ﲝ ﲞ ﲟ ﲠ ﲡ ﲢ ﲣ ﲤ ﲥ ﲦ ﲧ ﲨ ﲩ ﲪ ﲫ ﲬ ﲭ ﲮ ﲯ ﲰ ﲱ ﲲ
O you who have believed, fear Allah and believe in His Messenger; He will [then] give you a double portion of His mercy and make for you a light by which you will walk and forgive you; and Allah is Forgiving and Merciful.
Tafsir
Verse range: 57:28
[57:28] O you who have believed, fear Allah and believe in His Messenger. He will give you a double portion of His mercy and will make for you a light by which you will walk, and He will forgive you. And Allah is Forgiving and Merciful.
It is important to note that when Allah said in the first verse: {Then We caused Our messengers to follow in their footsteps} (Al-Hadid: 27), referring to the successors of the people of Jesus, He then said in this verse: {That is so those who disbelieve}—referring to the People of the Book who have not yet believed in Muhammad (peace be upon him)—{will know} that they have no claim. Therefore, He commanded them to fear Allah and believe in Muhammad (peace be upon him).
Then He said: {He will give you a double portion (kaflayn) of His mercy}. This means two shares of His mercy: one for their initial faith in Jesus, and a second for their faith in Muhammad (peace be upon him). This is similar to His saying: {Those will be given their reward twice} (Al-Qasas: 54).
Ibn Abbas narrated that this verse was revealed concerning a group from Yemen, who were People of the Book, who came to the Messenger (PBUH) and embraced Islam, so Allah granted them a double reward.
Here are two questions regarding this:
Answer: Al-Mu'arraj said that al-Kifl means a share or portion according to the dialect of the Huthayl tribe. Others said it is a word from the Abyssinian (Ethiopian) language. Al-Mufaddal ibn Salmah said that al-Kifl is a piece of cloth that a rider wraps around the hump of a camel to secure his seat upon it.
Answer: It is narrated that the People of the Book boasted to the Muslims on this basis, but this narration is weak. This is because it is not impossible that a single portion (kifl) might be greater in value than two portions (kaflayn). If wealth is divided into two halves, one kifl is half. If it is divided into one hundred parts, one kifl is one-hundredth of the whole. Thus, the single portion from the first division is greater than twenty portions from the second division. The same principle applies here.
Then Allah Almighty said: {And He will make for you a light by which you will walk}—this refers to the Light mentioned in His saying: {Their light running forward before them} (Al-Hadid: 12)—{and He will forgive you}—the sins you committed previously—{And Allah is Forgiving and Merciful}.
[57:29] That the People of the Book may know that they are not able to [even] control anything of the bounty of Allah, and that the bounty is in the hand of Allah; He gives it to whomever He wills. And Allah is the Owner of great bounty.
