there would be a basis for that, and its meaning would be the same as that of the one who read ( بِأَيِّ ذَنْبٍ قُتِلَتْ ) ("for what sin she was killed"). Only, when it is a quotation (ḥikāya), both forms are permissible, as one says: "ʿAbd Allāh said: for what sin was he beaten?" As ʿAntara said:
"The two who reviled my honour while I had not reviled them, and the two who swore, whenever I met them, [to shed] my blood."
And that is because those two said: "Whenever we meet ʿAntara, we shall surely kill him." ʿAntara quoted their statement in his verse. And likewise the statement of the other [poet]:
"Two men of [the tribe of] Ḍabba informed us that we had seen a naked man,"
with the meaning: they informed us that they [had seen a naked man], but the expression proceeded according to the method of quotation. Some of the general Qurʾān-reciters of the [great] cities read it as ( وَإِذَا الْمَوْءُودَةُ سُئِلَتْ * بِأَيِّ ذَنْبٍ قُتِلَتْ ) ("And when the girl buried alive is questioned, for what sin she was killed"), with the meaning: the girl buried alive is questioned for what sin she was killed; and the meaning of qutilat is: she was killed. Only, that was rendered in the form of a statement according to the manner of quotation, in the way of the previously mentioned statement. Its meaning may also be directed so that it is: and when the girl buried alive asks her murderers and those who buried her: for what sin did you kill me? Then that was rendered into the form in which the agent is not named, and so it was said: for what sin she was killed.
The sounder of the two readings therein is, in our judgement, the reading of the one who read it as ( سُئِلَتْ ) with a ḍamma on the sīn ("she is questioned") and ( بِأَيِّ ذَنْبٍ قُتِلَتْ ) ("for what sin she was killed") in the form of a statement, on account of the consensus of the authoritative proof among the Qurʾān-reciters concerning that. And al-mawʾūda is: the one buried alive; thus the Arabs used to do with their daughters. Of that is the statement of al-Farazdaq ibn Ghālib:
"And of us is he who kept alive the one buried alive, and Ghālib, and ʿAmr, and of us are bearers and a defender."
One says: waʾadahu, he buries it alive, waʾdan and waʾdatan.
And in accordance with what we have said concerning that, the exegetes (ahl al-taʾwīl) have spoken.
* Mention of who said that:
Bishr related to us, saying: Yazīd related to us, saying: Saʿīd related to us, on the authority of Qatāda: ( وَإِذَا الْمَوْءُودَةُ سُئِلَتْ ) ("And when the girl buried alive is questioned") — it is, in some readings: ( سأَلَتْ * بِأيّ ذَنْب قُتلَتْ ) ("she asked: for what sin was I killed"), not for any sin. The people of the pre-Islamic ignorance (al-jāhiliyya) killed their daughter and fed their dog; and Allah rebuked them for that.
Ibn ʿAbd al-Aʿlā related to us, saying: Ibn Thawr related to us, on the authority of Maʿmar, on the authority of Qatāda, who said: Qays ibn ʿĀṣim al-Tamīmī came to the Prophet ﷺ and said: "I buried alive eight daughters in the jāhiliyya." He ﷺ said: "Then grant, for each one of them, the freeing of a sacrificial camel (badana)."
Ibn Ḥumayd related to us, saying: Mihrān related to us, on the authority of Sufyān, on the authority of his father, on the authority of Abū Yaʿlā, on the authority of al-Rabīʿ ibn Khuthaym: ( وَإِذَا الْمَوْءُودَةُ سُئِلَتْ * بِأَيِّ ذَنْبٍ قُتِلَتْ ) ("And when the girl buried alive is questioned, for what sin she was killed"), he said: the Arabs were among the people who did that most.
Abū Kurayb related to us, saying: Wakīʿ related to us, on the authority of Sufyān, on the authority of his father, on the authority of Abū Yaʿlā, on the authority of Rabīʿ ibn Khaytham, something similar.
Yūnus related to me, saying: Ibn Wahb informed us, saying: Ibn Zayd said concerning His statement: ( وَإِذَا الْمَوْءُودَةُ سُئِلَتْ ) ("And when the girl buried alive is questioned"), he said: the daughters whom the tribes of the Arabs killed; and he read: ( بِأَيِّ ذَنْبٍ قُتِلَتْ ) ("for what sin she was killed").
