Tafsir of At-Tawbah 9:109

"Is he who founded his building..."

It is read as assasa bunyānahu (active) and ussisa bunyānahu (passive).

• Usus bunyānihi: Plural of asās (foundation) by annexation.
• Asas bunyānihi: With fathah or kasrah, it is the plural of uss.
• Āsās bunyānihi: On the pattern of af‘āl, also a plural of uss.
• Uss bunyānihi: Also a plural of uss.

The meaning: Is he who founded the building of his religion upon a strong, firm foundation—which is the Truth, namely the fear of God (taqwā) and His pleasure—better, or he who founded it upon a foundation that is the weakest, loosest, and least enduring of foundations? This is falsehood and hypocrisy, which is likened to the "edge of a crumbling bank" in its lack of stability and cohesion. He placed the "edge of the bank" in opposition to taqwā because it serves as a metaphor for everything that contradicts taqwā.

If you ask: What is the meaning of His saying, "so it collapsed with him into the fire of Hell"? I say: Since the crumbling bank was made a metaphor for falsehood, it is said: "so it collapsed with him into the fire of Hell," meaning: the falsehood caused him to fall into the fire of Hell. He sustained the metaphor by using the word "collapse" (inhiyār), which belongs to the bank, to depict the person of falsehood as if he had built a structure on the edge of a cliff in the valleys of Hell, which then collapsed with him, causing him to plummet into its depths.

• Ash-shafā: The edge or brink.
• Jurf al-wādī: The side of a valley whose base is eroded by water and swept away by floods, leaving it fragile.
• Al-hār: Meaning hā’ir (crumbling), that which is cracked and on the verge of collapse and falling. Its measure is fa‘al, shortened from fā‘il, like khalaf from khālif. Its equivalent is shāk and sāt for shā’ik and sā’it. Its alif is not the alif of fā‘il; rather, it is the root letter of the word. Its origin is hawr, shawk, and sawt. You will not find speech more eloquent than this, nor anything that better indicates the reality of falsehood and the essence of its nature. It is also read as jurf with a quiescent rā’.

If you ask: What is the basis of what Sībawayh narrated from ‘Īsā ibn ‘Umar regarding "on taqwan from God" with tanwīn? I say: He treated the alif as one for attachment (ilḥāq), not for feminine gender, like tatrā for those who use tanwīn, attaching it to the pattern of ja‘far.

In the codex of Ubayy, it reads: "so its foundations collapsed with him." It is said that a spot of the Masjid al-Dirār (Mosque of Harm) was dug up, and smoke was seen emerging from it.

It is narrated that Mujammi‘ ibn Ḥārithah was their imam in the Masjid al-Dirār. During his caliphate, the Banū ‘Amr ibn ‘Awf (the people of the Qubā’ Mosque) asked ‘Umar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb to permit Mujammi‘ to lead them in prayer in their mosque. He replied: "No, and may your eyes never find joy! Is he not the imam of the Masjid al-Dirār?" Mujammi‘ said: "O Commander of the Faithful, do not be hasty with me. By God, I led them in prayer, and God knows that I did not know what they concealed within it. Had I known, I would not have prayed with them. I was a young man who recited the Quran, while they were elders who did not recite anything of the Quran." So he excused him, believed him, and ordered him to lead his people in prayer.

"The building which they built will not cease to be a cause of hypocrisy in their hearts, unless their hearts are cut into pieces. And God is Knowing, Wise."