Tafseer of The City · Al-Balad · 90:12
And what can make you know what is [breaking through] the difficult pass?
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.
And His word: وَمَا أَدْرَاكَ مَا الْعَقَبَةُ ("and what will make you know what the steep mountain pass is?") — the Exalted, whose remembrance is exalted, says: and what thing has made you realize, O Muḥammad, what the steep mountain pass (al-ʿaqaba) is?
Then He, whose praise is exalted, clarified to him what the steep mountain pass is, and what the deliverance from it is, and in what manner one storms it. He said: the storming and traversing of it is the freeing of a neck from slavery (riqq) and the captivity of bondage.
As Yaʿqūb related to me, saying: Ibn ʿUlayya related to us, on the authority of Abū Rajāʾ, on the authority of al-Ḥasan: وَمَا أَدْرَاكَ مَا الْعَقَبَةُ * فَكُّ رَقَبَةٍ ("and what will make you know what the steep mountain pass is? The freeing of a neck") — he said: it was related to us that there is no Muslim who frees a Muslim slave (raqaba) but that it is his ransom from the Fire (al-nār).
Bishr related to us, saying: Yazīd related to us, saying: Saʿīd related to us, on the authority of Qatāda, concerning His word: وَمَا أَدْرَاكَ مَا الْعَقَبَةُ * فَكُّ رَقَبَةٍ — it was related to us that the Prophet of Allah ﷺ was asked about the slaves (riqāb): which of them yields the greatest reward when freed? He said: "the one with the highest price."
Bishr related to us, saying: Yazīd related to us, saying: Saʿīd related to us, on the authority of Qatāda, saying: Sālim ibn Abī al-Jaʿd related to us, on the authority of Maʿdān ibn Abī Ṭalḥa, on the authority of Abū Najīḥ, saying: I heard the Messenger of Allah ﷺ say: "Whichever Muslim frees a Muslim man, verily Allah will make, as a ransom for each bone of his bones, a bone of the bones of the one he freed as a protection against the Fire (al-nār); and whichever Muslim woman frees a Muslim woman, verily Allah will make, as a ransom for each bone of her bones, a bone of the bones of the one she freed as a protection against the Fire."
He said: Saʿīd related to us, on the authority of Qatāda, on the authority of Qays al-Judhāmī, on the authority of ʿUqba ibn ʿĀmir al-Juhanī, that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: "Whoever frees a believing slave (raqaba), that is his ransom from the Fire (al-nār)."
