Tafsir of Ta-Ha 20:123-127

Surah Taha (20:123-127) Translation and Exegesis (Based on Mafatih al-Ghayb)

Verse 123:

He said, "Go down from it, all of you; some of you are enemies to others. So if guidance comes to you from Me, then whoever follows My guidance will neither go astray nor be miserable."

Exegesis:

There is a question regarding the command: {اهبطا} (Go down, dual form).

1. Addressing Two or More: If the address is to two people (Adam and Eve), why does the subsequent phrase use the plural form {يأتينكم} (comes to you, plural)? If the address is to more than two, why the dual command {اهبطا}?

• Answer 1 (Abu Muslim): The command is directed to Adam and his progeny, and to Iblis (Satan) and his progeny. Because they are two species (Adam's lineage and Iblis's lineage), the dual command {اهبطا} is appropriate. Because each species contains many individuals, the plural address {يأتينكم} is appropriate.
  • Answer 2 (Al-Kashshaf's Author): Since Adam and Eve are the originators of humankind, they are treated as if they are humanity itself, and thus addressed in the plural form: {فإما يأتينكم} (So if guidance comes to you).

2. Regarding "Enemies to Each Other": {بعضكم لبعض عدو} (Some of you are enemies to others).
   • Al-Qadi's View: It suffices that Iblis and the devils are enemies to mankind, and mankind are enemies to them. If enmity exists within each group as well, it is still covered by the statement.

3. Regarding Guidance (Hudā): {فإما يأتينكم منى هدى} (So if guidance comes to you from Me). This indicates that the intended audience includes the progeny.
   • Meaning of Guidance: Some say it means the Messengers, some say the final proofs/evidence, and some say the Qur'an. The soundest view is that Hudā is a comprehensive term for guidance/indication, encompassing all of these.

4. Regarding Misguidance and Misery: {فمن اتبع هداى فلا يضل ولا يشقى} (then whoever follows My guidance will neither go astray nor be miserable).
   • This implies that the guidance whose following guarantees this outcome is the guidance that involves following the evidence (proofs) and acting upon them.
   • Interpretations of "Neither Go Astray Nor Be Miserable":
     • View 1: He will not go astray in this world, nor be miserable in the Hereafter.
     • View 2: He will not go astray, nor be miserable in the Hereafter, as God guides him to Paradise and establishes him there.
     • View 3: He will not go astray in religion, nor suffer misery due to religion in this world. If misery afflicts him for another reason, it is permissible.

Verse 124:

And whoever turns away from My remembrance, then indeed, for him is a narrow life, and We will gather him on the Day of Resurrection blind.

Exegesis:

1. "My Remembrance" (Dhikrī): This refers to the Qur'an, or previous divine books, or the evidence (as previously mentioned).

2. "A Narrow Life" (Ma'īshatan Ḍankan): Ḍank fundamentally means tightness and hardship. It describes a life characterized by narrowness.

3. Location of the Narrowness: This promised hardship could be in this world, the grave, the Hereafter, in religious matters, or in all or most of these.

• View 1 (In This World): Many commentators hold this view. The believer, due to reliance on God, lives a good life ({فلنحيينه حيواة طيبة}). The disbeliever is perpetually anxious for worldly gain, making his life narrow and dark. Furthermore, God afflicts some disbelievers with humiliation and destitution due to their disbelief (citing verses about the Jews and the command to establish the Torah/Gospel).

• View 2 (In the Grave): This is the view of 'Abdullah ibn Mas'ud, Abu Sa'id al-Khudri, and 'Abdullah ibn 'Abbas (narrated by Abu Hurayrah from the Prophet ﷺ): "The torment of the grave is for the disbeliever... he will be afflicted by ninety-nine vipers." Ibn 'Abbas specified that it refers to the crushing of the grave that dislocates the ribs.

• View 3 (In the Hereafter): This is the view of Al-Hasan, Qatadah, and Al-Kalbi. Their sustenance in Hell will be ḍarī' and zaqqūm, and their drink will be scalding water and pus; they will neither die nor truly live there.

• View 4 (In Religious Matters): Ibn 'Abbas said the narrow life is when the doors of good become closed to him, and he is not guided to anything good. Al-Shibli, when asked about the saying, "When you see people afflicted, ask God for well-being," said the afflicted are those heedless of God, whose punishment is being left to themselves—and what life is narrower than being left to oneself? 'Ata said it is the life of the disbeliever because he lacks certainty regarding reward and punishment.

• View 5 (In All or Most of These): It is narrated from 'Ali (from the Prophet ﷺ) that the punishment for sin is threefold: narrow livelihood, difficulty in hardship, and only being able to attain one's sustenance through sinning.

4. "We will gather him on the Day of Resurrection Blind": {ونحشره يوم القيامة أعمى}

• View 1 (Physical Blindness): This is like the verse {ونحشرهم يوم القيامة على وجوههم عميا وبكما وصما} (We will gather them on the Day of Resurrection on their faces, blind, dumb, and deaf). This blindness might occur after being gathered sightfully, similar to how the "blue-eyed" description in the previous verse was interpreted.

• View 2 (Blind to Proof): Mujahid, Al-Dahhak, and Muqatil said he is blind to the argument/proof. Al-Qadi considered this weak because, on the Day of Judgment, God must make the truth clear to distinguish it from falsehood. If the person is aware of the truth, describing him as blind in that context is metaphorical, implying he was blind before. This contradicts the statement {وقد كنت بصيرا} (And I was seeing in the world). * Refutation: The true answer lies in the fact that ignorant souls, upon departing their bodies in ignorance, remain in that ignorance in the Hereafter, and this ignorance becomes the cause of the greatest spiritual pains. This view differs significantly from the Mu'tazilite position adopted by Al-Qadi.

• View 3 (Bewilderment): Al-Jubba'i said it means he will not find a path to attain good on the Day of Resurrection; he will remain standing, bewildered like a blind person who cannot find his way.

5. The Dialogue: {قال رب لم حشرتنى أعمى وقد كنت بصيرا * قال كذلك أتتك آياتنا فنسيتها وكذالك اليوم تنسى} (He will say, "My Lord, why have You gathered me blind while I was seeing?" He will say, "Thus did Our signs come to you, and you forgot them; and thus today you will be forgotten.")

• Two ways to establish this response: * Way 1: God inflicts this blindness as a penalty for abandoning the guidance and turning away from it. * Way 2: Human souls, when separated from their bodies while ignorant and cut off from spiritual realities, remain in that state, leading to great spiritual pain. Therefore, God links the blindness in the Hereafter to turning away from the proofs in the world.

• Connection to Narrow Life: Those who interpret the narrow life as worldly hardship show that the one who turns away from remembrance in this world receives the narrow life here and blindness there.

6. The Conclusion: {وكذالك نجزى من أسرف ولم يؤمن بئايات ربه} (And thus do We recompense him who transgresses and does not believe in the signs of his Lord).
   • Some say asrafa (transgressed) means committed polytheism/disbelief. Others say it means disobeyed God. God clarifies this by adding {ولم يؤمن بئايات ربه}, which explains the transgression.
   • God states that the recompense for such a person is the narrow life and blindness, and then clarifies that {عذاب الآخرة أشد وأبقى} (The punishment of the Hereafter is severer and more enduring). It is severer due to its magnitude, and more enduring because it is unending.

Verse 125-127:

7 < { أفلم يهد لهم كم أهلكنا قبلهم من القرون يمشون فى مساكنهم إن فى ذلك لأيات لا ولى النهى * ولولا كلمة سبقت من ربك لكان لزاما وأجل مسمى * فاصبر على ما يقولون وسبح بحمد ربك قبل طلوع الشمس وقبل غروبها ومن ءانآء الليل فسبح وأطراف النهار لعلك ترضى } > 7 !

Translation:

Have they not been guided by how many generations We destroyed before them whose dwellings they walk through? Indeed, in that are signs for those of understanding. And were it not for a word that preceded from your Lord, it would have been an inevitable decree, and a specified term. So be patient with what they say, and exalt [God] with praise of your Lord before the rising of the sun and before its setting, and during periods of the night, and at the ends of the day, that you may be content.