Tafseer of The Repentance · At-Tawba · 9:110
Their building which they built will not cease to be a [cause of] skepticism in their hearts until their hearts are stopped. And Allah is Knowing and Wise.
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.
The statement concerning the interpretation of His word: لا يَزَالُ بُنْيَانُهُمُ الَّذِي بَنَوْا رِيبَةً فِي قُلُوبِهِمْ إِلا أَنْ تَقَطَّعَ قُلُوبُهُمْ وَاللَّهُ عَلِيمٌ حَكِيمٌ (110) (The building which they have built will not cease to be a doubt in their hearts, until their hearts are torn apart. And Allah is All-Knowing, All-Wise. [9:110])
Abū Jaʿfar said: The Exalted, whose praise is mentioned, says: The building of these people who took a mosque as harm (ḍirār) and as unbelief (kufr) will not cease =(to be a doubt), He says: their mosque which they have built will not cease =(to be a doubt in their hearts), that is to say: a doubt and hypocrisy (nifāq) in their hearts, while they suppose that in building it they were doers of good =(until their hearts are torn apart), that is to say: until their hearts burst open so that they die =(and Allah is All-Knowing), of what these hypocrites who built the mosque of harm carry within themselves, namely their doubt about their faith, and what they intended by building it and what they wanted with it, and whither their affair is heading in the Hereafter, and in the worldly life as long as they live, and of all else of their affair and that of others =(All-Wise), in His disposing of them, and the disposing of His entire creation.
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And in accordance with what we have said about this, the people of interpretation have spoken.
* Mention of who said that:
17251- Al-Muthannā related to me, saying: ʿAbdallāh related to us, saying: Muʿāwiya related to me, on the authority of ʿAlī, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, concerning His word: (The building which they have built will not cease to be a doubt in their hearts), that is to say a doubt =(until their hearts are torn apart), by this he means death.
17252- Mohammed ibn ʿAbd al-Aʿlā related to us, saying: Mohammed ibn Thawr related to us, on the authority of Maʿmar, on the authority of Qatāda: (a doubt in their hearts), he said: a doubt in their hearts =(until their hearts are torn apart), until they die.
17253- Bishr related to us, saying: Yazīd related to us, saying: Saʿīd related to us, on the authority of Qatāda, concerning His word: (The building which they have built will not cease to be a doubt in their hearts, until their hearts are torn apart), he says: until they die.
17254- Maṭar ibn Mohammed al-Ḍabbī related to me, saying: Abū Qutayba related to us, saying: Shuʿba related to us, on the authority of al-Ḥakam, on the authority of Mujāhid, concerning His word: (until their hearts are torn apart), he said: until they die.
17255- Mohammed ibn ʿAmr related to me, saying: Abū ʿĀṣim related to us, saying: ʿĪsā related to us, on the authority of Ibn Abī Najīḥ, on the authority of Mujāhid: (until their hearts are torn apart), he said: they die.
17256- Al-Muthannā related to me, saying: Abū Ḥudhayfa related to us, saying: Shibl related to us, on the authority of Ibn Abī Najīḥ, on the authority of Mujāhid: (until their hearts are torn apart), he said: they die.
17257- Al-Muthannā related to me, saying: ʿAbdallāh related to us, on the authority of Warqāʾ, on the authority of Ibn Abī Najīḥ, on the authority of Mujāhid, the same.
17258- ...... he said: Suwayd related to us, saying: Ibn al-Mubārak related to us, on the authority of Maʿmar, on the authority of Qatāda and al-Ḥasan: (The building which they have built will not cease to be a doubt in their hearts), they both said: a doubt in their hearts.
17259- Ibn Wakīʿ related to us, saying: Isḥāq al-Rāzī related to us, saying: Abū Sinān related to us, on the authority of Ḥabīb: (The building which they have built will not cease to be a doubt in their hearts), he said: a rage in their hearts.
17260- ...... he said: Ibn Numayr related to us, on the authority of Warqāʾ, on the authority of Ibn Abī Najīḥ, on the authority of Mujāhid: (until their hearts are torn apart), he said: they die.
17261- ...... he said: Isḥāq al-Rāzī related to us, on the authority of Abū Sinān, on the authority of Ḥabīb: (until their hearts are torn apart): until they die.
17262- ...... he said: Qabīṣa related to us, on the authority of Sufyān, on the authority of al-Suddī: (a doubt in their hearts), he said: unbelief (kufr). I said: Was Mujammiʿ ibn Jāriya an unbeliever? He said: No, but it was a [tormenting] rancor.
17263- Aḥmad ibn Isḥāq related to us, saying: Abū Aḥmad related to us, saying: Sufyān related to us, on the authority of al-Suddī: (The building which they have built will not cease to be a doubt in their hearts), he said: a [tormenting] rancor in their hearts.
17264- Yūnus related to me, saying: Ibn Wahb informed us, saying: Ibn Zayd said concerning His word: (The building which they have built will not cease to be a doubt in their hearts), it will not cease to be a doubt in their hearts, while they are content with what they have done, just as the calf was made beloved in the hearts of the companions of Moses. And he recited: وَأُشْرِبُوا فِي قُلُوبِهِمُ الْعِجْلَ بِكُفْرِهِمْ (And their hearts were made to drink in [the love of] the calf, because of their unbelief) [Sūrat al-Baqara: 93]. He said: [namely] the love of it =(until their hearts are torn apart), he said: that will not cease to be in their hearts until they die — by this he means the hypocrites.
17265- Al-Ḥārith related to me, saying: ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz related to us, saying: Qays related to us, on the authority of al-Suddī, on the authority of Ibrāhīm: (a doubt in their hearts), he said: a doubt. He [al-Suddī] said: I said: O Abū ʿImrān, do you say this while you have recited the Qurʾān? He said: It is only a [tormenting] rancor.
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And the reciters differed concerning the recitation of His word: (until their hearts are torn apart).
Some of the reciters of the Hijaz, Medina, Basra and Kufa recited it: (إِلا أَنْ تُقَطَّعَ قُلُوبُهُمْ), with a ḍamma on the tāʾ of "tuqaṭṭaʿa," in the passive form whose agent is not named, with the meaning: until Allah tears their hearts apart.
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And some of the reciters of Medina and Kufa recited it: (إِلا أَنْ تَقَطَّعَ قُلُوبُهُمْ), with a fatḥa on the tāʾ of "taqaṭṭaʿa," whereby the action belongs to the hearts, with the meaning: until their hearts tear apart, and thereafter one of the two tāʾs was dropped.
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And it is reported that al-Ḥasan used to recite: "إِلَى أَنْ تَقَطَّعَ قُلُوبُهُمْ", with the meaning: until their hearts tear apart.
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And it is reported that in the recitation of ʿAbdallāh [ibn Masʿūd] it reads: (وَلَوْ قُطِّعَتْ قُلُوبُهُمْ) (even if their hearts were torn apart), and upon that consideration the one who recited it recited: (إِلا أَنْ تُقَطَّع), with a ḍamma on the tāʾ.
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Abū Jaʿfar said: And the statement about this is, in my view, that the fatḥa on the tāʾ and the ḍamma are close to each other in meaning, because the hearts do not tear apart when they are torn apart except by Allah tearing them apart, and Allah does not tear them apart unless they are torn apart. They are two well-known recitations, and a group of reciters has recited each of the two; with whichever of the two the reciter recites, he attains what is correct in his recitation. As for reciting it as (إِلَى أَنْ تَقَطَّعَ), that is a recitation which deviates from the codices of the Muslims, and I do not consider reciting in deviation from what is in their codices to be permissible.
