Tafsir of At-Tawbah 9:70

Surah At-Tawbah (9): Verse 70

[9:70] Has there not come to them the news of those before them...

Know that when the Almighty likened the hypocrites to the disbelievers of the past—in their desire for this world, their denial of the Prophets, and their extreme persecution of them—He then mentioned those past disbelievers. He enumerated these six groups:

1. The people of Noah: whom God destroyed by drowning.
2. ‘Ad: whom God destroyed by sending the sterile wind upon them.
3. Thamud: whom God destroyed by sending the Shout (ṣayḥa) and the thunderbolt.
4. The people of Abraham: whom God destroyed by withdrawing blessings from them. It is narrated that God unleashed the mosquito upon the brain of Nimrod.
5. The people of Shu‘ayb (the people of Midian): It is said they were descendants of Midian, son of Abraham. God destroyed them with the punishment of the Day of the Canopy (yawm aẓ-ẓulla).
6. The overthrown cities (al-mu’tafikāt): These were the people of Lot, whom God destroyed by turning the high ground of their land into the low ground, and raining stones upon them.

Al-Wāḥidī said: {The overthrown} (al-mu’tafikāt) is the plural of mu’tafikah. The linguistic meaning of i’tifāk is inversion or turning over. Those towns were overturned along with their inhabitants, meaning their upper parts became their lower parts. It is said: Afakahu fa-inta’aka (He turned it over, so it was overturned). According to this interpretation, al-mu’tafikāt is an adjective describing the towns. Another view is that their overturning (i’tifāk) refers to the inversion of their conditions from good to evil.

Know that in the first verse, the Almighty said: {The losers. Has there not come to them the news of those before them?} He mentioned these six groups because the news concerning them reached the hypocrites in two ways: either by hearing these accounts from people, or because the lands of these groups (the Levant) were close to the lands of the Arabs, and their ruins remained visible.

The phrase {Has there not come to them} (alam ya’tihim), although phrased as a question, carries the meaning of reproach/affirmation (taqrīr); meaning, the news of these peoples did come to them.

Then He said: {Their messengers came to them} (ātathum rusuluhum), which refers back to all these groups.

Then He said: {with clear proofs} (bil-bayyināt), meaning with miracles. There must be an implied clause in the speech, meaning: So they denied [the messengers], and God hastened their destruction.

Then He said: {And Allah would not have wronged them, but it was they who wronged themselves} (fa-mā kāna Allāhu li-yaẓlimahum wa-lākin kānū anfusahum yaẓlimūn).

The meaning is that the punishment God inflicted upon them was not an injustice from God, because they deserved it due to their ugly deeds and their extreme denial of their messengers. Rather, it was they who wronged themselves.

The Mu'tazila argued: This verse proves that it is impossible for the Almighty to commit an act of injustice, otherwise, praising Him for not being unjust would not be appropriate. This indicates that He never wrongs anyone. This, in turn, proves that God does not create disbelief in the disbeliever and then punish him for it. It also proves that the doer of injustice is the servant, as stated in {but it was they who wronged themselves}. This discussion has been mentioned repeatedly in this book beyond count.

{And the believing men and believing women are allies of one another. They enjoin what is right and forbid what is wrong and establish prayer and give zakāh and obey Allah and His Messenger. Those—Allah will have mercy upon them. Indeed, Allah is Exalted in Might and Wise.}