Tafsir of Al-Baqarah 2:83

This is the beginning of an enumeration of some other repulsive acts of the predecessors of the Jews, which calls out the remoteness of the faith of their successors. It is also said: it is another type of favor with which Allah Almighty distinguished them, for the obligation to these things leads to the greatest of favors, which is Paradise, and that which leads to a favor is itself a favor.

This covenant was taken from them upon the tongue of Moses and others of their prophets, peace be upon them, or it is a covenant taken from them in the Torah. The statement of Makki—that it is a covenant Allah Almighty took from them while they were in the loins of their fathers like atoms—is not supported here.

[Do not worship except Allah]: This is based on the intention of "the speech," meaning: "We said," or "We were saying," so that it connects with what precedes it. It is an informative statement in the meaning of a prohibition, similar to the Almighty’s saying: (No harm shall be done to a scribe or a witness). It is like saying: "You go to so-and-so and tell him such-and-such." Al-Farra’ held this view, and what strengthens it is that it is more eloquent than an explicit prohibition because it implies that the one forbidden is as if he were hastening toward that act, until it has occurred, so he is informed about it in the present or past tense—meaning: "It ought to be such." Thus, it is not an objection that the state of the one informed is otherwise.

Ibn Mas'ud read it as (La ta'budu) in the imperative prohibition, and the word Qulu (Say) is connected to it, so that a semantic consistency is achieved between them in both being creative (insha'), although it is permissible to connect a creative utterance to an informative one where there is a place for grammatical inflection. It is said: the estimation is an la ta'budu (that you do not worship), so when the governing agent (the an) was elided, the verb became in the nominative case. It is not mandatory for the verb to be in the nominative after such an elision—contrary to some—and Al-Akhfash held this view. An example of this from Arabic prose is: marra yahfuruha (he passed by it digging it), and from poetry: Ala ayyuha al-zajiri ahdur al-wagha... (O you who restrain me from witnessing the battle...). The reading (an la ta'budu) supports this, while it is weakened by the fact that an is not elided by analogy in places that are not of this nature, so the verse should not be interpreted based on it. According to that interpretation, it is a source (masdar) interpreted as a substitute for the covenant, or an object of a verb with the elision of a preposition, meaning: bi-an la (by that you do not) or ala an la (upon that you do not).

It is also said: it is the answer to an oath indicated by the speech, meaning: "We swore them: you shall not worship," or the answer to the covenant itself because it holds the ruling of an oath. According to this, the speech is free from what was mentioned regarding the preference of the first view. Nafi', Ibn 'Amir, Abu 'Amr, 'Asim, and Ya'qub read it with the ta (second person), as a narration of what they were addressed with. The others read it with the ya (third person), because they are absent. In that case, there are two shifts in the verse: toward the Majesty name and [the verb] (ya'budun).

[And to parents, good treatment]: This is connected to a hidden verb, the estimation being: wa tahsununa (and you do good) or ahsinu (do good). The sentence is connected to ta'budun. It is permitted that it be connected to the word ihsanan (good treatment), as it is transitive by the ba', [as in]: (...and He was certainly good to me when He brought me out of prison) and (...and do good as Allah has done good to you). To forbid the advance of the object of a verbal noun before it is generally prohibited. Among the grammarians are those who estimated istawsaw (bequeath/command), so bi-al-walidayn is connected to it, and ihsanan is its object. Among them are those who estimated wassaynahum (We enjoined them), so ihsanan is an object for its cause (maf'ul li-ajlihi).

Al-walidan (the parents) is the dual of walid, as it is used for the father and mother, or by way of dominance (taghlib), based on the claim that it is not said except for the father, as Al-Halabi held. The verse has indicated the urge to be dutiful to parents and to honor them, and the verses and hadiths regarding this are numerous. It is sufficient for their celebration that Allah, the Mighty, has associated this with His worship.

[And the relatives, orphans, and the needy]: This is connected to (parents). Al-qurba (relatives) is a source like ruj'a, and the alif at the end is for the feminine, meaning kinship of blood and lineage. Al-yatama (orphans): its structure is fa'ala, and its alif is for the feminine; it is the plural of yatim (orphan), like nadim and nadama. It is not analogous and is also pluralized as aytam. Al-yutm (orphanhood) originally means "uniqueness/solitude," from which comes al-durra al-yatima (the unique pearl). Tha'lab said: "it is heedlessness," and the orphan is called yatim because he is neglected regarding his kindness. Abu 'Amr said: "it is delay," due to the delay of kindness toward him. Among humans, it is through the father, and there is no orphanhood after puberty. Among animals, it is through the mother, and among birds, it is through both. Al-Mawardi narrated that it is said among humans for someone who has also lost his mother, but the first is the well-known view.

Al-masakin (the needy) is the plural of miskin, on the pattern of mif'il, derived from sukun (stillness/silence), as if need has made him silent; thus the mim is extra, like in mahdar from hudur. Tamaskana fulan (so-and-so became needy) is narrated, but the more correct form is tasakana, meaning he became miskin. The difference between him and the poor (faqir) is well known.

This sequence has come with care for the most important, then the next most important. He began with parents, for their priority in being treated well is hidden from no one. Then the relatives, because maintaining ties of kinship is emphasized and because they share with parents in kinship and are its origin. It has been narrated in a tradition: "Allah Almighty addressed the kinship and said: 'You are the kinship (rahim), and I am the Merciful (rahman); I will join whoever joins you, and I will cut off whoever cuts you off'." Then the orphans, because they have no complete ability to earn, and it has come: "I and the guardian of an orphan will be in Paradise like these two," and the Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) pointed to his index and middle fingers. The status of the needy was delayed because the miskin can provide for himself through employment and can manage his livelihood to the extent possible, unlike the orphan, who, due to his smallness, cannot benefit himself and needs someone to benefit him.

Di al-qurba (the relative) was singularized, as in Al-Bahr, because it was intended as a genus, and because its addition to the source includes every relative; it is as if it contains a signal that relatives, even if they are many, are like a single thing, and one should not be annoyed by doing good to them.

[And speak to people good]: meaning a good word; he named it [good] for emphasis. It is said: it is a dialect for al-husn, like al-bukhl and al-bukhl, al-rushd and al-rashad, al-'arab and al-'arab. The meaning is: say to them a kind word and answer them with the best of what they love, as said by Abu al-'Aliyah. Sufyan al-Thawri said: "Command them with good and forbid them from evil." Ibn Abbas (may Allah be pleased with them) said: "Say to them: there is no god but Allah; command them with it." Ibn Jurayj said: "Inform them of what is in your book regarding the description of the Messenger (may Allah bless him and grant him peace)." The statement of Abu al-'Aliyah is on a high level.

It is apparent that this command is among the covenant taken from the Children of Israel. Whoever says that those addressed are the [Muslim] nation, and that it is definitive, or abrogated by the Verse of the Sword, or that it is specifically for the righteous believers—since there can be no good speech with disbelievers and the immoral, for we are commanded to curse them, censure them, and fight them—has gone far [from the truth]. Hamzah, Al-Kisa'i, and Ya'qub read (hasanan) with two fathas. 'Ata' and 'Isa read it with two dammas, which is the dialect of Hijaz. Abu Talhah ibn Musarrif read it as (husna) on the pattern of fu'la.

There is a difference regarding its aspect: it is said it is a source like ruj'a, but Abu Hayyan objected that it is not analogous and has not been heard. It is said it is an adjective like hubla, meaning: a husna (good) statement or word. Regarding the description with it, there are two views: (1) that it remains as it is for the superlative, and using it without the alif-lam and annexation for the definite is rare, yet it has come in poetry: wa in da'awtu ila jali wa makruma... (If I call to a battle or a noble deed...). (2) That it is stripped of the superlative, so it means hasana (good), as they said in: (Yusuf is better than his brothers). Al-Jahdari read it as (ihsanan) as a source of ahsana whose hamza is for transformation, as you say a'shabat al-ardu i'shaban (the land became grassy/full of grass), and in that case, it is an attribute to a hidden source, meaning: a word of goodness.

[And establish prayer and give zakat]: The Almighty intended by these what was ordained upon them in their religion, for it is a narration of what occurred in the time of Moses, peace be upon him. Their zakat of wealth, as narrated from Ibn Abbas (may Allah be pleased with them), was an offering, and fire would descend upon it and take it away, and that was the sign of acceptance; what the fire did not act upon was not accepted. The saying that what is meant by them is this prayer and this zakat ordained upon us, and that the address is to the Jews present in the time of the Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) and no others, and that the command for them is a metonymy for the command to Islam or to signal that disbelievers are also addressed with the branches of law, is worthless, as is not hidden.

[Then you turned away]: meaning you turned away from the covenant and rejected it. Thumma (then) is for remoteness or for the reality of sequence, so it is a rebuke to them for apostatizing after being compliant for a long duration, which is more heinous than disobedience from the beginning. Some researchers have mentioned that if the governing agent of the time/place is considered an address to the Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) and the believers, then this is a shift toward addressing all the Children of Israel, by prioritizing their successors over their predecessors, because the mention of all of them flows accordingly in the form of absence. For the previous addresses to the predecessors were narrated by the speech estimated before "do not worship," as if they were present when their crimes were mentioned, so they were censured for them. If it is considered an address to the contemporary Jews, then this is a generalization of the address by placing the predecessors in the position of the successors, just as it is a generalization of the turning away by placing the successors in the position of the predecessors for the sake of severity in the rebuke. It is said: the shift only occurs in the reading of (la ya'budun) in the third person; as for the reading of the address (second person), there is no shift. Some people hold that this address is specific to those present in his time (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) and what preceded is specific to those who preceded, and they hold that the shift exists in both readings, but in a non-technical sense, as the scholars of Ma'ani (semantics) did not say that a shift exists between two addresses due to their difference, but something similar occurred in the speech of some litterateurs. What we mentioned about taghlib (dominance) is more appropriate and worthy, contrary to those who shifted away from it.

[Except for a few of you]: These are those among the predecessors who established Judaism as it was before the abrogation, and among the successors those who accepted Islam, like Abdullah ibn Salam and his like. So the "few" is in the number of individuals. Ibn 'Atiyyah's statement: "It is possible that it is in faith, meaning there remained no one when they disobeyed and the last of them disbelieved in Muhammad (may Allah bless him and grant him peace), except for the faith of a few," for it does not benefit them; no one proceeds to it except a few who were not given understanding of Arabic expressions. It is narrated from Abu 'Amr and others the nominative reading of qalil. The most well-known in such matters is the accusative because what precedes it is affirmative. They differed in explaining the nominative; it is said that the nominative is an emphasis for the pronoun or a substitute for it, and it was permitted because tawallaytum (you turned away) is in the meaning of negation, meaning they did not fulfill. More than one has explained the saying of the Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) as it is authenticated: "The scholars are doomed except the scholars, and the scholars are doomed except the scholars, and the scholars are doomed except the sincere ones, and the sincere ones are in danger." And [they explain] the poet's saying: bi-al-sarima minhum manzilun khaliqun 'afin taghayyara illa al-nu'u wa al-watadu (In Al-Sarimah, there is a worn-out, dilapidated abode of theirs, changed except for the rain-star and the peg) based on that.

Abu Hayyan's saying that it is nothing is because there is no affirmation but that it could be interpreted as negation, which would require the permissibility of qama al-qawmu illa zayd (the people stood except Zayd) in the nominative by interpretation and substitution, which the grammarians did not permit, [this saying] is nothing, as is not hidden. It is said that la (in illa) is an attribute in the meaning of ghayr (other than), its inflection appearing in what follows it. Sibawayh dedicated a chapter in his book to this and said: "This is a chapter on what illa and what follows it are in the position of an adjective, like ghayr and mithl." Among the examples of this chapter he mentioned: "If there were a man with us other than Zayd, we would have overcome," and (Had there been within the heavens and earth gods besides Allah, they both would have been ruined), and the saying: uynikhat fa-alqat baldatan fawqa baldatin qalil biha al-aswatu illa bughamuha (The camel was made to kneel, and she threw down a land upon a land, in which voices were few except for its lowing). A group explained all that preceded based on this. In it is that this does not hold firm in what we are in, except according to the school of Ibn 'Asfur, where he went to the view that the adjective with illa differs from the adjective with other than it, in that it can be used as an adjective for the indefinite and the definite, the explicit and the pronoun. As for the school of others—Ibn Shahin relative to him—it is that it cannot be an adjective unless the described is indefinite or definite by the lam of genus, and Al-Mubarrad stipulates for the adjective with it the possibility of substitution in its place. It is said: it is a subject whose predicate is hidden, meaning: "they did not speak," and nothing of what preceded objects to it, except that it has speech that we will mention, if Allah Almighty wills, at His saying: (except Iblis; he was not of the prostrators).

[And you are turning away]: A parenthetical sentence, meaning: you are a people whose habit is turning away and avoiding covenants. It is taken that it is their habit from the nominal sentence, which indicates permanence. It is said: it is a confirmatory state (hal), and turning away (tawalli) and avoidance (i'rad) are one and the same thing. It is permissible for a confirmatory state to be separated by the waw according to the researchers. Some differentiate between tawalli and i'rad by saying that the first might be for a need that calls for leaving while the contract remains, while i'rad is leaving something with the heart. It is said: tawalli is to return upon one's own steps, and i'rad is to leave the path and take to the side of the road. The one who turns away (mutawalli) is closer to the matter than the one who avoids (mu'rid), because whenever he resolves, it is easy for him to return to following the path, while the one who avoids, since he has left the path and is on the side of the road, needs to seek his path, so it is difficult for him to return to it.

Some people permit that mu'ridun is on its apparent meaning, and the sentence is a restricted state, meaning: "you did not turn away except for the few (and you are avoiding them)," hating them, and in this is an increase in their rebuke and praise for the few. So it is distant, like the saying that it is restricted. The object of tawalli and i'rad is different: meaning you turned away from proceeding on the covenant, and you avoided following this Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace).