Tafsīr al-Qurṭubī Vol. 2 Juz’ 2: Sūrat al-Baqarah 142 – 253 Tafsīr al-Qurṭubī The General Judgments of the Qur’an and Clarification of what it contains of the Sunnah and Āyahs of Discrimination Vol. 2 Juz’ 2: Sūrat al-Baqarah 142 – 253 Abū ‘Abdullāh Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad ibn Abī Bakr ibn Farḥ al-Anṣārī al- Khazrajī al-Andalusī al-Qurṭubī translated by Aisha Bewley © Aisha Bewley Published by: Diwan Press Ltd. Website: www.diwanpress.com E-mail: [email protected] All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in any retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the prior permission of the publishers. By: Abu ‘Abdullah Muhammad ibn Ahmad al-Qurtubi Translated by: Aisha Abdarrahman Bewley Edited by: Abdalhaqq Bewley A catalogue record of this book is available from the British Library. ISBN13: 978-1-908892-75-1 (Paperback) 978-1-908892-76-8 (Casebound) 978-1-908892-74-4 (Hardback) 978-1-908892-77-5 (ePub & Kindle) C ONTENTS Translator’s note vii 2. Sūrat al-Baqarah – The Cow 142 – 253 1 Table of Contents for Āyats 465 Glossary 468 T ’ RANSLATOR S NOTE The Arabic for the āyats is from the Algerian State edition of the riwāyah of Imam Warsh from the qirā’ah of Imam Nāfi‘ of Madina, whose recitation is one of the ten mutawātir recitations that are mass-transmitted from the time of the Prophet g. There are minor omissions in the text. Some poems have been omitted which the author quotes to illustrate a point of grammatical usage or as an example of orthography or the usage of a word, often a derivative of the root of the word used in the āyah, but not the actual word used. Often it is difficult to convey the sense in English. Occasionally the author explores a grammatical matter or a tangential issue, and some of these may have been shortened. English grammatical terms used to translate Arabic grammatical terms do not have exactly the same meaning, sometimes rendering a precise translation of them problematic and often obscure. The end of a juz’ may vary by an āyah or two in order to preserve relevant passages. 2. S -B – T C 142 – ŪRAT AL AQARAH HE OW 253 142 The fools among the people will ask, ‘What has made them turn round from the direction they used to face?’ Say, ‘Both East and West belong to Allah. He guides whoever He wills to a straight path.’ The fools among the people will ask, Allah Almighty is giving advance warning of what some people are going to say about the believers changing the direction they face in prayer from Syria to the Ka‘bah. The word ‘fools’ is qualified by ‘people’ because foolishness is also found in animals. The fools are those who say this. A fool (safīh) is someone with a poor intellect. A garment which is safīh, the root from which the word comes, is loosely woven. Quṭrub says that they are ignorant wrongdoers. This refers to the Jews in Madīnah, as Mujāhid says. As-Suddī said that it refers to the hypocrites and az-Zajjāj says that it means the unbelievers of Quraysh when they objected to the change of qiblah. They said, ‘Muḥammad yearns for his homeland and will soon revert to your religion.’ The Jews said, ‘He is confused about the business.’ The hypocrites said, ‘What has made them turn around from their qiblah?’ to mock the Muslims. ‘What has made them turn round from the direction they used to face?’ The imams report that Ibn ‘Umar said, ‘While people were at Qubā’ performing the Ṣubḥ prayer, someone came to them and said, “The Messenger of Allah f received Revelation in the night and he has been commanded to face the Ka‘bah.” They were facing Syria and immediately turned right round to face the Ka‘bah.’ Al-Bukhārī transmitted from al- Barā‘ that the Prophet f was praying towards Jerusalem for sixteen or seventeen months. He wanted his qiblah to be towards the Ka‘bah. The first prayer he prayed towards it was ‘Aṣr and people prayed it with him. A man who had prayed with the Prophet f left and passed by the people of another mosque who were in rukū‘. He said, ‘I testify by Allah that I prayed with the Prophet f towards Makkah.’ So they turned round so that they were facing the House. There were men who had died while they were facing the old qiblah before the change to the House and they did not know what to say about them. So Allah Almighty revealed: ‘Allah would never let your faith go to waste.’ (2:143) This transmission mentions the ‘Aṣr prayer whereas the transmission of Mālik mentioned the Ṣubḥ prayer. It is also said that it was revealed while the Prophet f was in the mosque of the Banū Salamah performing Ẓuhr and he changed qiblah after two rak‘ahs of it. For that reason, it was called the Mosque of the Two Qiblahs. In at-Tamhīd, Abū ‘Umar mentioned from Nuwaylah bint Aslam, one of the women who gave allegiance: ‘We were performing the Ẓuhr prayer when ‘Abbād ibn Bishr ibn Qayẓī came and said, “The Messenger of Allah f has faced the qiblah (or ‘the Sacred House’), so the men moved to where the women were and the women moved to where the men were.”’ It is also said that the āyah was revealed about other than the prayer, and that is more common. ‘Aṣr was the first prayer towards the qiblah. Allah knows best. It is related that the first to pray towards the Ka‘bah, when the qiblah was changed from Jerusalem, was Abū Sa‘īd ibn al-Mu‘allā. That was when he was passing through the mosque and heard the Messenger of Allah f telling people to change the qiblah, reciting this āyah while he was on the minbar: ‘We have seen you looking up into heaven…’ (2:144) He told his companion, ‘Come and let us pray two rak‘ahs before the Messenger of Allah f comes down! Then we will be the first to pray and we will be covered in blessings.’ They prayed them and then the Messenger of Allah f descended and led the people in Ẓuhr. There is disagreement about the length of time the Prophet f was in Madīnah before the qiblah was changed. It is said that it was changed after sixteen or seventeen months, as we find in al-Bukhārī. Ad-Dāraquṭnī also reported that al-Barā’ said, ‘We prayed with the Messenger of Allah f after he came to Madīnah towards Jerusalem for sixteen months. Then Allah informed the Prophet that He was aware of his desire to change qiblah and the Revelation came: “We have seen you looking into the heaven, turning this way and that.” (2:144) It was sixteen months without doubt.’ Mālik related from Yaḥyā ibn Sa‘īd that Sa‘īd ibn al-Musayyab said that the qiblah was changed two months before Badr. Ibrāhīm ibn lsḥāq said that was in Rajab, 2 AH. Al-Bustī said, ‘The Muslims prayed towards Jerusalem for seventeen months and three days. He came to Madīnah on Monday, 15 Rabī‘ al-Awwal, and Allah commanded him to face the Ka‘bah on Tuesday, 15 Sha‘bān the following year.’ Scholars are of three different opinions concerning the reason why the Prophet f faced Jerusalem. Al-Ḥasan said, ‘It was by opinion and ijtihād.’ ‘Ikrimah and Abū al-‘Āliyah agreed with that view. The second opinion is that he had a choice between it and the Ka‘bah and chose Jerusalem because he wanted the Jews to believe. Aṭ-Ṭabarī said that. Az-Zajjāj said that it was to test the idolaters because they were used to the Ka‘bah. The third opinion and the one which the majority hold – Ibn ‘Abbās and others – is that he was obliged to face it by the command of Allah and Revelation from Him. Then Allah abrogated that and commanded him to face the Ka‘bah in the prayer. They cite as evidence: ‘We only appointed the direction you used to face in order to distinguish those who follow the Messenger from those who turn round on their heels.’ (2:143) There is also disagreement about when the prayer was first made obligatory for him at Makkah and whether the qiblah was then towards Jerusalem or the Ka‘bah. There are two positions. One group say that it was towards Jerusalem and remained that way in Madīnah for seventeen months and then Allah changed it to the Ka‘bah. Ibn ‘Abbās said that. Others say