Tafsir of Al-Hujurat 49:13

Surah Al-Hujurat (49): Verse 13

يا أيها الناس إنا خلقناكم من ذكر وأنثى وجعلناكم شعوبا وقبائل لتعارفوا إن أكرمكم عند الله أتقاكم إن الله عليم خبير

This verse serves to clarify and reinforce what preceded it. If the mockery and fault-finding (mentioned previously) were based on differences in religion and faith, then it would be permissible, given that the prohibition against backbiting (لا يغتب بعضكم بعضا) and defaming one another (ولا تلمزوا أنفسكم) applies only to the believer.

However, if the basis for fault-finding is not related to faith, then it is impermissible. This is because all people, whether disbelievers or believers, share in things that people boast about, other than faith and disbelief.

1. Boasting about Wealth: A disbeliever might be wealthy while a believer is poor, and vice versa.
2. Boasting about Lineage: A disbeliever might have noble lineage while a believer might be a black slave, and vice versa.

Therefore, concerning matters other than religion and piety (التقوى), people are equal and similar. None of these external factors hold any weight when piety is absent. Anyone who adheres to a religion knows that one who agrees with him in faith is nobler than one who opposes him, even if the latter has higher lineage or more wealth. How, then, can someone who possesses the true, firm religion be ranked lower than someone who lacks it due to external factors?

The Almighty’s saying: {إنا خلقناكم من ذكر وأنثى} (Indeed, We have created you from male and female) has two interpretations:

1. First Meaning: That He created you from Adam and Eve. This indicates that some should not boast over others because they are all children of one man and one woman.
2. Second Meaning: That each one of you present at the time of the address was created from a father and a mother. This indicates that the species is one, as everyone was created just as the other was, from a male and a female. Differences within the species are not like differences between species (e.g., flies and wolves). However, the difference between people due to disbelief and faith is like the difference between species, because the disbeliever is like inanimate matter—even worse than cattle (كالأنعام بل أضل), whereas the believer is human in the meaningful sense. Differences within humanity (being male or female) are superficial and do not negate the shared origin.

This leads to several discussions:

First Discussion (Mabaḥth)

Objection: This premise relies on disregarding lineage, but lineage is considered in custom (عرفا) and religious law (شرعا), such that marrying a noble woman to a commoner (نبطي) is impermissible.

Response: When the Great Matter (الأمر العظيم) arrives—which is religious truth—the insignificant matter ceases to be considered, both in sensory perception, religious law, and custom.

• Sensory Perception: Stars are not seen when the sun rises, and the buzzing of a fly is unheard during a strong thunderclap.
• Custom: One who accompanies the king holds no importance or attention when the king is present.

If this is true for sensory perception and custom, it is also true in religious law. When divine religious nobility arrives, lineage or wealth holds no weight. Do you not see that a disbeliever, no matter how high his lineage, cannot be compared to a believer, no matter how low his lineage? Similarly, religious merit supersedes all else. This is why any righteous, knowledgeable person—noble or lowly—is fit for religious offices like judging (القضاء) or giving testimony (الشهادة), while a wicked person, even if of Quraysh lineage and immense wealth, is not fit for any of it.

However, if two people possess firm religion, and one of them has lineage, people might prefer the one with lineage. But this preference is only with people, not with Allah, because Allah says: {وأن ليس للإنسان إلا ما سعى} (And that there is not for man except that [good] for which he strives) (An-Najm: 39). Lineage is not acquired through striving.

Second Discussion (Mabaḥth)

Question: Why did Allah choose lineage (النسب) as an example of boasting, but not wealth (المال)?

Answer: Although worldly boasts are numerous, lineage is the highest among them because wealth can be acquired by the poor, nullifying the boaster's pride. Beauty and youth are also not permanent. Lineage, however, is permanent and continuous, and cannot be acquired by those who lack it. Allah mentioned it to show that if even this permanent, unearned boast is invalidated concerning piety, then the invalidation of all others is even more obvious (بالطريق الأولى).

Third Discussion (Mabaḥth)

Question: If the purpose of the verse is to show the impermissibility of boasting about anything other than piety, does the phrase {إنا خلقناكم} (Indeed, We have created you) serve a purpose?

Answer: Yes. Everything that is preferred over another is either preferred by something that follows its existence, or by something that precedes it.

• Following Existence: Qualities like beauty and strength.
• Preceding Existence: Either related to the origin from which it was made (like saying one vessel is copper and another is silver) or related to the Maker (saying this was made by so-and-so).

Allah says: Do not prefer each other based on what you were created from, because you are all from a male and a female. Nor based on the Makers, because Allah created you all. Any difference among you must be due to matters that follow your existence. The noblest of these subsequent matters is piety and closeness to Allah.

This has two interpretations:

1. First Meaning: He made you peoples (شعوبا) scattered, whose unification is unknown (like non-Arabs, العجم), and tribes (قبائل) unified under one known ancestor (like the Arabs and the Children of Israel).
2. Second Meaning: He made you peoples (شعوبا) contained within tribes, where the tribe contains peoples, the people contain clans (بطون), the clans contain families (أفخاذ), the families contain kindred (فصائل), and the kindred contain relatives.

Mentioning the more general term (شعوبا) is more effective in negating boasting, as it encompasses many poor and rich, weak and strong people who cannot be counted.

Then Allah clarifies the benefit of this division: {لتعارفوا} (that you may know one another). This also has two interpretations:

1. The benefit is mutual support (التناصر), not mutual boasting.
2. The benefit is mutual recognition (التعارف), not mutual alienation (التناكر). Mockery, defamation, and backbiting lead to alienation, not recognition.

There are subtle meanings here:

First Subtle Point: Allah said {إنا خلقناكم} (We created you) and then {وجعلناكم} (We made you). Creation (الخلق) is the origin, from which the making (الجعل) of peoples and tribes branches out. Creation is existence; making is attributing characteristics. The purpose of creation is worship (وما خلقت الجن والإنس إلا ليعبدون), while the purpose of making you into tribes is for mutual recognition. The consideration of the origin precedes the consideration of the branch. Thus, lineage is considered only after the consideration of worship. If you possess worship, then your lineages are considered; otherwise, they are not.

Second Subtle Point: The sequence {خلقناكم * وجعلناكم} indicates the impermissibility of boasting, because neither creation nor being made into tribes is due to your striving or ability. So how can you boast about something over which you have no control?

Objection: Guidance and misguidance are also not due to our striving, as Allah says: {إنا هديناه السبيل} (Indeed, We guided him to the way) and {نهدي به من نشاء} (We guide with it whom We will).

Response: Allah has established for us an acquisition (كسب) based on action regarding guidance, as He says: {فمن شاء اتخذ إلى ربه سبيلا} (So whoever wills - let him take to his Lord a way). But regarding lineage, this is not the case.

{وما تشاءون إلا أن يشاء الله} (And you do not will except that Allah wills).

Third Subtle Point: {لتعارفوا} (that you may know one another) hints at a subtle analogy (قياس خفي). Since Allah made you into tribes for mutual recognition, and you boast when you are related to someone noble, then He created you to know your Lord. Since you are closest to Him, and He is the noblest of all beings, the most worthy thing to boast about is that connection to Him.

Fourth Subtle Point: This provides evidence that boasting is not based on lineage. Tribes exist for recognition through descent from a person. If that person is noble, boasting is valid in your view; if not, it is invalid. The nobility of the person you boast about is either through descent (الانتساب) or through acquired virtue (الاكتساب). If it is through descent, it leads to an infinite regress (الانتهاء). If it is through acquisition (like piety, knowledge, generosity, or good deeds), then the pious scholar becomes like the one whom the boaster boasts about. How, then, can one boast about a father or grandfather when someone else has attained a fortune and goodness that surpasses that father and grandfather?

The only exception might be claiming descent from the Messenger of Allah (PBUH). No one can approach the Prophet in virtue to say, "I am like your father." However, regarding this lineage, the Prophet (PBUH) established honor for those who claim connection through acquisition, and negated it for those who sought honor through mere descent. He said: "We, the company of Prophets, do not bequeath [worldly inheritance]." And he said: "The scholars are the heirs of the Prophets," meaning inheritance is through acquisition, not mere descent.

Anecdote: I heard that some Sayyids in Khurasan were the closest in lineage to Ali (RA), yet one of them was a known transgressor (فاسق). Nearby lived a black freedman (مولى أسود) who excelled in knowledge and action, and people flocked to seek his blessings. One day, as the Sayyid left his house heading to the mosque, a crowd followed him. The Sayyid, drunk, confronted the scholar. The people tried to drive the Sayyid away, but he clung to the Sheikh’s robes, shouting: "O black-hoofed and black-bearded one! O disbeliever, son of a disbeliever! I am the son of the Messenger of Allah!" The people began to beat him. The Sheikh stopped them, saying: "No, this is tolerable from him because of his ancestor, and his beating is counted against his own sins. But O noble Sayyid, I have whitened my inside while you have blackened your inside. People see the whiteness of my heart above the blackness of my face, and they praise me. I followed the path of your ancestor, and you followed the path of your father. People treated me as they would treat your ancestor, and they treated you as they would treat your father. So they did to you what they do to your father, and they did to me what they do to my father."

This has two interpretations:

1. First Meaning (More Common): Whoever is more pious (أتقى) is more honored by Allah (أكرم). Piety brings honor.
2. Second Meaning (More Apparent): Whoever is more honored by Allah is more pious. Honor leads to piety.

The first interpretation is more common. It is like saying, "The sweetest foods are the most delicious," meaning sweetness is the measure of deliciousness, not the reverse. This establishes that piety precedes all virtues.

Objection: Piety is an action, and knowledge is nobler. The Prophet (PBUH) said: "One jurist is harder on Satan than a thousand worshippers."

Response: Piety is the fruit of knowledge. Allah says: {إنما يخشى الله من عباده العلماء} (Indeed, only those of His servants who have knowledge fear Allah). Thus, there is no piety except for the knowledgeable person. The pious person is the one whose knowledge is complete. The scholar who lacks piety is like a tree without fruit; the fruitful tree is nobler than the barren one, which is mere firewood. Similarly, the scholar who lacks piety is fuel for Hellfire. As for the worshipper whom Allah prefers over the jurist, that worshipper lacks knowledge, and thus lacks a complete measure of the fear of Allah. Perhaps he worships out of fear of the Fire (like one working for wages) or for entry into Paradise. But the truly pious person (المتقي) is the one who knows Allah and remains devoted at His door, residing near His presence.

First Discussion (Mabaḥth)

Objection: The address is to all people (الناس), and "the most noble" implies that all share in honor, yet the disbeliever has no honor, being worse than cattle and more despised than vermin.

Response: This is not necessarily true, even though it seems so. Allah says: {ولقد كرمنا بني آدم} (And We have certainly honored the children of Adam) (Al-Isra: 70). Every created being has acknowledged their Lord. It is as if Allah is saying: Whoever persists in this acknowledgment has his honor increased; whoever turns away has the effect of that honor removed.

Second Discussion (Mabaḥth)

Question: What is the limit of piety, and who is the most pious?

Answer: The minimum level of piety is that the servant avoids prohibitions (المناهي) and performs obligations (الأوامر), finding security only in fulfilling them. If he commits a prohibition, he does not feel secure or rely on respite; rather, he follows it up with a good deed and shows remorse and repentance. Whoever commits a prohibition, does not repent immediately, relies on future respite, and is prevented from reflection by excessive hope (طول الأمل), is not pious.

The most pious (الأتقى) is one who performs what is commanded and avoids what is forbidden, and furthermore, he fears his Lord, unconcerned with anything other than Allah. Allah then illuminates his heart. If he momentarily turns his attention to himself or his children, he considers that a sin. The former group (الأولين) achieves salvation (ثم ننجى الذين اتقوا), while the latter group (الآخرين) is destined for Paradise (إن أكرمكم عند الله أتقاكم). There is a vast difference between one to whom the Sultan grants a garden and settles him therein, and one whom the Sultan selects for himself, who benefits daily from proximity to the Sultan's gardens and estates.

This means: Allah is Knowing (عليم) of your external affairs, knowing your lineages, and Acquainted (خبير) with your internal states; your secrets are not hidden from Him. Therefore, make piety your action and increase in piety as He has increased you.

Surah Al-Hujurat (49): Verse 14

قالت الأعراب آمنا قل لم تؤمنوا ولكن قولوا أسلمنا ولما يدخل الإيمان في قلوبكم وإن تطيعوا الله ورسوله لا يلتكم من أعمالكم شيئًا إن الله غفور رحيم