Tafsir of Al-Anfal 8:31-34

{ لو نشاء لقلنا مثل هاذا } This is a boastful claim and arrogance from them, like one who thunders without rain. They would not have hesitated to produce the like if they had the ability. If they were capable, what prevented them from willing to overcome the one who challenged them and shamed them with their inability? They desired to win the highest prize in this matter, especially given their extreme pride and refusal to be defeated in the field of eloquence, and their disdain for being matched by a single man. They used the "impossibility of will" as an excuse, despite their well-known and sun-bright eagerness to conquer the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) and their desperate desire to overwhelm him.

{ إن كان هاذا هو الحق } This is a highly eloquent form of denial. He means: "If the Quran is the truth, then punish us for denying it with *Sijjil* (baked clay), as You did with the People of the Elephant, or with another torment." His intent is to negate that it is the truth. If it is not the truth, its denier deserves no punishment. Thus, linking the punishment to it being the truth—while believing it is not—is like linking it to an impossibility, as in your saying: "If falsehood is truth, then rain stones upon us." His saying "is the truth" is a mockery of those who say, by way of specification and designation: "This is the truth."

{ فأمطر علينا حجارة من السماء } It is said: "The sky rained" (*amtarat*), just as you say "it starred" (*anjamat*) or "it poured" (*asbalat*). "It rained" (*matarat*) is like saying "it drizzled" (*hatanat*). Rain is frequently used in the context of punishment. If you ask: "What is the benefit of saying 'from the sky' when rain only comes from there?" I say: It is as if he wants to say, "Rain upon us the *Sijjil*," which are the stones marked for punishment. He replaced "Sijjil" with "stones from the sky," just as you might say, "Pour upon him a woven thing of iron," meaning a coat of mail.

{ بعذاب أليم } Meaning: with another type of painful torment. He implies that the rain of *Sijjil* is only one part of the painful torment, so punish us with it or with another of its types.

{ وما كان الله ليعذبهم وأنت فيهم } The *lam* (in *li-yu'adhibahum*) is for emphasizing the negation and indicating that punishing them while you are among them is not consistent with wisdom. It is Allah’s custom and the requirement of His wisdom not to punish a people with total annihilation as long as their Prophet is among them. This contains an intimation that they are marked for punishment once he migrates away from them. The evidence for this intimation is His saying: { وما لهم ألا يعذبهم الله }.

{ وهم يستغفرون } This is in the position of a state (*hal*). Its meaning is to negate the existence of repentance from them: i.e., if they were among those who believe and seek forgiveness for their disbelief, He would not have punished them, as in His saying: { And your Lord would not destroy the cities unjustly while their people were reformers } (Hud: 117). But they do not believe, nor do they seek forgiveness, nor is that expected of them. It is also said that it means: Allah would not punish them while there are those among them who seek forgiveness—the Muslims who remained among them, such as the oppressed ones who stayed behind from the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ).

{ وما لهم ألا يعذبهم الله } What share do they have in the negation of punishment? Meaning: They have no portion in that, and they are inevitably to be punished. How could they not be punished when their state is that they obstruct access to the Sacred Mosque, just as they obstructed the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) in the year of Hudaybiyyah, and their expulsion of the Messenger and the believers from the sanctuary? They used to say: "We are the guardians of the House and the Sanctuary, so we obstruct whom we wish and admit whom we wish."

{ ما كانوا أولياءه } They did not deserve, with their polytheism and enmity toward the religion, to be the guardians of its affairs and its masters. { إن أولياؤه إلا المتقون } from among the Muslims. Not every Muslim is fit to manage its affairs; only the righteous and pious deserve its guardianship. How then could the disbelievers, the worshippers of idols, be so?

{ ولاكن أكثرهم لا يعلمون } It is as if He excludes those who knew but were obstinate and sought leadership. Or, by "the majority," He means "all of them," just as "the few" is sometimes used to mean "none."

{ وما كان صلاتهم عند البيت إلا مكآء وتصدية فذوقوا العذاب بما كنتم تكفرون }