Tafsir of Al Imran 3:140-141

Āl 'Imrān (The Family of 'Imrān): Verses 140–141

This passage is a continuation of the preceding statement: {And do not lose heart or grieve, for you will be superior if you are true believers} (Āl 'Imrān: 139).

The Almighty clarifies that the injury (qurḥ) afflicting them should not diminish their zeal and effort in striving against the enemy. This is because, just as this affliction befell them, a similar one had previously befallen their enemy. If the enemy, being upon falsehood and facing a bad end, did not falter due to their setbacks, then the believers, being upon truth and having a good outcome, are even more deserving of not feeling weakness.

In this verse, there are several points of discussion:

Ḥamzah, Al-Kisā'ī, and Abū Bakr (narrating from 'Āṣim) recited قَرْح (Qurḥ) with a ḍammah on the Qāf (Qurḥ), and similarly in the verse: {after the injury had afflicted them} (Āl 'Imrān: 172). The rest recited it with a fatḥah (Qarḥ) in both instances.

There are several interpretations regarding this difference:

1. Identical Meaning: Both readings have the same meaning; they are simply two linguistic variations, like jahd and juhd (effort), wajd and wujd (finding), or ḍa‘f and du‘f (weakness).
2. Dialectal Difference: The fatḥah reading is the dialect of Tihāmah and the Ḥijāz, while the ḍammah reading is the dialect of Najd.
3. Grammatical Difference: The fatḥah refers to the verbal noun (maṣdar), and the ḍammah refers to the noun itself (the wound).
4. Specific Distinction (Ibn Miqsam): The fatḥah (Qarḥ) implies the physical wound itself, whereas the ḍammah (Qurḥ) implies the pain of the wound.
5. Plural Implication (Ibn Miqsam): The fatḥah reading might suggest the plural form of qurḥah (a single wound).

There are two main views regarding the phrase: {a similar injury had afflicted them}:

1. Reciprocity of Battles: If injury afflicted the Muslims at the Battle of Uhud, a similar injury afflicted the disbelievers at the Battle of Badr. This aligns with the verse: {Or when a disaster struck you, although you had inflicted twice the like upon them...} (Āl 'Imrān: 165).
2. Reciprocity at Uhud: The disbelievers also suffered injury and killing at Uhud. Twenty-odd of them were killed, their standard-bearer was slain, and many sustained wounds. Furthermore, most of their horses were wounded by arrows, and they experienced defeat at the beginning of the day.

Objection: If the second view is taken, how can the verse say "a similar injury" (قَرْحٌ مِثْلُهُ) when the number of Muslim casualties was less than the enemy's?

Answer: In this interpretation, the term qurḥ must be understood simply as defeat/reversal, not necessarily the exact number of fatalities.

Regarding the Almighty’s statement: {And these days We alternate among the people} (وَتِلْكَ الْأَيَّامُ نُدَاوِلُهَا بَيْنَ النَّاسِ), there are several points:

Issue 1: Grammatical Structure

• تِلْكَ (Those) is the subject (mubtada').
• الْأَيَّامُ (The days) is an adjective (ṣifah).
• نُدَاوِلُهَا (We alternate them) is the predicate (khabar).
• Alternatively, تِلْكَ الْأَيَّامُ can be the subject and predicate, similar to saying: "She is the days that wear out everything new."
• The phrase refers to all the days of remarkable conflicts, indicating that fortune alternates: sometimes it is for one person, and sometimes for another. War is cyclical (sijāl).

Issue 2: The Meaning of Alternation (نُدَاوِلُهَا)

Al-Qaffāl stated that tadāwul means transferring something from one person to another. It is said: "The hands passed it around" (تداولته الأيدي). This is derived from the verse: {so that it will not be a perpetual distribution among the rich among you} (Al-Ḥashr: 7), meaning you do not pass it around and deny the poor a share. The world is described as duwal (alternating fortunes), meaning it shifts from one group to another, and then from them to others.

The meaning is that the days of this world are alternating fortunes among people; neither their ease nor their hardship is permanent. One day brings joy to them and sorrow to their enemy, and another day reverses this. Nothing from its states remains, nor does any trace of its effects settle permanently.

Important Clarification: This alternation does not mean that God sometimes grants victory to the believers and sometimes to the disbelievers. Victory (Naṣr) is a noble station and great honor, which is not fitting for the disbelievers.

Rather, the alternation means that sometimes God intensifies the trial upon the disbelievers, and sometimes upon the believers. The benefits of this are threefold:

1. Preserving Obligation (Taklīf): If God always afflicted the disbelievers and always relieved the believers, it would become self-evident that faith is true and all else false. If this were the case, religious obligation, reward, and punishment would be void. Therefore, God sometimes subjects the faithful to hardship and sometimes the infidels so that doubts remain, compelling the accountable person to use rational consideration of the proofs for Islam's truth, thus magnifying their reward with God.
2. Discipline vs. Wrath: If a believer commits some sins, the intensification of hardship upon him in this world serves as discipline (adab). However, the intensification of hardship upon the disbeliever is an expression of God's wrath upon him.
3. Transience of Worldly States: The pleasures and pains of this world are not lasting, nor are their conditions permanent. Lasting happiness is only in the Hereafter. Since God causes death after life, and sickness after health, why should He not alternate ease with distress, and power with impotence?

It is narrated that Abū Sufyān ascended the mountain on the day of Uhud and called out: "Where is the son of Abī Kabshah? Where is the son of Abī Quḥāfah? Where is the son of Al-Khaṭṭāb?" 'Umar replied: "Here is the Messenger of God (صلى الله عليه وسلم), here is Abū Bakr, and here am I, 'Umar." Abū Sufyān said: "A day for a day; the days alternate, and war is cyclical." 'Umar (may God be pleased with him) responded: "It is not equal; our slain are in Paradise, and your slain are in the Fire." Abū Sufyān then said: "If what you claim is true, then we have failed and lost."

Regarding the Almighty’s statement: {And that Allah may know those who believe} (وَلِيَعْلَمَ اللَّهُ الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا), there are several points:

Issue 1: The Lam (لِ) of Causality

The lām (for/so that) in {And that Allah may know} is connected to an implied verb, either preceding or following it.

• Implied Verb Following: The meaning is: "We alternated these days so that Allah may know those who believe."
• Implied Verb Preceding: The meaning is: "We alternated these days for several reasons, including: so that Allah may know those who believe, so that He may take from you martyrs, so that Allah may purify those who believe, and so that He may obliterate the disbelievers." All these serve as the cause or reason for the alternation.

Issue 2: The Conjunction (و)

The wāw (and) in {And that Allah may know} is similar to many instances in the Qur'an, such as: {and so that the hearts of those who do not believe may incline toward it} (Al-An'ām: 113). The implied structure is: "We alternate these days so that X may happen, and so that Allah may know..." The omission of the preceding conjunction implies that the benefits of this alternation are not singular; it is meant to console them regarding what occurred and to make them realize that this event, and their role in it, involves aspects of benefit that would please them if they knew them.

Issue 3: The Apparent Meaning of God's Knowledge

The apparent meaning of {And that Allah may know} suggests that God performed this alternation specifically to acquire this knowledge. This is impossible for God. Similar problematic verses include: {Or did you think that you would enter Paradise while Allah has not yet known those who have striven among you and known the patient?} (Āl 'Imrān: 142), and {And We will surely test you until We know those who have striven among you and been patient} (Muḥammad: 31).

Hishām ibn al-Ḥakam used the apparent meaning of these verses to argue that God only knows events upon their occurrence.

The Theologians' Response: Rational proofs indicate that God knows all occurrences before they happen. Therefore, a change in knowledge is impossible. However, using the term "knowledge" ('ilm) to refer to the known object, and "power" (qudrah) to refer to the object of power, is a common metaphor. One might say, "This is so-and-so's knowledge," meaning "this is what he knows." Thus, any verse whose apparent meaning suggests the renewal of knowledge actually refers to the renewal of the known object (i.e., the event coming into existence).

Given this, the interpretations for {And that Allah may know those who believe} are:

1. To manifest sincerity (Ikhlāṣ) from hypocrisy, and the believer from the disbeliever.
2. To make His friends known (the attribution to Himself is for glorification).
3. To establish the distinction (Ḥukm al-Imtiyāz). Knowledge is substituted for the judgment of distinction, as the judgment cannot occur without prior knowledge.
4. To know that the event actually occurred from them, as He already knew it would occur, because recompense is based on what actually happens, not merely what was known but unmanifested.

Issue 4: The Object of Knowledge

The verb "to know" ('alima) sometimes requires one object (e.g., "I knew Zayd," meaning I knew his essence), and sometimes two objects (e.g., "I knew Zayd to be generous"). The latter sense is intended here. The second object is omitted, implying: "And that Allah may know those who believe as being distinguished from others."

The wisdom of this alternation is that the believers become clearly distinguished from those who merely claim faith, due to their patience and steadfastness. Alternatively, the knowledge here could be of the first type (knowing the essence), meaning: "Allah knows the believers by their very selves, due to the patience they manifest in fighting the enemy." However, the cause for this knowledge—the manifestation of patience—is omitted here.

This mentions the second wisdom behind the alternation.

Issue 1: Meaning of Martyrs (شهداء)

There are two views:

1. Witnesses over People: They become witnesses over the people concerning the sins and transgressions they committed. This is a high station.
2. Honored with Martyrdom: God honors a group of people with the station of martyrdom. Some Muslims missed the Battle of Badr and wished for a day like it to fight the enemy and seek martyrdom. The Qur'an is filled with the glorification of martyrs, as seen in verses mentioning their living sustenance and their high rank alongside Prophets and the truthful. Thus, achieving this great station for some believers was one of the intended outcomes of this alternation.

Issue 2: Divine Decree and Human Action

Our scholars use this verse to argue that all events occur by the will of God (Irādah). If martyrdom could be achieved without God allowing the disbelievers to overpower the believers, there would be no sound reason for this arrangement. If it cannot be achieved without it, then the killing of believers by disbelievers becomes a necessary consequence of achieving that martyrdom. If achieving that martyrdom for the servant is desired by God, then that killing must also be desired by God. Furthermore, {And that He may take from you martyrs} explicitly states that the means by which martyrdom is achieved originates from God, indicating that the servant's action is created by God.

Issue 3: The Meaning of Martyr (شهيد)

Shahīd is the plural of shahīd (like kuramā' and ẓurafā'). A Muslim killed by the sword of the disbelievers is a martyr. The reasons for this title include:

1. Living Souls (Al-Nuḍar ibn Shumayl): Martyrs are alive because their souls are alive and present in the Abode of Peace (Paradise), a state not witnessed by the souls of others.
2. Witnessed by God (Ibn al-Anbārī): God and His angels testify to their entry into Paradise. Thus, shahīd is in the passive sense (maf‘ūl).
3. Witnesses on the Day of Judgment: They testify alongside the Prophets and the truthful, as stated: {so that you may be witnesses over mankind} (Al-Baqarah: 143).
4. Immediate Entry to Paradise: Just as the disbelievers, upon dying, entered the Fire (as per Noah's account), those killed in God's path, upon dying, enter Paradise.

Ibn 'Abbās (may God be pleased with him) interpreted this as referring to the polytheists, based on the verse: {Indeed, association [with God] is a great wrong} (Luqmān: 13). This serves as an interjection between two parts of the reasoning. Interpretations include:

1. God does not love those who are not steadfast in faith and patient in striving.
2. It indicates that God only grants victory to the disbelievers over the believers for the aforementioned benefits, not because He loves them.

This means to cleanse them of their sins and remove them. Tamḥīṣ (purification/refinement) linguistically means purification. Maḥq (obliteration) means diminution. Al-Mufaḍḍal said tamḥīṣ is when something is entirely removed so nothing is seen of it, like {Allah destroys usury} (Al-Baqarah: 276), meaning He eradicates it.

Al-Zajjāj explained: When the disbelievers gain victory over the believers, the purpose is the purification of the believers' sins. If the believers gain victory over the disbelievers, the purpose is the obliteration of the disbelievers' traces and their annihilation. Thus, the purification of the believers is contrasted with the obliteration of the disbelievers, as purifying the former is analogous to destroying their sins, just as destroying the latter is analogous to destroying their very selves. This is a subtle correspondence in meaning.

The closest interpretation is that the disbelievers mentioned here refer to a specific group—those who fought the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) at Uhud—because we know that God did not annihilate all disbelievers; many remained in their disbelief. (And God knows best.)

This verse continues the theme.