Tafseer of The Repentance · At-Tawba · 9:112
[Such believers are] the repentant, the worshippers, the praisers [of Allah], the travelers [for His cause], those who bow and prostrate [in prayer], those who enjoin what is right and forbid what is wrong, and those who observe the limits [set by] Allah. And give good tidings to the believers.
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 discourse on the explanation of His statement: التَّائِبُونَ الْعَابِدُونَ الْحَامِدُونَ السَّائِحُونَ الرَّاكِعُونَ السَّاجِدُونَ الآمِرُونَ بِالْمَعْرُوفِ وَالنَّاهُونَ عَنِ الْمُنْكَرِ وَالْحَافِظُونَ لِحُدُودِ اللَّهِ وَبَشِّرِ الْمُؤْمِنِينَ (9:112) (Those who repent, those who worship, those who praise, those who fast, those who bow, those who prostrate, those who enjoin what is right and forbid what is wrong, and those who guard the limits of Allah — and give glad tidings to the believers.)
Abū Jaʿfar said: The Exalted, whose praise is exalted, says: Indeed, Allah has purchased from the repentant, worshipping believers their souls and their possessions. But the [word "those who repent"] is put in the nominative, because it constitutes a fresh commencement after the completion of another [sentence] of the same kind. The Arabs do that, and our exposition of this has already preceded at His statement: صُمٌّ بُكْمٌ عُمْيٌ [Surah Al-Baqarah: 18] ("Deaf, dumb, blind"), in a manner that makes it unnecessary to repeat it here. (1)
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The meaning of "those who repent" (al-tāʾibūn) is: those who turn back from what Allah abhors and is angered by, to what He loves and is pleased with, (2) as in:
17272 — Ibn Ḥumayd related to us, saying: Ḥakkām ibn Salm related to us, on the authority of Thaʿlaba ibn Suhayl, who said: Al-Ḥasan said concerning the statement of Allah "those who repent": They showed repentance to Allah for all sins. (3)
17273 — Sawwār ibn ʿAbdallāh al-ʿAnbarī related to us, saying: My father related to me, on the authority of Abū al-Ashhab, on the authority of al-Ḥasan: that he read "those who repent, those who worship". He said: They showed repentance for ascribing partners to Allah (shirk), and they dissociated themselves from hypocrisy (nifāq).
17274 — Ibn Wakīʿ related to us, saying: Abū Usāma related to us, on the authority of Abū al-Ashhab, who said: Al-Ḥasan read "those who repent, those who worship". He said: They showed repentance for shirk, and they dissociated themselves from hypocrisy.
17275 — Al-Qāsim related to us, saying: Al-Ḥusayn related to us, saying: Manṣūr ibn Hārūn related to us, on the authority of Abū Isḥāq al-Fazārī, on the authority of Abū Rajāʾ, on the authority of al-Ḥasan, who said: Those who repent of shirk.
17276 — Al-Ḥārith related to us, saying: ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz related to us, saying: Jarīr ibn Ḥāzim related to us, saying: I heard al-Ḥasan reading this verse: "those who repent, those who worship". Al-Ḥasan said: They showed repentance, by Allah, for shirk, and they dissociated themselves from hypocrisy.
17277 — Bishr ibn Muʿādh related to us, saying: Yazīd related to us, saying: Saʿīd related to us, on the authority of Qatāda, concerning His statement "those who repent", he said: They showed repentance for shirk, and thereafter they did not act hypocritically in Islam.
17278 — Al-Qāsim related to us, saying: Al-Ḥusayn related to us, saying: Ḥajjāj related to us, on the authority of Ibn Jurayj: "those who repent", he said: Those who repented of sins, and thereafter did not return to them.
* * *
As for His statement "those who worship" (al-ʿābidūn): they are those who humbled themselves in awe of Allah and in lowliness before Him, and exerted themselves in His service, (4) as in:
17279 — Bishr related to us, saying: Yazīd related to us, saying: Saʿīd related to us, on the authority of Qatāda: "those who worship", a people who exacted [exertion] from their bodies, in their night and their day.
17280 — Ibn Ḥumayd related to us, saying: Ḥakkām related to us, on the authority of Thaʿlaba ibn Suhayl, who said: Al-Ḥasan said concerning the statement of Allah "those who worship": They worshipped Allah at all their times, in prosperity and adversity.
17281 — Al-Qāsim related to us, saying: Al-Ḥusayn related to us, saying: Manṣūr ibn Hārūn related to me, on the authority of Abū Isḥāq al-Fazārī, on the authority of Abū Rajāʾ, on the authority of al-Ḥasan: "those who worship", he said: Those who worship their Lord.
* * *
As for His statement "those who praise" (al-ḥāmidūn): they are those who praise Allah for everything with which He tests them, of good and evil, (5) as in:
17282 — Bishr related to us, saying: Yazīd related to us, saying: Saʿīd related to us, on the authority of Qatāda: "those who praise", a people who praised Allah in every state.
17283 — Ibn Ḥumayd related to us, saying: Ḥakkām related to us, on the authority of Thaʿlaba, who said: Al-Ḥasan said: "those who praise", those who praised Allah at all their times, in prosperity and adversity.
17284 — Al-Qāsim related to us, saying: Al-Ḥusayn related to us, saying: Manṣūr ibn Hārūn related to me, on the authority of Abū Isḥāq al-Fazārī, on the authority of Abū Rajāʾ, on the authority of al-Ḥasan: "those who praise", he said: Those who praise for Islam.
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As for His statement "those who fast" (al-sāʾiḥūn): they are those who fast, as in:
17285 — Muḥammad ibn ʿĪsā al-Dāmaghānī and Ibn Wakīʿ related to me, both of them saying: Sufyān related to us, on the authority of ʿAmr, on the authority of ʿUbayd ibn ʿUmayr =
17286 — And Yūnus related to me, saying: Ibn Wahb informed us, saying: ʿAmr ibn al-Ḥārith informed me, on the authority of ʿAmr, on the authority of ʿUbayd ibn ʿUmayr, who said: The Prophet ﷺ was asked about "those who travel [for devotion]" (al-sāʾiḥīn), and he said: They are those who fast. (6)
17287 — Muḥammad ibn ʿAbdallāh ibn Bazīʿ related to me, saying: Ḥakīm ibn Ḥizām related to us, saying: Sulaymān related to us, on the authority of Abū Ṣāliḥ, on the authority of Abū Hurayra, who said: The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said to me: "those who travel [for devotion]" (al-sāʾiḥūn) are those who fast.
17288 — Ibn Bashshār related to us, saying: ʿAbd al-Raḥmān related to us, saying: Isrāʾīl related to us, on the authority of al-Aʿmash, on the authority of Abū Ṣāliḥ, on the authority of Abū Hurayra, who said: "those who fast", those who fast. (7)
17289 — Ibn Bashshār related to us, saying: ʿAbd al-Raḥmān related to us, saying: Sufyān related to us, on the authority of ʿĀṣim, on the authority of Zirr, on the authority of ʿAbdallāh, who said: "those who fast", those who fast. (8)
17290 — ...... he said: Yaḥyā related to us, saying: Sufyān related to us, saying: ʿĀṣim related to me, on the authority of Zirr, on the authority of ʿAbdallāh, with the same [import].
17291 — Muḥammad ibn ʿUmāra al-Asadī related to me, saying: ʿUbaydallāh related to us, saying: Shaybān informed us, on the authority of Abū Isḥāq, on the authority of Abū ʿAbd al-Raḥmān, who said: The [travelling for devotion] (al-siyāḥa) is fasting.
17292 — Abū Kurayb related to us, saying: Ibn ʿAṭiyya related to us, saying: Isrāʾīl related to us, on the authority of Ashʿath, on the authority of Saʿīd ibn Jubayr, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, who said: "those who fast": those who fast.
17293 — Ibn Wakīʿ related to me, saying: My father related to us, on the authority of his father = and Isrāʾīl, on the authority of Ashʿath = on the authority of Saʿīd ibn Jubayr, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, who said: "those who fast", those who fast.
17294 — Al-Muthannā related to us, saying: Al-Ḥimmānī related to us, saying: Isrāʾīl related to us, on the authority of Ashʿath, on the authority of Saʿīd ibn Jubayr, who said: "those who fast", those who fast.
17295 — Aḥmad ibn Isḥāq related to us, saying: Abū Aḥmad related to us, saying: Isrāʾīl related to us, on the authority of Ashʿath ibn Abī al-Shaʿthāʾ, on the authority of Saʿīd ibn Jubayr, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, with the same.
17296 — Ibn Wakīʿ related to us, saying: My father related to us, on the authority of Sufyān, on the authority of ʿĀṣim, on the authority of Zirr, on the authority of ʿAbdallāh, with the same.
17297 — ...... he said: My father related to us, on the authority of his father, on the authority of Isḥāq, on the authority of ʿAbd al-Raḥmān, who said: "those who fast", they are those who fast.
17298 — Muḥammad ibn Saʿd related to me, saying: My father related to me, saying: My uncle related to me, saying: My father related to me, on the authority of his father, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās: "those who fast", he said: By those who fast are meant those who fast.
17299 — Ibn Wakīʿ related to us, saying: ʿUbaydallāh related to us, on the authority of Isrāʾīl, on the authority of Ibn Abī Najīḥ, on the authority of Mujāhid, who said: "those who fast", they are those who fast.
17300 — 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: "those who fast", those who fast.
17301 — ...... he said: ʿAbdallāh related to us, saying: Muʿāwiya related to me, on the authority of ʿAlī, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, who said: Wherever Allah mentions travelling [for devotion] (al-siyāḥa) in the Qurʾān, they are those who fast. (9)
17302 — ...... he said: My father related to us, on the authority of al-Masʿūdī, on the authority of Abū Sinān, on the authority of Ibn Abī al-Hudhayl, on the authority of Abū ʿAmr al-ʿAbdī, who said: "those who fast", those among the believers who persevere in fasting.
17303 — Ibn Ḥumayd related to us, saying: Ḥakkām related to us, on the authority of Thaʿlaba ibn Suhayl, who said: Al-Ḥasan said: "those who fast", those who fast.
17304 — Al-Qāsim related to us, saying: Al-Ḥusayn related to us, saying: Manṣūr ibn Hārūn related to me, on the authority of Abū Isḥāq al-Fazārī, on the authority of Abū Rajāʾ, on the authority of al-Ḥasan, who said: "those who fast", those who fast the month of Ramadan.
17305 — Ibn Wakīʿ related to us, saying: Abū Khālid related to us, on the authority of Juwaybir, on the authority of al-Ḍaḥḥāk, who said: "those who fast", those who fast.
17306 — ...... he said: Abū Usāma related to us, on the authority of Juwaybir, on the authority of al-Ḍaḥḥāk, who said: Everything in the Qurʾān that is "those who fast" (al-sāʾiḥūn), those are those who fast.
17307 — Al-Muthannā related to me, saying: ʿAmr ibn ʿAwn related to us, saying: Hushaym informed us, on the authority of Juwaybir, on the authority of al-Ḍaḥḥāk: "those who fast", those who fast.
17308 — It was related to me concerning al-Ḥusayn ibn al-Faraj, he said: I heard Abū Muʿādh saying: ʿUbayd informed us, saying: I heard al-Ḍaḥḥāk saying concerning His statement: "those who fast", he means those who fast.
17309 — Ibn Wakīʿ related to us, saying: Ibn Numayr, and Yaʿlā, and Abū Usāma related to us, on the authority of ʿAbd al-Malik, on the authority of ʿAṭāʾ, who said: "those who fast", those who fast.
17310 — Al-Muthannā related to me, saying: ʿAmr ibn ʿAwn related to us, saying: Hushaym informed us, on the authority of ʿAbd al-Malik, on the authority of ʿAṭāʾ, with the same.
17311 — ...... he said: Isḥāq related to us, saying: ʿAbdallāh ibn al-Zubayr related to us, on the authority of Ibn ʿUyayna, he said: ʿAmr related to us: that he heard Wahb ibn Munabbih saying: Travelling [for devotion] existed among the Children of Israel, and when a man travelled for forty years, he would see what the travellers before him saw. A son of adultery travelled for forty years, but he saw nothing, and he said: O my Lord, have You seen that both my parents did evil, while I did good? Then he was shown what the travellers before him had seen = Ibn ʿUyayna said: When he abandons food, drink, and women, then he is the traveller (al-sāʾiḥ).
17312 — Bishr related to us, saying: Yazīd related to us, saying: Saʿīd related to us, on the authority of Qatāda: "those who fast", a people who exacted [exertion] from their bodies, fasting for Allah.
17313 — Aḥmad ibn Isḥāq related to us, saying: Abū Aḥmad related to us, saying: Ibrāhīm ibn Yazīd related to us, on the authority of al-Walīd ibn ʿAbdallāh, on the authority of ʿĀʾisha, who said: The travelling [for devotion] of this community is fasting. (10)
* * *
And His statement "those who bow, those who prostrate" (al-rākiʿūn al-sājidūn) means: those who pray, who bow in their prayer and who prostrate therein, (11) as in:
17314 — Al-Qāsim related to us, saying: Al-Ḥusayn related to us, saying: Manṣūr ibn Hārūn related to me, on the authority of Abū Isḥāq al-Fazārī, on the authority of Abū Rajāʾ, on the authority of al-Ḥasan: "those who bow, those who prostrate", he said: The obligatory prayer.
* * *
As for His statement "those who enjoin what is right and forbid what is wrong" (al-āmirūn bi-l-maʿrūf wa-l-nāhūn ʿan al-munkar): this means that they enjoin upon the people what is just in their religion, and the following of sound reason and guidance, and right [conduct] (12) = and they forbid them what is wrong, that is, they forbid the people every deed and every utterance that Allah has forbidden His servants. (13)
* * *
And there is related concerning al-Ḥasan on that what [follows]:
17315 — Al-Qāsim related to us, saying: Al-Ḥusayn related to us, saying: Manṣūr ibn Hārūn related to me, on the authority of Abū Isḥāq al-Fazārī, on the authority of Abū Rajāʾ, on the authority of al-Ḥasan: "those who enjoin what is right", [namely] "there is no god but Allah" = "and those who forbid what is wrong", [namely] shirk.
17316 — Ibn Ḥumayd related to us, saying: Ḥakkām related to us, on the authority of Thaʿlaba ibn Suhayl, who said: Al-Ḥasan said concerning His statement: "those who enjoin what is right", he said: Now, they only enjoined what is right upon the people once they themselves belonged to it = "and those who forbid what is wrong", he said: Now, they only forbade what is wrong once they themselves had been restrained from it.
17317 — Al-Muthannā related to me, saying: Isḥāq related to us, saying: Ibn Abī Jaʿfar related to us, on the authority of his father, on the authority of al-Rabīʿ, on the authority of Abū al-ʿĀliya, who said: Everything mentioned in the Qurʾān as "enjoining what is right" and "forbidding what is wrong": the enjoining of what is right is a call [away] from shirk to Islam = and the forbidding of what is wrong is a prohibition of worshipping the idols and the devils.
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Abū Jaʿfar said: We have already in the foregoing demonstrated the correctness of what we have said: that "enjoining what is right" is everything that Allah has enjoined upon His servants or His Messenger ﷺ, and "forbidding what is wrong" is everything that Allah has forbidden His servants or His Messenger. And since that is so, and there is in the verse no indication that a specific [meaning] is intended by it rather than a general one, nor any report from the Messenger, nor [anything] in the nature of reason, then the general [meaning] of it is more fitting, on account of what we have set forth in more than one place in our books.
* * *
As for His statement "and those who guard the limits of Allah" (al-ḥāfiẓūn li-ḥudūd Allāh): this means: those who fulfil the obligations of Allah, who adhere to His command and His prohibition, who neglect nothing of what He has imposed upon them to perform, and who commit nothing of what He has forbidden them to commit, (14) as in:
17318 — Al-Muthannā related to me, saying: ʿAbdallāh ibn Ṣāliḥ related to us, saying: Muʿāwiya related to me, on the authority of ʿAlī, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās: "and those who guard the limits of Allah", he means: those who uphold obedience to Allah. And it is a condition that He has imposed upon the people of jihād: when they fulfil for Allah His condition, He fulfils for them their condition. (15)
17319 — Muḥammad ibn Saʿd related to me, saying: My father related to me, saying: My uncle related to me, saying: My father related to me, on the authority of his father, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās: "and those who guard the limits of Allah", he said: Those who uphold obedience to Allah.
17320 — Ibn Ḥumayd related to us, saying: Ḥakkām related to us, on the authority of Thaʿlaba ibn Suhayl, who said: Al-Ḥasan said concerning His statement: "and those who guard the limits of Allah", he said: Those who uphold the command of Allah.
17321 — Al-Qāsim related to us, saying: Al-Ḥusayn related to us, saying: Manṣūr ibn Hārūn related to me, on the authority of Abū Isḥāq al-Fazārī, on the authority of Abū Rajāʾ, on the authority of al-Ḥasan: "and those who guard the limits of Allah", he said: The obligations of Allah.
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As for His statement "and give glad tidings to the believers" (wa-bashshir al-muʾminīn): this means: and give glad tidings to the believers who affirm [Allah] of what Allah has promised them, that when they fulfil for Allah His covenant, He fulfils for them what He has promised them, namely to admit them into the Garden (janna), (16) as in:
17322 — Ibn Bashshār related to us, saying: Hawdha ibn Khalīfa related to us, saying: ʿAwf related to us, on the authority of al-Ḥasan: إِنَّ اللَّهَ اشْتَرَى مِنَ الْمُؤْمِنِينَ أَنْفُسَهُمْ ("Indeed, Allah has purchased from the believers their souls"), to the end of the verse, he said: Those who faithfully fulfilled their pact = "those who repent, those who worship, those who praise", to the end of the verse, and he said: This is their conduct and their behaviour in prosperity; thereafter they met the enemy and fulfilled what they had promised Allah.
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And some of them said: The meaning of it is: and give glad tidings to whoever performs these deeds = by which His statement "those who repent, those who worship", to the end of the verse, is intended = even if they do not fight [in jihād].
* Mention of who said that:
17323 — Al-Qāsim related to us, saying: Al-Ḥusayn related to us, saying: Manṣūr ibn Hārūn related to me, on the authority of Abū Isḥāq al-Fazārī, on the authority of Abū Rajāʾ, on the authority of al-Ḥasan: "and give glad tidings to the believers", he said: Those who did not fight [in jihād].
