Tafseer of The Repentance · At-Tawba · 9:129
But if they turn away, [O Muhammad], say, "Sufficient for me is Allah; there is no deity except Him. On Him I have relied, and He is the Lord of the Great Throne."
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 explanation of His word: فَإِنْ تَوَلَّوْا فَقُلْ حَسْبِيَ اللَّهُ لا إِلَهَ إِلا هُوَ عَلَيْهِ تَوَكَّلْتُ وَهُوَ رَبُّ الْعَرْشِ الْعَظِيمِ (129) (But if they turn away, then say: Allah is sufficient for me; there is no god but He; upon Him I have placed my trust, and He is the Lord of the Mighty Throne) (129).
Abū Jaʿfar said: The Exalted, whose praise is exalted, says: But if they turn away, O Muḥammad — these to whom you have come with the truth from your Lord, from among your people — and they turn their backs on you and do not accept what you have brought them of sincere counsel for the sake of Allah, and that to which you have called them of light and guidance — فَقُلْ حَسْبِيَ اللَّهُ (then say: Allah is sufficient for me), my Lord suffices me — لا إِلَهَ إِلا هُوَ (there is no god but He), there is none worshipped besides Him — عَلَيْهِ تَوَكَّلْتُ (upon Him I have placed my trust), and upon Him I have relied, and upon His help I have leaned, and upon Him and upon His assistance I have depended, for indeed He is my helper and my support against whoever opposes me and turns away from me, among you and among the rest of mankind — وَهُوَ رَبُّ الْعَرْشِ الْعَظِيمِ (and He is the Lord of the Mighty Throne), He who owns everything that is beneath Him, and the kings are all His possessions and His slaves (ʿabīd).
And by describing Himself — exalted be His praise — as the Lord of the Mighty Throne, He intended the announcement concerning all that is beneath Him, that they are His slaves and fall within His possession and His dominion; for "the Mighty Throne" belongs only to kings. Thus He described Himself as "Possessor of the Throne" to the exclusion of the rest of His creatures, and that He is the Mighty King to the exclusion of others, and that whoever is beneath Him falls within His dominion and His possession, and that His judgment and His decree prevail over him.
17511 — Al-Muthannā related to me, saying: ʿAbd Allāh ibn Ṣāliḥ related to us, saying: Muʿāwiya related to me, on the authority of ʿAlī, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, concerning His word: فَإِنْ تَوَلَّوْا فَقُلْ حَسْبِيَ اللَّهُ (but if they turn away, then say: Allah is sufficient for me) — he means the disbelievers (kuffār): they turned away from the Messenger of Allah ﷺ. And this [previous verse] is about the believers.
17512 — Ibn Wakīʿ related to us, saying: Ibn ʿUyayna related to us, on the authority of ʿAmr, on the authority of ʿUbayd ibn ʿUmayr, who said: ʿUmar — the mercy of Allah be upon him — would not confirm a verse in the muṣḥaf until two men confirmed it. Then a man of the Anṣār came with these two verses: لَقَدْ جَاءَكُمْ رَسُولٌ مِنْ أَنْفُسِكُمْ عَزِيزٌ عَلَيْهِ (There has certainly come to you a messenger from among yourselves; grievous to him...). Then ʿUmar said: I shall never ask you for proof concerning it; thus was the Messenger of Allah ﷺ!
17513 — Al-Muthannā related to me, saying: Isḥāq related to us, saying: Aḥmad ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Yūnus related to us, on the authority of Zuhayr, on the authority of al-Aʿmash, on the authority of Abū Ṣāliḥ al-Ḥanafī, who said: The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: Indeed, Allah is merciful and loves everyone who is merciful; He places His mercy upon everyone who is merciful. They said: O Messenger of Allah, indeed we are merciful toward ourselves and our possessions — he said: and I think he said: and our wives —? He said: It is not so, but be as Allah has said: لَقَدْ جَاءَكُمْ رَسُولٌ مِنْ أَنْفُسِكُمْ عَزِيزٌ عَلَيْهِ مَا عَنِتُّمْ حَرِيصٌ عَلَيْكُمْ بِالْمُؤْمِنِينَ رَءُوفٌ رَحِيمٌ * فَإِنْ تَوَلَّوْا فَقُلْ حَسْبِيَ اللَّهُ لا إِلَهَ إِلا هُوَ عَلَيْهِ تَوَكَّلْتُ وَهُوَ رَبُّ الْعَرْشِ الْعَظِيمِ (There has certainly come to you a messenger from among yourselves; grievous to him is what afflicts you of hardship, full of concern for you, to the believers kind and merciful. But if they turn away, then say: Allah is sufficient for me; there is no god but He; upon Him I have placed my trust, and He is the Lord of the Mighty Throne). I think he recited this entire verse.
17514 — Muḥammad ibn al-Muthannā related to me, saying: ʿAbd al-Ṣamad related to us, saying: Shuʿba related to us, on the authority of ʿAlī ibn Zayd, on the authority of Yūsuf, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, on the authority of Ubayy ibn Kaʿb, who said: The last verse of the Qurʾān to be revealed is: لَقَدْ جَاءَكُمْ رَسُولٌ مِنْ أَنْفُسِكُمْ عَزِيزٌ عَلَيْهِ مَا عَنِتُّمْ (There has certainly come to you a messenger from among yourselves; grievous to him is what afflicts you of hardship), to the end of the verse.
17515 — Al-Muthannā related to me, saying: Muslim ibn Ibrāhīm related to us, saying: Shuʿba related to us, on the authority of ʿAlī ibn Zayd, on the authority of Yūsuf ibn Mihrān, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, on the authority of Ubayy, who said: The last verse to be revealed to the Prophet ﷺ is: لَقَدْ جَاءَكُمْ رَسُولٌ مِنْ أَنْفُسِكُمْ (There has certainly come to you a messenger from among yourselves), the verse.
17516 — Ibn Wakīʿ related to us, saying: my father related to us, saying: Shuʿba related to us, on the authority of ʿAlī ibn Zayd, on the authority of Yūsuf ibn Mihrān, on the authority of Ubayy, who said: The most recent of the Qurʾān in time with Allah are these two verses: لَقَدْ جَاءَكُمْ رَسُولٌ مِنْ أَنْفُسِكُمْ عَزِيزٌ عَلَيْهِ مَا عَنِتُّمْ (There has certainly come to you a messenger from among yourselves; grievous to him is what afflicts you of hardship), to the end of the two verses.
17517 — Abū Kurayb related to me, saying: Yūnus ibn Muḥammad related to us, saying: Abān ibn Yazīd al-ʿAṭṭār related to us, on the authority of Qatāda, on the authority of Ubayy ibn Kaʿb, who said: The most recent of the Qurʾān in time with Allah are the two verses: لَقَدْ جَاءَكُمْ رَسُولٌ مِنْ أَنْفُسِكُمْ (There has certainly come to you a messenger from among yourselves), to the end of the sūra.
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Footnotes:
(21) See the explanation of "turning away" (al-tawallī) in the linguistic indexes given earlier (walī).
(22) See the explanation of "sufficiency/sufficing" (ḥasb) in what precedes, p. 340, note 1, and the references mentioned there.
(23) See the explanation of "placing trust" (al-tawakkul) in what precedes, p. 291, note 1, and the references mentioned there.
(24) See the explanation of "the Throne" (al-ʿarsh) in what precedes, 12: 482.
(25) The narration 17513 — "Aḥmad ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Yūnus al-Taymī": trustworthy, mentioned repeatedly before, most recently under no. 16095. And "Zuhayr" is "Zuhayr ibn Muʿāwiya ibn Ḥudayj al-Juʿfī": trustworthy, mentioned repeatedly before, most recently under no. 12794. And "Abū Ṣāliḥ al-Ḥanafī": a trustworthy Successor (tābiʿī), mentioned earlier under no. 3226, 13291–13293. And this is a mursal narration [with an interrupted chain].
(26) The two narrations 17514, 17515 — "ʿAlī ibn Zayd ibn Jadʿān": weak of memory, mentioned repeatedly before, most recently under no. 13493, 16736. And "Yūsuf ibn Mihrān al-Baṣrī": trustworthy, mentioned repeatedly before, most recently under no. 13495. And this narration ʿAbd Allāh ibn Aḥmad narrated in the Musnad of his father 5: 117, via the route of Muḥammad ibn Abī Bakr, on the authority of Bishr ibn ʿUmar, on the authority of Shuʿba, in the same manner. And al-Haythamī included it in Majmaʿ al-zawāʾid 7: 36, and he said: "ʿAbd Allāh ibn Aḥmad narrated it, and al-Ṭabarānī, and in it is ʿAlī ibn Zayd ibn Jadʿān, who is trustworthy but weak of memory, and the rest of its men are trustworthy."
(27) The narration 17516 — a repetition of the preceding one, but it is mursal [narrated] from Ubayy.
(28) The narration 17517 — mursal: Qatāda did not narrate from Ubayy ibn Kaʿb.
