Tafseer of The Repentance · At-Tawba · 9:127
And whenever a surah is revealed, they look at each other, [saying], "Does anyone see you?" and then they dismiss themselves. Allah has dismissed their hearts because they are a people who do not understand.
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.
Explanation of the saying of Allah: وَإِذَا مَا أُنْزِلَتْ سُورَةٌ نَظَرَ بَعْضُهُمْ إِلَى بَعْضٍ هَلْ يَرَاكُمْ مِنْ أَحَدٍ ثُمَّ انْصَرَفُوا صَرَفَ اللَّهُ قُلُوبَهُمْ بِأَنَّهُمْ قَوْمٌ لَا يَفْقَهُونَ (9:127) (And whenever a sūra is sent down, they look at one another: "Does anyone see you?" Then they turn away. Allah has turned their hearts away, because they are a people who do not understand.)
Abū Jaʿfar said: The Exalted, whose praise is exalted, says: (And whenever a sūra is sent down) of the Qurʾān, in which lies the disgrace of these hypocrites, whose characteristics the Exalted, whose praise is exalted, has described in this sūra, while they are in the presence of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ = (they look at one another), so they looked at each other = (Does anyone see you?) — that is, if you speak or whisper about the faults of the people, so that someone may report it to them. Then they rose and turned away from the presence of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, and they did not listen to the recitation of the sūra in which their faults lay. Then the Exalted, whose praise is exalted, commenced His saying: (Allah has turned their hearts away), and He said: Allah has turned the hearts of these hypocrites away from the good, from success, and from belief in Allah and His Messenger = ذَلِكَ بِأَنَّهُمْ قَوْمٌ لَا يَفْقَهُونَ (that is because they are a people who do not understand) — He says: Allah inflicted upon them this abandonment (khidhlān) and turned their hearts away from good things, because they are a people who do not understand the admonitions of Allah, out of arrogance and out of hypocrisy.
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The scholars of the Arabic language differed concerning what governs the interrogative particle.
Some of the grammarians of Basra said: He said (they look at one another: "Does anyone see you?") as though He said: "one said to the other," because their looking in this place was a beckoning, or something akin to it — and Allah knows best.
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And some of the grammarians of Kūfa said: it is simply: and whenever a sūra is sent down, one says to the other: does anyone see you?
And another of them said: this "looking" does not mean "saying," but rather it is the looking that governs the question, as in the saying of the Arabs: "they looked at one another as to which of them was the most skilled," and "they gathered as to which of them was the most understanding," that is: they gathered to look — this is, then, what governs the question.
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17498 — Ibn Wakīʿ related to us, saying: my father related to us, on the authority of Shuʿba, on the authority of Abū Ḥamza, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, who said: Do not say: "we have turned away from the prayer" (inṣarafnā), for a people turned away and Allah turned their hearts away; rather say: "we have completed the prayer."
17499 — ...... he said: my father related to us, on the authority of Sufyān, on the authority of Abū Isḥāq, on the authority of ʿUmayr ibn Tamīm al-Thaʿlabī, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, who said: Do not say: "we have turned away from the prayer," for a people turned away and Allah turned their hearts away.
17500 — ...... he said: Abū Muʿāwiya related to us, on the authority of al-Aʿmash, on the authority of Abū al-Ḍuḥā, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, who said: Do not say: "we have turned away from the prayer," for a people turned away and Allah turned their hearts away; rather say: "we have completed the prayer."
17501 — 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, concerning His saying: (And whenever a sūra is sent down, they look at one another), the verse, he said: They are the hypocrites.
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And Ibn Zayd said concerning that what follows:
17502 — Yūnus related to me, saying: Ibn Wahb informed us, saying: Ibn Zayd said concerning His saying: (And whenever a sūra is sent down, they look at one another: "Does anyone see you?") — of those who have heard your reports; has anyone seen you, who would report it to him? — when something is sent down that reports about their words. He said: And they are the hypocrites. He said: And he recited: وَإِذَا مَا أُنْزِلَتْ سُورَةٌ فَمِنْهُمْ مَنْ يَقُولُ أَيُّكُمْ زَادَتْهُ هَذِهِ إِيمَانًا (And whenever a sūra is sent down, there are among them those who say: "Which of you has this increased in faith?") until he reached: (they look at one another: "Does anyone see you?") — has anyone reported this to him? Was anyone with you? Has anyone heard your words who would report it to him?
17503 — Al-Muthannā related to me, saying: Ādam related to us, saying: Shuʿba related to us, saying: Abū Isḥāq al-Hamdānī related to us, on the authority of someone who related it to him, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, who said: Do not say: "we have turned away from the prayer," for Allah blamed a people and said: (they turned away; Allah turned their hearts away); rather say: "we have prayed."
