Tafseer of The Repentance · At-Tawba · 9:57
If they could find a refuge or some caves or any place to enter [and hide], they would turn to it while they run heedlessly.
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: "If they could find a place of refuge, or caves, or a hiding-place to enter, they would surely turn toward it, while they hasten to it with headlong haste" (9:57)
Abū Jaʿfar said: The Exalted, whose praise is exalted, says: If these hypocrites (munāfiqīn) could find "a place of refuge" — He means: a fortress in which they would seek shelter, a stronghold in which they would entrench themselves against you — "or caves".
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These are the hollows in the mountains; the singular thereof is "maghāra", and it is according to the pattern "mafʿala", derived from "ghāra al-rajul fī al-shayʾ, yaghūru fīhi" (the man penetrated into something), when he enters into something. From this is also derived the expression "ghārat al-ʿayn" (the eye sank inward), when it sinks back into the eye-socket.
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"Or a hiding-place to enter (mudkhalan)" — He means: an underground passage in the earth into which they crawl inside.
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And He said "aw muddakhalan" with the tashdīd, because it is derived from "iddakhala, yaddakhilu". (4)
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And His word: "Then they would surely turn toward it" — He means: then they would turn toward it, fleeing from you (5) — "while they hasten to it with headlong haste (yajmaḥūn)" — He means: while they rush forward in their passage.
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It has been said that "al-jimāḥ" is a manner of walking between two other manners of walking (6). From this is the utterance of Muhalhil:
"Indeed, I raged headlong forward (jamaḥtu jimāḥan) through their blood, until I saw how the noble ones among them had been extinguished." (7)
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Allah described them only with that quality with which He described them, because they dwelt amidst the companions of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ in their unbelief, their hypocrisy, and their enmity toward them and toward that upon which they stood of faith in Allah and His Messenger. For they were among their own people and their tribe, in their houses and with their possessions, and they were not able to leave that and take their leave of it. Therefore they dissembled before the people with hypocrisy, and they defended themselves, their possessions, and their children by means of unbelief and the pretense of faith, while in their inner selves lay hidden the hatred toward the Messenger of Allah ﷺ and the people who believed in him, and the enmity toward them. Therefore Allah said, describing them according to what lay concealed in their innermost selves: "If they could find a place of refuge, or caves" — the entire aya.
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And in accordance with what we have said concerning this, the interpreters (ahl al-taʾwīl) have spoken.
* Mention of who said that:
16808 — Al-Muthannā related to me, saying: Abū Ṣāliḥ related to us, saying: Muʿāwiya related to me, on the authority of ʿAlī, from Ibn ʿAbbās, concerning His word: "If they could find a place of refuge" — "al-maljaʾ" is the hiding-place in the mountains, and "al-maghārāt" are the hollows in the mountains. And His word: "or a hiding-place to enter (mudkhalan)" — and "al-mudkhal" is the underground passage.
16809 — 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, from Ibn ʿAbbās, concerning His word: "If they could find a place of refuge, or caves, or a hiding-place to enter, they would surely turn toward it while they hasten with headlong haste" — "maljaʾ", he says: a hiding-place — "or caves", thereby the hollows are meant — "or a hiding-place to enter", he says: a fleeing away into the earth, and that is the tunnel in the earth, and that is the underground passage.
16810 — Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr related to me, saying: Abū ʿĀṣim related to us, saying: ʿĪsā related to us, on the authority of Ibn Abī Najīḥ, from Mujāhid: "If they could find a place of refuge, or caves, or a hiding-place to enter" — he said: a hiding-place for them whither they would flee from you.
16811 — Al-Qāsim related to us, saying: al-Ḥusayn related to us, saying: Ḥajjāj related to me, on the authority of Ibn Jurayj, from Mujāhid, concerning His word: "If they could find a place of refuge, or caves, or a hiding-place to enter" — he said: a hiding-place for them, whither they would flee from you. And Ibn ʿAbbās said, concerning His word: "If they could find a place of refuge" — a hiding-place — "or caves", he said: the hollows — "or a hiding-place to enter", he said: a tunnel in the earth.
16812 — Bishr related to us, saying: Yazīd related to us, on the authority of Saʿīd, from Qatāda: "If they could find a place of refuge, or caves, or a hiding-place to enter" — he says: "if they could find a place of refuge", fortresses — "or caves", hollows — "or a hiding-place to enter", underground passages — "then they would surely turn toward it while they hasten with headlong haste".
