Al-Hujurat: (4) "Indeed, those who call out to you..."

"Indeed, those who call out to you from behind the chambers" (from outside them, whether behind or in front of them).

Wara'a (behind) is derived from muwarah (concealment/screening) and exclusion; whatever is hidden from you is wara'a, whether it is behind or in front of you, provided you do not see it. If you see it, it is not considered wara'a. Thus, wara'a with respect to those inside the chambers is whatever is outside them, due to its being concealed from those within. Some linguists have said that wara'a is one of the addad (words with opposing meanings), making it a lexical homonym; according to the first view, it is a single semantic category, which is the opinion held by al-Amidi and a group.

Al-Hujurat is the plural of hujrah, on the pattern of fu'lah, with the fa being damma and the ayn being sakin. It refers to a piece of land that is mahjura—that is, prevented from entry by a wall. It is also called a livestock pen, a place where they are gathered and enclosed with branches or similar materials. It is also hujrah in the sense of the passive participle, like ghurfah (a handful) for what is scooped by the hand from water. Regarding its plural here, there are three linguistic forms:

1. Giving the ayn a damma to follow the fa (the reading of the majority).
2. Giving it a fatha (the reading of Abu Ja’far and Shaybah).
3. Keeping it sakin for lightness (the reading of Ibn Abi Abla).

These forms are permissible in the plural of every static noun that follows this pattern. The intended meaning is the chambers of his wives, peace and blessings be upon him; there were nine, and each had a chamber. As Ibn Sa’d narrated from ‘Ata al-Khurasani, they were made of palm fronds, with curtains of black hair-cloth over their doors. Al-Bukhari in al-Adab, Ibn Abi al-Dunya, and al-Bayhaqi narrated from Dawud bin Qais: "I saw the chambers made of palm fronds, covered from the outside with hair-cloth. I estimate the width of the house, from the door of the chamber to the door of the house, to be six or seven cubits, and the interior of the house to be ten cubits, and the height between seven and eight."

It is narrated from al-Hasan that he said: "I used to enter the houses of the wives of the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) during the caliphate of ‘Uthman bin ‘Affan, and I could reach their ceilings with my hand." They were incorporated into the Mosque of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) during the reign of al-Walid bin ‘Abd al-Malik by his order, and the people wept because of that. Sa’id bin al-Musayyib and others said: "By Allah, I wish they had left them as they were, so that people from the city and those arriving from distant lands could see what the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) sufficed himself with during his life, and that this might lead people to abandon excess and boasting in them." Abu Umamah bin Sahl bin Hunayf said something similar.

Mentioning the "chambers" is a metonymy for his privacy with his wives, as they were prepared for that purpose. It was not said "the chambers of your wives" or "your chambers," out of reverence for him (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) and to avoid anything that might disturb him.

Calling out to him from behind them implies either that they came to them chamber by chamber and called out from behind each, which would signify a conventional totality covering all the chambers of his wives, or that they dispersed across the chambers while searching for him. The totality is distributive, not a collective summation, nor is it a reciprocal plural requiring one-to-one division; for if one called him from behind one chamber, he has effectively called him from behind all of them, as has been said. Based on this, attributing the call to all of them is an attribution of an action performed by parts to the whole.

It is said that the one who called was a single man, as is apparent from the report narrated by al-Tirmidhi (who classified it as hasan) and a group, via al-Bara’ bin ‘Azib, and what Ahmad, Ibn Jarir, Abu al-Qasim al-Baghawi, al-Tabarani, and Ibn Mardawayh narrated with a sahih chain through Abu Salama bin ‘Abd al-Rahman from al-Aqra’ bin Habis: that he came to the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) and said, "O Muhammad, come out to us!" He did not answer him, so he said, "O Muhammad, my praise is an ornament and my censure is a blemish." He replied, "That is Allah," upon which Allah, the Exalted, revealed: "Indeed, those who call out to you..." to the end. In this case, the attribution to all of them is because they were satisfied with that and commanded it, or because it happened in their midst.

The explicit meaning of the verse is that the caller is plural, and so are many of the reports. The pluralization of "chambers" as a literal plural is the view held by more than one exegete. It is also permitted that "chamber" refers to a single one—the one in which the Messenger was present—and it was pluralized out of reverence for him, following the style of "forbidden to you are your women" (Quran 4:23). Also, because his chamber was the "mother of chambers" and the most noble of them, it holds the status of the whole, similar to one of the two views regarding the verse: "And who is more unjust than one who prevents [people from] the mosques of Allah..." (Quran 2:114).

Al-Zamakhshari differentiated between min wara' al-hujurat (with min) and wara' al-hujurat (without min) by stating that in the latter, it is possible for the caller and the one called to be both behind [the chambers], whereas in the former, this is not permitted. He reasoned that wara'a becomes a starting point of the limit by the entry of min, and a single location cannot simultaneously be the starting point and the ending point for a single action.

This was challenged in al-Bahr by the assertion that scholars have stated regarding the meanings of min that it can denote the start and end of a limit in a single action, and that a single thing can be the place for both. They attributed this to Sibawayh, saying that from this is their saying, "I took the dirham from Zayd," where Zayd is the location for both the start and end of the taking. They said min is in most places only for the start of the limit, but in some places for both.

The author of al-Taqrib said: "This is debatable, because the starting and ending points are either the caller and the called (as is the verifiable view) or the location. If it is the former, it is permissible for wara'a to combine them in both instances due to the distinction between start and end. If it is the latter, the location is either divisible or indivisible. If divisible, it is permissible to combine them even with min by considering the parts of the location. If it is indivisible, it is not permitted to combine them in either case due to the unity of the source."

The first was countered by saying that the place of ending is only the speaker, as Ibn Hisham mentioned in al-Mughni, and he mentioned that Ibn Malik said min in that example denotes mujawazah (passing beyond). The second [point] does not undermine the distinction according to the author of al-Kashf, who said: "The result is that the starting point is the location in terms of its connection to the subject, because the preposition of starting entered the location, and the action is not one whose concept includes the distance; thus, both aspects are considered to verify the requirements of the action and the particle. When the entire location is made the starting point, it is not permitted for it to be the ending point, whether it is divisible or not. Then, since wara'a is vague, it is not like 'I walked from the Basra to its mosque,' because part of it is not specifically determined as the start and part as the end—even though that, when used absolutely, must be interpreted as the ending point being other than Basra, whereas if it is specified, it is permissible with a metaphor, and the default is the absence of that without evidence."

This is a well-founded distinction, from which it appears that the objection mentioned in al-Taqrib is not undermining. What was mentioned—that the verifiable fact is that an action begins from the subject and ends at the object and occurs within the prepositional phrase—is correct. Both min wara' al-hujurat and wara'aha are prepositional phrases, like "I prayed from behind the imam" and "behind him," and "from before the day" and "before it." The meaning of starting is verified, and the distinction is an obvious strained attempt to claim that min is redundant, with no difference between its inclusion or exclusion. This is contrary to the apparent meaning; otherwise, they would not have differed regarding its redundancy in positive statements, as such speech is common among them. When it is not redundant, a distinction between the two expressions is necessary, especially when they are the words of the Almighty; so contemplate this. Expressing the call in the present tense, despite its past occurrence, is to bring the past scene into the present due to its strangeness.

The relative pronoun alladhina is the subject of inna, and the sentence "their majority do not use reason" is its predicate. Repeating the attribution is for emphasis. The intent is that they do not act according to the demands of reason, which requires observing courtesy, especially towards the most honorable of Allah's creation and the greatest in His estimation, may Allah bless him and grant him peace. Often, the existence of a thing is treated as its non-existence for a reason. Judging the majority rather than the whole is because some among them did not intend to abandon courtesy but called out for a certain matter, as has been said. It is also permissible that the intent behind the denial of majority is the "fewness" which serves as a metonymy for total negation. Abu Hayyan countered that this applies to explicit "fewness," not to what is implied by the negation of majority.

These people were from Banu Tamim, as explicitly stated by most historians. Ibn Ishaq and Ibn Mardawayh narrated from Ibn Abbas: "The delegation of Banu Tamim arrived—seventy or eighty men, including al-Zibriqan bin Badr, ‘Utarid bin Hajib, Qais bin ‘Asim, Qais bin al-Harith, and ‘Amr bin al-Ahtam—to the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) in Medina. ‘Uyaynah bin Hisn accompanied them, as he was present in every mischief. When they arrived at the dwelling of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him), they called out from behind the chambers with a harsh voice: 'O Muhammad, come out to us!' three times. The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) came out to them, and they said, 'O Muhammad, our praise is an ornament and our censure is a blemish; we are the most noble of the Arabs.' The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) replied, 'You have lied. Rather, Allah's praise is the ornament and His censure is the blemish, and the most noble among you is Yusuf bin Ya'qub bin Ishaq bin Ibrahim.' They said, 'We have come to boast against you,' and he mentioned the rest of the long story. In the end, the Tamimis said, 'By Allah, this man is assisted; his orator stood up and was more eloquent than our orator, and his poet stood up and was more poetic than our poet.' It was regarding them that Allah, the Exalted, revealed: 'Indeed, those who call out to you from behind the chambers' (referring to the Banu Tamim) 'their majority do not use reason.'" This is according to the first reading.

Ibn Hisham mentioned in his Sirah the story in full from Ibn Ishaq, counting al-Aqra’ bin Habis among them and mentioning that he and ‘Uyaynah witnessed the conquest of Mecca, Hunayn, and Ta'if with the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him). He also noted that ‘Amr bin al-Ahtam was left behind by the people, that their orator was ‘Utarid bin Hajib, while the orator of the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) was Thabit bin Qais bin Shammas, and their poet was al-Zibriqan bin Badr, while his poet was Hassan bin Thabit. He mentioned both orations and the poetry said, and that when Hassan finished, al-Aqra’ said, "I swear by my father, this man is definitely aided; his orator is more eloquent than ours, and his poet is more poetic than ours, and their voices are louder than ours." When they finished, they embraced Islam, and the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) gave them generous gifts.

There are contradictions in some reports concerning whether they were Muslim at the time of the delegation or if it occurred after. However, the most evident fact is that they were among the "hearts to be reconciled" at that time.

Ibn Mardawayh narrated through a chain from Sa’d bin ‘Abdullah that the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) was asked about the verse: "Indeed, those who call out to you..." and he said: "They are the uncouth ones from Banu Tamim. Were it not that they are among the fiercest of people in fighting the Dajjal (the Antichrist), I would have invoked Allah, the Exalted, to destroy them." It is confirmed in the two Sahih collections that they are among the fiercest of the Ummah against the Dajjal, which Abu Hurayrah considered one of the reasons for the Prophet's love for them.

The external appearance of many reports suggests that the reason for their delegation was to boast. Al-Waqidi said—and he is a "gatherer of firewood at night"—that the cause was that they brandished weapons against the Khuza'a, so the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) sent ‘Uyaynah bin Hisn to them with fifty men, neither Ansar nor Muhajir among them. He captured eleven men, eleven women, and thirty children. Their leaders came because of their captivity. It is said seventy or eighty men came, including ‘Utarid, al-Zibriqan, Qais bin ‘Asim, and others. They entered the mosque while Bilal had called for the Dhuhr prayer, and the people were waiting for the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) to come out to them. They began to call out from behind the chambers, so the verse was revealed regarding them. He then mentioned that he gave each man twelve uqiyas and a garment, and five uqiyas to ‘Amr bin al-Ahtam due to his youth. Perhaps his larger gift was due to him being slandered as well.

It is also narrated from ‘Ikrimah via Ibn Abbas that they were a people from Banu al-‘Anbar whose children the Prophet had captured; they came to Medina to ransom them, entered the mosque, and grew impatient for the Prophet to come out, so they said, "O Muhammad, come out to us!" Al-Khafaji mentioned that the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) sent a raiding party to a tribe of Arabs, the Banu al-‘Anbar, led by ‘Uyaynah bin Hisn; they fled, leaving behind their women and children, whom he took captive and brought to the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him). Their men came hoping to release the captives and called out from behind the chambers. He came out, released half, and ransomed the rest. His words imply they were not from Banu Tamim, although this raid might be the same one al-Waqidi referred to. In the Qamus, al-‘Anbar is a sub-tribe of Tamim, so the Banu al-‘Anbar are from them, and the matter does not fall outside of them.