Tafsir of Al-Baqarah 2:58

"And when We said, 'Enter this village...'"

The word idkhulu (enter) is in the position of an accusative [object of the implied verb udhkuru] according to Sibawayh, and in the position of the direct object according to al-Akhfash. The manifest interpretation is that this command to enter was given upon the tongue of Moses, peace be upon him, like the preceding and succeeding commands.

The qaryah (village/town)—with the qaf vowelled with fatha, or kasra according to the dialect of the people of Yemen—is the city. It is derived from qaraytu if you gather something, and it is named as such because it gathers the people together for the purpose of residing. It is said: if there are few [residents], it is called a qaryah, and if there are many, it is called a madinah. Some have defined the limit of the few as being three. The plural qura comes on an irregular form, while the regular form for similar words is fi‘al, like dhabyah and dhibaa.

There is a great deal of disagreement regarding what is intended by it here. The well-known view from Ibn Abbas, Ibn Mas‘ud, Qatadah, al-Suddi, al-Rabi‘, and others—and the view held by the majority—is that it is Jerusalem (Bayt al-Maqdis). This command came after the Tih (wandering) and confusion, and it is a command of permission, as indicated by the conjunction fa-kulu (then eat). It is not the same command mentioned in His, the Exalted’s, saying: "O my people, enter the Holy Land which Allah has prescribed for you and do not turn back [in cowardice] and become losers," because that was before it, and it was a command of obligation, as indicated by the conjunction of the prohibition.

Some have claimed they are identical and that this command was also for obligation, interpreting the "substitution of the command" as a failure to comply, based on the view that they did not enter Jerusalem during the life of Moses, peace be upon him. Others have claimed they are different but argued that what is mentioned here was after the Tih upon the tongue of Joshua, not Moses, peace be upon them, because he and his brother Aaron died during the Tih, and Joshua conquered the land of the Levant with the Children of Israel three months after his [Moses'] death. Others have said that the command in the Tih was for entry after having departed from it.

The hidden weakness in all of these views is evident; therefore, the most apparent view is what we have mentioned. It has been narrated that Moses, peace be upon him, after departing the Tih, traveled with the remaining Children of Israel to Jericho—which is in the land of Jerusalem—with Joshua son of Nun at his vanguard, and he conquered it, resided there for as long as Allah willed, and then was taken [in death]. It is as if they were commanded after the conquest to enter for the purpose of settling and dwelling, as indicated by His, the Exalted’s, saying: "then eat" and His, the Exalted’s, saying in [Surah] al-A‘raf: "Dwell in this town." The fact that it was after the conquest is supported by the reference using the word [denoting] proximity, while the claim that it was placed in the position of proximity to promote the command is far-fetched. This does not contradict what was mentioned regarding his death in the Tih, because the Tih refers to the wilderness—the verbal noun of which is taha, yatihu, tihan (to wander)—where one goes about confused. So understand this.

"Then eat from it wherever you wish in abundance (raghadan)..."

Meaning: amply and pleasantly. It is in the accusative either as an absolute object or as a state [adverbial] from the pronoun of those addressed. The speech contains an indication of the lawfulness of all its places for them, or permission to transport its produce to any place they wish. Raghadan indicates that they are permitted to eat from it amply and do not have to settle for just satisfying their hunger. It is also possible that this is a promise to them of abundant produce and the absence of high prices. This accusative [object] was delayed here, whereas it was advanced in the verse of Adam, peace be upon him, to suit the rhyme in His, the Exalted’s, saying: "And enter the gate prostrating."

The difference of opinion regarding the accusative of al-bab (the gate) is like the difference of opinion regarding the accusative of hadhihi al-qaryah. It is intended by it, according to the well-known view, one of the gates of Jerusalem, now called the Gate of Hitta. This was stated by Ibn Abbas. It is said: it is the eighth of its gates, now called the Gate of Repentance (Bab al-Tawbah), and Mujahid holds this view. Some claimed it was the gate of the Tabernacle that belonged to Moses and Aaron, peace be upon them, where they used to worship, and which was made the qiblah for the Children of Israel in the Tih. There are strange things described in the stories about it which only Allah the Exalted knows.

"And prostrating..."

A state [adverbial] from the pronoun in udkhulu. The intention is: humble yourselves, showing modesty, because what is fitting for the state of the sinful, repentant, and obedient submissive [servant] is humility and lowliness. It is permissible to interpret the prostration (sujud) in its legal sense, with the state being concurrent or intended for the future. The latter is supported by what is narrated from Wahb regarding the meaning of the verse: "If you enter it, then prostrate out of gratitude to Allah," meaning for what He bestowed upon you by leading you out of the Tih, granting you victory over those you feared, and returning you to what you love. As for al-Zamakhshari’s statement that they were commanded to prostrate upon reaching the gate out of gratitude to Allah the Exalted and humility, we have not found anything in the Book or Sunnah to indicate this.

Ibn Abbas interpreted the sujud here as bowing (ruku‘), and some as bowing the head and stooping. They said: they were commanded to do this because the gate was small and narrow, requiring the one entering to stoop. In the Sahih, it is reported from Abu Hurayrah that he said: The Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him, said: "It was said to the Children of Israel: 'Enter the gate prostrating,' so they entered crawling on their posteriors."

"And say, 'Hitta'..."

Meaning: our request, or "O our Lord, that You remove our sins from us." It is a verbal noun like jalsah. Aban mentioned that it means repentance, and he cited: He attained the 'Hitta' by which Allah made the servant’s sin forgiven. The truth is that interpreting it as such is an interpretation by [way of] the necessary consequence. Far-fetched is the statement of Abu Muslim: that the meaning is "command us hitta"—that we might settle in this village and reside in it—because there is no apparent connection of forgiveness to it, nor is the substitution [of the command] a result of it, unless it is said that they were commanded to say this word when settling in the village for the sake of pure obedience, and when they did not know the aspect of wisdom behind it, they altered it.

Ibn Abi ‘Ablah recited it in the accusative [as hittatan], meaning "remove our sins from us as a hittah," or "we ask You for that." It is possible that the accusative is due to it being the direct object of qulu (say), meaning "say this exact word," which is what is reported from Ibn Abbas. The object of "saying" among the people of language can be a singular word if its literal wording is intended. There is no weight to the prohibition [of this] found in al-Bahr [al-Muhit], except that it is made unlikely by the fact that this word is Arabic, while they were not speaking Arabic. Furthermore, the manifest [meaning] is that they were commanded to say words indicating repentance and regret, such that if they said, "O Allah, we ask Your forgiveness and repent to You," the intended goal would be achieved; repentance is not dependent upon mentioning a specific word. Because of this, it has been said: the best way to consider it the object of qulu is that it intends "say something that removes your sins," [in the form] of seeking forgiveness. In that case, the dust [of ambiguity] is cleared from this interpretation.

Then, this word, according to all estimations, is Arabic with known derivation and meaning—which is the manifest and reported view. Al-Asamm said: "It is from the vocabulary of the People of the Book; we do not know its meaning in Arabic." ‘Ikrimah mentioned that its meaning is "There is no god but Allah," which is of great strangeness.

"We will forgive your sins [by your entering the gate prostrating and your saying, 'Hitta']..."

Khataya (sins) originally was khatay with a ya after an alif, then a hamzah. According to Sibawayh, the extra ya was changed to a hamzah because it occurred after the alif, and [since] two hamzahs converged, the second was changed to a ya and then turned into an alif. The hamzah was between two alifs, so it was changed to a ya. According to al-Khalil, the hamzah preceded the ya, and then [the same] was done to it as mentioned. Nafi‘ read yaghfir with a ya, and Ibn ‘Amir with a ta in the passive voice, while the rest read it with a nun in the active voice, which is in accordance with the system of what precedes and follows it. No one among the seven read it other than with the word khatayakum. Al-Kisa’i performed imalah upon it. Al-Jahdari and Qatadah read tughfar with a damma on the ta and made khatiyah singular. The majority read with the manifestation (izhar) of the ra from yaghfir before the lam, while some assimilated it, though they said it is weak.

"And We will increase for the doers of good [a reward]."

Conjoined to the sentence "Say, 'Hitta'." It has been mentioned that it is conjoined to the response [of the condition], but it is not in the jussive mood because the sin prevents the [conditional] response from accepting the jussive. Presenting it in that form without hesitation is proof that the doer of good definitely does that. In the speech is a synthesis of gathering and distinguishing, for "Say, 'Hitta'" is a gathering, and "We will forgive you and We will increase" is a distinguishing. The object is omitted—meaning, a reward.