Tafseer of The Repentance · At-Tawba · 9:69
[You disbelievers are] like those before you; they were stronger than you in power and more abundant in wealth and children. They enjoyed their portion [of worldly enjoyment], and you have enjoyed your portion as those before you enjoyed their portion, and you have engaged [in vanities] like that in which they engaged. [It is] those whose deeds have become worthless in this world and in the Hereafter, and it is they who are the losers.
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 the words of the Exalted: Like those who were before you: they were mightier than you in strength and more abundant in possessions and children. They enjoyed their portion, and you have enjoyed your portion as those who were before you enjoyed their portion; and you have plunged (into idle talk) as they plunged. Those are they whose deeds have come to nothing in this world and in the Hereafter, and those are they who are the losers (9:69).
Abū Jaʿfar said: The Exalted, whose mention is exalted, says to His Prophet Muḥammad — may Allah bless him and grant him peace: Say, O Muḥammad, to these hypocrites (munāfiqūn) who said: We were only chatting and playing: Were you mocking Allah and the signs of His Book and His Messenger? — Like those who were before you, of the communities who did the same as you did, whereupon Allah destroyed them and hastened for them disgrace in this world, alongside the punishment and the deterring retribution that He has prepared for them in the Hereafter. He — exalted be His praise — says to them: Beware lest there descend upon you a punishment from Allah like that which descended upon them, for they were mightier than you in strength and power, and more abundant than you in possessions and children — They enjoyed their portion — He says: they enjoyed their share and their lot of their world and their religion, and they were content with that as their portion in this world, in exchange for their portion in the Hereafter. And you, O hypocrites, have followed their path in enjoying your portion. He says: you have dealt with your religion and your world as the communities who were before you enjoyed — those whom I destroyed because of their transgression of My command — of their portion — He says: as those who were before you dealt with their share of their world and their religion — and you have plunged, into falsehood and untruth against Allah — as they plunged — He says: and you too, O hypocrites, have plunged into idle talk, like the plunging of those communities before you.
* * *
And in accordance with what we have said concerning this, the exegetes have spoken.
* Mention of who said that:
16930 — Al-Muthannā related to me, saying: Abū Ṣāliḥ related to us, saying: Abū Maʿshar related to me, on the authority of Saʿīd ibn Abī Saʿīd al-Maqburī, on the authority of Abū Hurayra, on the authority of the Prophet — may Allah bless him and grant him peace — who said: "You will surely act as the communities before you acted, cubit for cubit, span for span, fathom for fathom, so that if one of them had entered the hole of a lizard, you would enter it too!" Abū Hurayra said: Recite, if you wish, the Qurʾān: Like those who were before you: they were mightier than you in strength and more abundant in possessions and children; they enjoyed their portion, and you have enjoyed your portion as those who were before you enjoyed their portion, and you have plunged as they plunged. They said: O Messenger of Allah, like Persia and Byzantium did? He said: And are people anything other than they?
16931 — Al-Qāsim related to us, saying: Al-Ḥusayn related to us, saying: Ḥajjāj related to me, on the authority of Ibn Jurayj, on the authority of ʿUmar ibn ʿAṭāʾ, on the authority of ʿIkrima, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, concerning His words: Like those who were before you, the āya. He said: Ibn ʿAbbās said: How much this night resembles the previous one! Like those who were before you — these are the Banū Isrāʾīl, with whom we are compared. I know nothing other than that he said: By Him in whose hand is my soul, you will surely follow them, so that if a man of them enters the hole of a lizard, you would enter it too.
16932 — ...... Ibn Jurayj said: And Ziyād ibn Saʿd informed us, on the authority of Muḥammad ibn Zayd ibn Muhājir, on the authority of Saʿīd ibn Abī Saʿīd al-Maqburī, on the authority of Abū Hurayra, who said: The Messenger of Allah — may Allah bless him and grant him peace — said: By Him in whose hand is my soul, you will surely follow the customs of those who were before you, span for span, cubit for cubit, fathom for fathom, so that if they had entered the hole of a lizard, you would enter it too! They said: And who are they, O Messenger of Allah? The People of the Book? He said: Who else!
16933 — Al-Qāsim related to us, saying: Al-Ḥusayn related to us, saying: Ḥajjāj related to me, on the authority of Ibn Jurayj, who said: Abū Saʿīd al-Khudrī said that he said: "Who then."
16934 — Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Aʿlā related to us, saying: Muḥammad ibn Thawr related to us, on the authority of Maʿmar, on the authority of al-Ḥasan: They enjoyed their portion, he said: of their religion.
16935 — 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, who said: The Messenger of Allah — may Allah bless him and grant him peace — said: "He warned you against introducing any innovation (ḥadath) into Islam, and He already knew that groups of this community would do so." And Allah said concerning that: They enjoyed their portion, and you have enjoyed your portion as those who were before you enjoyed their portion, and you have plunged as they plunged. And they merely supposed that there would not befall them what had befallen the Banū Isrāʾīl before them of trial (fitna); but the trial returns as it began.
* * *
And as for His words: Those are they whose deeds have come to nothing, the meaning of it is: these who said: We were only chatting and playing and who performed therein the deed of those destroyed among the communities before them — their deeds have come to nothing — He says: their deeds have passed away as void, so that there is no reward for them, only the Fire, because they took place in that which angers and displeases Allah — and those are they who are the losers — He says: and they are the ones who have been cheated in their transaction, in that they sold the bliss of the Hereafter for their paltry, worthless portion of this world.
[Footnotes of the printed edition: (1) See the explanation of "al-istimtāʿ" (enjoyment) as previously given, 12:116, note 1, and the references therein. (2) See the explanation of "al-khalāq" (the portion) as previously given, 2:452–454, 4:201–203, 6:527, 528. (3) See the explanation of "al-khawḍ" (plunging into idle talk) as previously given, p. 332, note 2, and the references therein. (4) Tradition 16930: the isnād is weak. "Abū Maʿshar" is Najīḥ ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Sindī, whose traditions are rejected (munkar al-ḥadīth), already discussed under number 1275. But this report has a basis in the Ṣaḥīḥ, for al-Bukhārī transmitted it in his Ṣaḥīḥ via Aḥmad ibn Yūnus, on the authority of Ibn Abī Dhiʾb, on the authority of Saʿīd ibn Abī Saʿīd al-Maqburī, on the authority of Abū Hurayra (al-Fatḥ 13:254), with a different wording. One says: "akhadha ikhdha fulān" when someone follows another's course of conduct. (5) Tradition 16931: "ʿUmar ibn ʿAṭāʾ", this transmitter from ʿIkrima is ʿUmar ibn ʿAṭāʾ ibn Warrāz, and he is weak, worth nothing. Aḥmad said: "What Ibn Jurayj transmitted on the authority of ʿUmar ibn ʿAṭāʾ on the authority of ʿIkrima, that is Ibn Warrāz; and whatever Ibn Jurayj transmitted on the authority of ʿUmar ibn ʿAṭāʾ on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, that is Ibn Abī al-Khuwār" — so they are two men. He is included in al-Tahdhīb, and in Ibn Abī Ḥātim 13/126 and Mīzān al-iʿtidāl 2:265. This too is a weak isnād, but it has a basis in the Ṣaḥīḥ, as mentioned earlier. (6) Tradition 16932: this isnād connects to the preceding one, but I have separated it from it, because the first isnād was completed with the transmission by Ibn Jurayj of the ḥadīth of Ibn ʿAbbās, after which there was a transition to another isnād to Abū Hurayra. "Ziyād ibn Saʿd ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Khurasānī" was a companion of Ibn Jurayj, and he is trustworthy (thiqa); the community (the six collectors) transmitted from him. Included in al-Tahdhīb, al-Kabīr 2/1/327, and Ibn Abī Ḥātim 1/2/533. And "Muḥammad ibn Zayd ibn Muhājir ibn Qunfudh al-Taymī al-Qurashī" is trustworthy, already discussed under number 10521. So this is a report with a sound isnād. As for his words "fa-mah": in the printed edition it is written "fa-man", but in the manuscript it is written with the hāʾ, clearly furnished with a sukūn. The proof of its correctness is that Ibn Jurayj in the following report restricts himself to the mention of "fa-man" without mentioning the report itself; this indicates that the first differs from the second and does not agree with it. The use of "mah" in the sense of an interrogative particle was mentioned by the author of the Lisān in the entry "mā", with a verse of proof, but he transmitted it poorly from Ibn Jinnī thereafter, so that what was meant before it did not become clear. He said: "mā": a particle of negation; it can also mean "that which"; and it can stand in place of "man"; and it can be an interrogative particle, in which the alif is replaced by a hāʾ, so that one says "mah". The rajaz-poet said:
Already she has come from a place, and from over here and from over there; if I do not water her, then what? (fa-mah)
Ibn Jinnī said: "mah" here admits two possibilities: one is that "fa-mah" is a rebuke from him, that is to say: cease with me; I am not deserving of the reproach — or: "fa-mah, O man", whereby he addresses and reproaches himself. I (the annotator) say: this is an arbitrary interpretation by Abū al-Fatḥ ibn Jinnī, for the purport of the rajaz requires that the meaning be: if I do not water these camels, who then will water them? And that is precisely the meaning of the proof that the author of the Lisān adduced, but he set it out poorly and fell short, and he wrongly continued it with the words of Abū al-Fatḥ that he added to it. And this report which Ibn Jurayj transmitted on the authority of Abū Hurayra is another proof and a strong witness for their use of "mah" in the sense of an interrogative particle. (7) Tradition 16933: the ḥadīth of Abū Saʿīd al-Khudrī, in the sense of the preceding reports, al-Bukhārī transmitted in his Ṣaḥīḥ (al-Fatḥ 13:255), and Muslim in his Ṣaḥīḥ 16:219, via Zayd ibn Aslam, on the authority of ʿAṭāʾ ibn Yasār, on the authority of Abū Saʿīd al-Khudrī. This report Ibn Jurayj transmitted abridged to a single word, namely "fa-man", in order to make clear the meaning of the transmission of Abū Hurayra above, "fa-mah": that it means "fa-man", as a question, as mentioned earlier in the note. (8) Thus it stands in the manuscript: "ḥaddathakum an taḥthū fī al-islām ḥadathan, wa-qad ʿalimtum annahu...", which is illegible and not coherent. What stands in the printed edition seems taken from al-Durr al-manthūr 3:255, where it is attributed to Abū al-Shaykh and not to Ibn Jarīr, and moreover it is abridged in al-Durr al-manthūr. (9) See the explanation of "ḥabaṭa" (to come to nothing) as previously given, p. 166, note 1, and the references therein. (10) See the explanation of "al-khusrān" (loss) as previously given, 13:535, note 1, and the references therein.]
