Tafseer of The Repentance · At-Tawba · 9:77
So He penalized them with hypocrisy in their hearts until the Day they will meet Him - because they failed Allah in what they promised Him and because they [habitually] used to lie.
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.
When He provided for them, they were stingy with it = (so that He caused hypocrisy to follow in their hearts, because they broke with Allah what they had promised Him), when they said: "We shall surely give alms," but did not do so.
16993 – Al-Muthannā related to me, he said: Isḥāq related to us, he said: ʿAbd Allāh related to us, on the authority of Warqāʾ, on the authority of Ibn Abī Najīḥ, on the authority of Mujāhid, something similar.
16994 – Yūnus related to me, he said: Ibn Wahb informed us, he said: Ibn Zayd said concerning His word: وَمِنْهُمْ مَنْ عَاهَدَ اللَّهَ لَئِنْ آتَانَا مِنْ فَضْلِهِ (And among them is he who made a covenant with Allah: "If He gives us of His bounty...") the āyah, he said: These are a category of the hypocrites (munāfiqūn), and when He gave them that, they were stingy with it, and when they were stingy with it, He therefore caused hypocrisy to follow them until the Day on which they meet Him, without there being for them any repentance, forgiveness, or pardon, just as it befell Iblīs when He refused him repentance.
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And Abū Jaʿfar said: In this āyah lies Allah's clarification, exalted be His praise, regarding the characteristic of the adherents of hypocrisy — I mean in His word: (so that He caused hypocrisy to follow in their hearts until the Day on which they meet Him, because they broke with Allah what they had promised Him and because they used to lie).
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And in accordance with this statement a group of the Companions (ṣaḥāba) and the Followers (tābiʿūn) used to speak, and concerning that the reports of the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, have been transmitted.
* Mention of who said that:
16995 – Abū al-Sāʾib related to us, he said: Abū Muʿāwiya related to us, on the authority of al-Aʿmash, on the authority of ʿUmāra, on the authority of ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Yazīd, he said: ʿAbd Allāh said: Judge the hypocrite by three things: when he speaks, he lies; when he promises, he breaks his promise; and when he makes a covenant, he commits treachery. And Allah has revealed the confirmation of that in His Book: وَمِنْهُمْ مَنْ عَاهَدَ اللَّهَ لَئِنْ آتَانَا مِنْ فَضْلِهِ (And among them is he who made a covenant with Allah: "If He gives us of His bounty...") up to His word: (they lie).
16996 – Muḥammad ibn al-Muthannā related to me, he said: Muḥammad ibn Jaʿfar related to us, he said: Shuʿba related to us, on the authority of Simāk, on the authority of Ṣubayḥ ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿUmayra, on the authority of ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAmr, he said: Three things: in whom they are present is a hypocrite: when he speaks, he lies; when he promises, he breaks his promise; and when something is entrusted to him, he commits treachery. He said: And he recited this āyah: وَمِنْهُمْ مَنْ عَاهَدَ اللَّهَ لَئِنْ آتَانَا مِنْ فَضْلِهِ لَنَصَّدَّقَنَّ وَلَنَكُونَنَّ مِنَ الصَّالِحِينَ (And among them is he who made a covenant with Allah: "If He gives us of His bounty, we shall surely give alms and we shall surely be among the righteous") to the end of the āyah.
16997 – Ibn al-Muthannā related to us, he said: Abū Dāwūd related to us, he said: Shuʿba related to us, on the authority of Simāk, he said: I heard Ṣubayḥ ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-ʿAbsī say: I asked ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAmr about the hypocrite, and he mentioned something similar.
16998 – Muḥammad ibn Maʿmar related to me, he said: Abū Hishām al-Makhzūmī related to us, he said: ʿAbd al-Wāḥid ibn Ziyād related to us, he said: ʿUthmān ibn Ḥakīm related to us, he said: I heard Muḥammad ibn Kaʿb al-Quraẓī say: I kept hearing that the hypocrite is recognized by three things: by lying, breaking the promise, and treachery. For a long time I sought them in the Book of Allah without finding them, then I found them in two passages of the Book of Allah: His word وَمِنْهُمْ مَنْ عَاهَدَ اللَّهَ (And among them is he who made a covenant with Allah) up to: (and because they used to lie), and His word: إِنَّا عَرَضْنَا الأَمَانَةَ عَلَى السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالأَرْضِ (Indeed, We offered the trust to the heavens and the earth) [Sūrat al-Aḥzāb: 72], this āyah.
16999 – Al-Qāsim ibn Bishr ibn Maʿrūf related to me, he said: Shabāba related to us, he said: Muḥammad al-Muḥarram related to us, he said: I heard al-Ḥasan say: The Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said: Three things: in whom they are present, he is a hypocrite, even if he performs the prayer and fasts and claims that he is a Muslim: when he speaks, he lies; when he promises, he breaks his promise; and when something is entrusted to him, he commits treachery. Then I said to al-Ḥasan: O Abū Saʿīd, if a man holds a debt against me and he meets me and demands payment, while I do not have it, and I fear that he will imprison me and ruin me, and I therefore promise him that I will pay it at the beginning of the new month, but do not do so — am I then a hypocrite? He said: Thus has the report come to us! Then he narrated on the authority of ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAmr: that when death was present with his father, he said: Marry off so-and-so, for I promised him that I would marry him off; I do not wish to meet Allah with a third of hypocrisy! I said: O Abū Saʿīd, and can a third of a man be a hypocrite, while his two thirds are a believer? He said: Thus has the report come to us. He said: Then I performed the pilgrimage (ḥajj) and met ʿAṭāʾ ibn Abī Rabāḥ, and I reported to him the report that I had heard from al-Ḥasan, and what I had said to him and what he had said to me. He said to me: Were you not able to say to him: Inform me about the brothers of Yūsuf, peace be upon him — did they not promise their father and break their promise, and did they not speak to him and lie, and did he not entrust something to them and they commit treachery? Were they then hypocrites? Were they not prophets? Their father was a prophet, and their grandfather was a prophet? He said: Then I said to ʿAṭāʾ: O Abū Muḥammad, narrate to me the origin of the hypocrisy and the origin of this report. He said: Jābir ibn ʿAbd Allāh related to me: that the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, uttered this report only concerning the hypocrites in particular — those who spoke to the Prophet and lied to him, and to whom he entrusted his secret and who committed treachery, and who promised him that they would set out on the military expedition (ghazw) with him, but broke their promise. He said: Abū Sufyān set out from Mecca, and Jibrīl came to the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, and said: Indeed, Abū Sufyān is at such-and-such a place. Then the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said to his companions: Indeed, Abū Sufyān is at such-and-such a place, so set out against him, and keep it secret. He said: Then a man of the hypocrites wrote to him [Abū Sufyān]: "Indeed, Muḥammad wants you, so take your precaution." Then Allah revealed: لا تَخُونُوا اللَّهَ وَالرَّسُولَ وَتَخُونُوا أَمَانَاتِكُمْ وَأَنْتُمْ تَعْلَمُونَ (Do not commit treachery against Allah and the Messenger, and do not betray what is entrusted to you, while you know) [Sūrat al-Anfāl: 27], and He revealed concerning the hypocrites: وَمِنْهُمْ مَنْ عَاهَدَ اللَّهَ لَئِنْ آتَانَا مِنْ فَضْلِهِ (And among them is he who made a covenant with Allah: "If He gives us of His bounty...") up to: (so that He caused hypocrisy to follow in their hearts until the Day on which they meet Him, because they broke with Allah what they had promised Him and because they used to lie). So when you meet al-Ḥasan, convey to him the greeting, and inform him of the origin of this report and what I have said to you. He said: Then I came to al-Ḥasan and said: O Abū Saʿīd, your brother ʿAṭāʾ conveys to you the greeting, and I reported to him the report that he had narrated and what he had said to me. Then al-Ḥasan took my hand and raised it up, and said: O people of Iraq, were you not able to be like this one? He heard a report from me and did not accept it until he had investigated its origin. ʿAṭāʾ has spoken the truth, thus is the report, and this concerns the hypocrites in particular.
17000 – Yaʿqūb related to me, he said: Ibn ʿUlayya related to us, he said: Yaʿqūb informed us, on the authority of al-Ḥasan, he said: The Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said: Three things: in whom they are present, even if he performs the prayer and fasts and claims that he is a Muslim, he is a hypocrite. It was said to him: What are they, O Messenger of Allah? Then the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, said: When he speaks, he lies; when he promises, he breaks his promise; and when something is entrusted to him, he commits treachery.
17001 – Al-Qāsim related to us, he said: Al-Ḥusayn related to us, he said: Mubashshir related to us, on the authority of al-Awzāʿī, on the authority of Hārūn ibn Riyāb, on the authority of ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAmr ibn Wāʾil: that he, when death was present with him, said: Indeed, so-and-so has asked for my daughter in marriage, and I had said to him concerning her something resembling a promise. By Allah, I shall not meet Allah with a third of hypocrisy, and I take you as witnesses that I have married her to him.
* * *
And a group said: The covenant that these hypocrites made with Allah was something they resolved within themselves but did not utter.
* Mention of who said that:
17002 – Al-Qāsim related to us, he said: Al-Ḥusayn related to us, he said: I heard Muʿtamir ibn Sulaymān al-Taymī say: I went out to sea, and a violent wind struck us, and a group of us made vows, and I resolved upon something without uttering it. When I arrived in Basra, I asked my father Sulaymān, and he said to me: O my son, fulfill it.
= Muʿtamir said: And Kahmas related to us, on the authority of Saʿīd ibn Thābit, he said concerning His word: وَمِنْهُمْ مَنْ عَاهَدَ اللَّهَ (And among them is he who made a covenant with Allah), the āyah, he said: It is only something they resolved within themselves and did not utter. Have you not heard His word: أَلَمْ يَعْلَمُوا أَنَّ اللَّهَ يَعْلَمُ سِرَّهُمْ وَنَجْوَاهُمْ وَأَنَّ اللَّهَ عَلامُ الْغُيُوبِ (Did they not know that Allah knows their secret and their private counsel, and that Allah is the Knower of the unseen)?
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Footnotes:
(42) In the printed edition it reads "and concerning that they are mentioned," but I have adhered to what is in the manuscript.
(43) The report 16995 – "ʿUmāra" is "ʿUmāra ibn ʿUmayr al-Taymī," trustworthy, from whom the group [of the authoritative collectors] transmitted; previously mentioned under no. 3294, 5789, 15359. And "ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Yazīd al-Nakhaʿī" is a trustworthy Follower (tābiʿī), from whom the group transmitted; previously mentioned under no. 3294, 3295, 3299. And by "ʿAbd Allāh" he means only "ʿAbd Allāh ibn Masʿūd." This is a report with a correct chain of transmission (isnād), stopped at Ibn Masʿūd (mawqūf); I have not found it as marfūʿ from him. Al-Haythamī mentioned it in Majmaʿ al-zawāʾid 1:108 with this wording, and said: "Al-Ṭabarānī transmitted it in al-Kabīr, and its transmitters are the transmitters of the Ṣaḥīḥ." And he mentioned before it a similar report, in which the āyah does not occur: "on the authority of ʿAbd Allāh, that is, Ibn Masʿūd, on the authority of the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace," after which he said: "Al-Bazzār transmitted it, and its transmitters are the transmitters of the Ṣaḥīḥ."
(44) The report 16996 – This report comes with another chain of transmission after it. And "Ṣubayḥ ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿUmayra" and "Ṣubayḥ ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-ʿAbsī" in what follows. It has passed previously under no. 12741, 12742, and it has previously occurred that al-Bukhārī mentioned him in al-Kabīr 2/2/319 under the name "Ṣubayḥ ibn ʿAbd Allāh," whereby he added "al-ʿAbsī" in the chain. The annotator noted there that with Ibn Mākūlā it is "Ṣubayḥ ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿUmayr al-Taghlibī," whereas al-Ṭabarī said here "ʿUmayra." I have found nothing to give the decisive verdict. Ibn Abī Ḥātim mentioned him in 2/1/449, and they mentioned for him no transmission from "ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAmr." In the printed edition it read here "ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿUmar," which in my view is an error, as the following report indicates. (See also below.) This report with this chain was adopted by my brother al-Sayyid Aḥmad in his commentary on the Musnad, in the Musnad of "ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAmr ibn al-ʿĀṣ" no. 6879, after which he said: "Al-Ḥāfiẓ Abū Bakr al-Firyābī transmitted it in the book Ṣifat al-nifāq (pp. 50–51), on the authority of Abū Bakr ibn Abī Shayba, on the authority of Ghundar, on the authority of Shuʿba, on the authority of Simāk ibn Ḥarb, on the authority of Ṣubayḥ ibn ʿAbd Allāh, on the authority of ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAmr," after which he cited the report in similar wording, and said: "This is mawqūf, and its chain is correct, and it is a good witness for this report, because it is in ruling (ḥukman) just like it marfūʿ. And Ṣubayḥ ibn ʿAbd Allāh, with ḍamma on the ṣād, is a great Follower, who lived in the time of ʿUthmān and ʿAlī. Al-Bukhārī mentioned him in al-Kabīr 2/2/319 and noted no criticism (jarḥ) of him." And the report of the Musnad is a marfūʿ report. And the report concerning the characteristic of the hypocrite was transmitted by al-Bukhārī in his Ṣaḥīḥ (al-Fatḥ 1:83, 84) through the transmission of Abū Hurayra and ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAmr. And Muslim transmitted it in his Ṣaḥīḥ (2:46–48) through the transmission of ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAmr and Abū Hurayra.
(45) The report 16997 – "Ṣubayḥ ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-ʿAbsī," see the preceding no. 16996. In the printed edition and the manuscript it read "al-Qaysī" with the qāf and the yāʾ, and I have corrected it on the basis of the reference works and on the basis of the preceding no. 12741, 12742.
(46) In the printed edition it reads "in two āyahs"; I have adhered to what is in the manuscript. What gave me the decisive verdict for this is that he mentioned afterwards three āyahs from Sūrat al-Tawba and one āyah from Sūrat al-Aḥzāb, which therefore are four. But he meant in two sūras of the Qurʾān, or something similar.
(47) In the printed edition it reads "fa-qāla," whereby "lī" is omitted; I have adhered to what is in the manuscript.
(48) In the printed edition it reads "fa-amālahā," which has no meaning at all. In the manuscript it reads "fa-asālahā," without dots, and this is its correct reading. One says: "shālat al-nāqa bi-dhanabihā wa-ashālat-hu," she raised it up. And one says: "ashāla al-ḥajar, wa-shāla bihi, wa-shāwalahu," he raised it up. And one says: "shāla al-sāʾil bi-yadayhi," when he raises them up to ask with both.
(49) The report 16999 – "Al-Qāsim ibn Bishr ibn Aḥmad ibn Maʿrūf," the teacher of al-Ṭabarī, previously mentioned under no. 10509, 10531. And "Shabāba" is "Shabāba ibn Sawwār al-Fazārī," from whom the group transmitted, previously mentioned under no. 12851 and before it. In the printed edition it read "Usāma"; the manuscript could not be read well and was corrupted in a reprehensible manner. And "Muḥammad al-Muḥarram" is "Muḥammad ibn ʿUmar al-Muḥarram," and it is said that he is: "Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿUbayd ibn ʿUmayr al-Laythī," and he is munkar al-ḥadīth (one whose transmissions are rejected). The exposition of his condition was given previously under no. 15922, in detail, with the places where he is mentioned. In the printed edition it read "Muḥammad al-Mukharrimī," which deviates from what is in the manuscript, without proof or clarification, and that is a blunder and an error. This is a very reprehensible (munkar) report, to which al-Bukhārī referred in al-Tārīkh al-Kabīr 1/1/248 in the biography of "Muḥammad al-Muḥarram," where he said: "on the authority of ʿAṭāʾ and al-Ḥasan. Munkar al-ḥadīth: 'when he promises, he breaks his promise', Shabāba heard from him," by which he means this report.
(50) The report 17001 – "Mubashshir" is "Mubashshir ibn Ismāʿīl al-Ḥalabī," trustworthy, one of the teachers of Aḥmad, from whom the group transmitted. He has a biography in al-Tahdhīb, and al-Kabīr 4/2/11, and Ibn Abī Ḥātim 4/1/343. In the printed edition it read "Maysara," changed in a defective manner, and in the manuscript it reads "Msr," without dots. And "Hārūn ibn Riyāb al-Tamīmī al-Usayyidī" was one of the God-fearing who concealed their asceticism. Trustworthy. Ibn Ḥazm said: "Al-Yamān, Hārūn, and ʿAlī, the sons of Riyāb — Hārūn belonged to the adherents of the Sunna, al-Yamān to the leaders of the Khawārij, and ʿAlī to the leaders of the Rāfiḍa, and they were all enemies of one another"!! He has a biography in al-Tahdhīb, and al-Kabīr 4/2/219, and Ibn Abī Ḥātim 4/2/89. As for "ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAmr ibn Wāʾil," this is strange but correct, for it is "ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAmr ibn al-ʿĀṣ ibn Wāʾil," and I do not know why he did that in the rendering of his name, unless it was dropped by the copyist. Moreover, the chain in the printed edition stood thus: "Al-Qāsim related to us, al-Ḥusayn related to us, he said: Ḥajjāj related to me, on the authority of Ibn Jurayj, he said: Maysara related to us," and I have corrected "Maysara" before it. As for "he said: Ḥajjāj related to me, on the authority of Ibn Jurayj" — the copyist of the manuscript wrote that, but he drew lines through it with the pen, thereby intending its deletion; but the editor did not know their convention of striking through text, and so adopted what he had deleted.
(51) In the printed edition it reads "fih bihi," and that one says only at a pause; the correct form is "fi" with one letter, as the imperative of "wafā yafī" (to fulfill). I have adhered to what is in the manuscript.
(52) The report 17002 – "Kahmas ibn al-Ḥasan al-Tamīmī," trustworthy, from whom the group transmitted, with a biography in al-Tahdhīb, and al-Kabīr 4/1/239, and Ibn Abī Ḥātim 3/2/170. And "Saʿīd ibn Thābit," thus it stands in the manuscript, and I have found for him no mention in the books of men that I have at my disposal, and I fear that a corruption has crept in.
