Tafsir

Paraphrase from the Arabic: Al-Tabari says the ayah answers the Arabs who went around the House unclothed and kept themselves from lawful provision. On zīna he reports that the commentators agree it means adorning oneself with clothing. On “the good things of provision” he gives two views. One is the meat, fat and milk they kept from themselves on hajj and ʿumrah, from al-Suddi and Ibn Zayd. The other is the animals the Jahiliyyah set loose and would not use, the baḥīra and the rest, from Qatadah; Ibn ʿAbbas says they forbade clothing and other things Allah had made lawful, and he ties the ayah to 10:59. On “exclusively for them on the Day of Resurrection” he reports from Ibn ʿAbbas, al-Dahhak, Qatadah and others: in this world believers and disbelievers share the good things, and on the Day they are the believers’ alone. Saʿid ibn Jubayr read it another way: the believers enjoy them in this world, and no sin from them follows them. Al-Tabari prefers the reading khāliṣatan, the one on the verses page, while allowing the other.

Paraphrase from the Arabic: He also records a warning from al-Hasan al-Basri, who set the simple life of the Prophet ﷺ against people who quoted this ayah to excuse feasts and fine houses paid for with wealth that was not rightly theirs.

Paraphrase from the Arabic: Al-Qurtubi says the ayah shows that good clothing and dressing well are allowed — for Jumuʿah, the two ʿEids, meeting people and visiting one another — and that the early Muslims did this. He points to ʿUmar suggesting that the Prophet ﷺ buy a fine robe to wear on Fridays and when delegations came: the objection was that it was silk, not the wish to dress well. He answers people who wear coarse wool as a show of piety, quoting al-Hasan al-Basri that righteousness is not in the cloak but in what settles in the heart and is confirmed by deeds, and he gives Ibn al-Jawzi’s reasons for disliking patched clothes worn to look poor. On ṭayyibāt he records three positions on giving up good food, and the one his teacher’s teacher al-Maqdisi calls correct: the only fault is takalluf, straining after it, since the Prophet ﷺ did not refuse food for being good and loved sweets and honey. ʿUmar’s sayings in favour of living rough, he explains, were aimed at people he feared would sink into luxury, not a ban on what is lawful. He cites 5:87 alongside the ayah.

Paraphrase from the Arabic: Al-Tabari says this is said to the idolaters who went around the House unclothed and kept themselves from good food: Allah did not forbid what you forbid; He made it lawful and good for His believing servants. What He forbade are the ugly deeds. He reports from Mujahid that the open one was the unclothed ṭawāf and the hidden one was zina. Ithm is disobedience, and baghy is lording it over people. Shirk is worshipping another with Allah without any proof, and that proof is the sulṭān. In this context, saying about Allah what you do not know means claiming that Allah told them to strip for ṭawāf and forbade the animals they had set loose: putting their own prohibitions in His name. That, he says, is what Allah forbade, not what they claimed He forbade.

Paraphrase from the Arabic: Al-Qurtubi defines fawāḥish as deeds that go beyond all limits in ugliness. Because ithm and baghy are named on their own, he takes fawāḥish here in a narrower sense, most evidently zina. Some said ithm means wine; al-Farraʾ, al-Nahhas and Ibn al-ʿArabi rejected that, and al-Qurtubi settles it: ithm covers all sins, and the language also used it for wine, so the two do not conflict. Ithm and baghy belong to the shameful deeds, he says, but they are named separately because they are so serious, for emphasis and as a warning.

Paraphrase from the Arabic: Ibn al-Qayyim (d. 751 AH), a later scholar and not one of the four commentators on this page, reads the list in ayah 33 as four ranks rising in seriousness: shameful deeds; then sin and oppression; then shirk; then saying about Allah without knowledge. He explains that the last takes in every false claim about Allah, His names, attributes and acts, and His religion and law, and he cites 16:116 beside it: do not say “this is lawful and this is unlawful” to invent a lie about Allah.

Paraphrase from the Arabic: Al-Tabari reads ayah 34 as a warning to the idolaters of ayah 28, who did something shameful and said Allah had commanded it. Umma here is every people who together denied Allah’s messengers after His proofs had reached them, and their ajal is the time set for punishment to come down on them. When it comes, they get not one hour more of this world, and it is not brought forward. So he reads the ayah about nations, not about each person’s lifespan. On ayah 35, “from among you” means from your own people and tribes. The one who has taqwa believes what the messengers brought and does what Allah commands, and aṣlaḥa means he puts right the deeds he had spoiled with sins by turning away from them. They will have no fear of punishment on the Day, and no grief over the worldly things and desires they gave up in obedience, once they see how Allah honours them there.

Paraphrase from the Arabic: Al-Qurtubi says the hour is named because it is the smallest named unit of time: not an hour, and not less. A person’s ajal is the time Allah knows he will die, as a debt’s ajal is the day it falls due, and “nor will they precede [it]” shows that even someone who is killed dies at his appointed time. Allah sends messengers “from among you” so that answering them comes more easily. Aṣlaḥa means he puts right what is between him and Allah. “No fear, no grief” means the believers will not be touched by terror on that Day; in another view, its horrors may touch them, but their end is safety.