Tafsir of At-Tawbah 9:109

"Is then he who laid the foundation of his building..."

(The word bunyan (building) is an infinitive, similar to ghufran (forgiveness), and it has been used in the sense of the passive participle. Abu Ali stated that bunyan is a collective noun whose singular form is bunyanah. Perhaps he meant that it is a collective noun category whose singular is what was mentioned; otherwise, it is baseless. Ta'sis means placing the foundation, which is the base of a building and its beginning. It is also used to mean strengthening, which is how some have interpreted it here. Others preferred the first interpretation because of the preposition 'ala (on/upon) in His saying: "upon piety from Allah and [His] pleasure." The most immediate understanding is that [the preposition] relates to it [the foundation]. It is also permissible that it relates to an implied word which serves as a circumstantial qualifier (hal) for the pronoun hidden in assasa (he laid the foundation), though this is contrary to the apparent meaning, as is evident.

The intent behind ridwan (pleasure) is the seeking of it through obedience, by way of metaphor. If you wish, you may estimate an omitted genitive so that the two coordinated clauses refer to the servant's actions. The hamza is for interrogation and denial, and the fa is for coordination with an implied clause, as they have said in similar instances—meaning: After their condition became known, is he who laid the foundation of his building upon piety and fear of Allah Almighty and seeking His pleasure through obedience, better, or he who laid the foundation of his building on the edge of a crumbling precipice (jurf)?

Jurf is the edge [of a riverbank or pit]. From this comes the expression "he is on the brink (ashfa) of destruction," meaning he is on the edge of it; and the sick person is called shaf because he is on the edge of recovery and health. Its dual is shafawan. A jurf—with both dammahs—is a well that has not been lined with stones. It is also said: It is a chasm, or that which the flood carries away from the valleys because the water eats it away and sweeps it off. Abu Bakr, Ibn Amir, and Hamza recited jurf with a light [vowel], which is a recognized dialect.

Har (crumbling/tottering) means cracked, on the verge of falling; it is also said to mean "falling." It is an adjective for jurf. Its origin is hawir or hayir, thus it is inverted, and its scale is fa'l. It is also said that its middle radical was removed arbitrarily, making its scale fal, with the declension on its ra like the word bab. Others say there is no inversion or deletion, and its origin is hawar or hayir on the scale of fa'il, like katif. When the vowel letter moved and the letter preceding it was opened, it was inverted into an alif.

The apparent meaning is that the "edge of the crumbling precipice" was placed in opposition to the "piety" mentioned earlier. In this is a conceptual explicit metaphor, where falsehood and hypocrisy are likened to the edge of a crumbling precipice in their lack of stability. Then, it is used metaphorically for that, and the indication is the opposition. His saying, "so it collapsed with him into the fire of Hell," is a reinforcement (tarshih). The ba (in bihi) is either for transitivity or for accompaniment. It was placed in opposition to ridwan (pleasure) to alert that the foundation of the former is upon a matter that protects it from what is feared and leads it to what its requirements necessitate: Paradise. The foundation of the latter is upon that which is on the verge of falling into the Fire, hour by hour, and inevitably ending up therein.

The metaphor in the preceding [clause] is allusive (makniyya), where piety was likened to the foundations of a building—a comparison hidden in the soul, indicated by its synonyms and concomitants: ta'sis (founding) and bunyan (building). Many have chosen the view that the meaning of the verse is: "Is he who laid the foundation of his religion upon a firm base—which is piety and the seeking of pleasure through obedience—better, or he who laid it upon a base that is the weakest and slackest of bases, which led him, due to its weakness and lack of stability, to fall into the Fire?"

This interpretation was chosen, as is said, because it is more appropriate to the description of the people of the Mosque of Harm (Dirar)—their harming the believers, disbelief, causing division, and lurking—and the description of the people of the Mosque of Piety—that they love to purify themselves—based on the idea that "purification" refers to sins and blameworthy traits, for this is what is necessitated—in the view of some—by the love of Allah Almighty, not the purification mentioned in the reports. The state of the metaphor according to this interpretation follows the pattern mentioned in the first interpretation.

It is also permissible that the first sentence represents a parable for one who is sincere to Allah Almighty and performs righteous deeds, likening him to one who builds a solid structure in which he dwells and by which he is fortified; and that the "building" is a primary metaphor and the "founding" is a reinforcement or secondary. The same is permissible for the parable in the second sentence. The subject of in-hara (it collapsed) is either the pronoun of the building, and the pronoun in bihi (with him) refers to the founder, or it is [the pronoun of] the shufa (edge), and the pronoun in bihi refers to the building. The latter is favored by the apparent meaning of the aforementioned interpretation.

The apparent meaning of the reports is that if that mosque collapsed, it collapsed into the Fire. Ibn al-Mundhir, Ibn Abi Hatim, and Abu al-Shaykh reported from Qatadah that he said regarding the verse: "By Allah, it did not stop until it fell into the Fire; and it was mentioned to us that a spot was dug within it, and smoke was seen coming from it." Ibn al-Mundhir reported the like from Ibn Jurayj. Ibn Abi Hatim reported from al-Suddi that he said regarding it: "A time passed when it was swallowed into the Fire." And from Sufyan ibn 'Uyaynah: "It is said that it is a spot from the Fire of Hell."

You know that I—praise be to Allah Almighty—am a believer in His power, Glory be to Him, in the most perfect way, and that He, Majestic is His Majesty, is a Doer of what He wills. However, I do not believe in such outward meanings unless a sound report has been received from the Messenger of Allah, may Allah Almighty bless him and grant him peace.

Nafi' and Ibn Umar read ussisa as passive in both places. It was also recited as asas bunyanihi and uss bunyanihi in the genitive, attributed to Ali ibn Nasr. Wa-ussisa with fathas (all vowels) was attributed to Asim. Wa-isas with a kasra was also recited. It is said that all three are plurals of uss (foundation), but this is open to scrutiny. In al-Sihah, uss is the base of the building, as is asas; ussas is the shortened form of it. The plural of uss is asas (like uss and ussas), and the plural of asas is usus (like qathal and quthul), and the plural of usus is asas (like sabab and asbab). End quote. It is permissible for ussisa to be an infinitive. Isa ibn Amr recited wa-taqwa with tanwin. Ibn Jinni explained this by saying that the alif is for appending (like in arta, appended to ja'far), not for feminine usage like the alif in tatra in the sense of ra'a (opinion). And Ibn Masud recited: fa-inhara bihi qawa'iduhu fi nari jahannam (so its foundations collapsed with it into the fire of Hell).

"And Allah does not guide the wrongdoing people," meaning: those who wrong themselves, or those who place things in other than their proper positions. That is, He does not lead them to what contains their well-being with a guidance that inevitably necessitates [their success]."