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Sūrah 6 · Āyāt 111129

The verses

  1. 111

    ۞ وَلَوْ أَنَّنَا نَزَّلْنَآ إِلَيْهِمُ ٱلْمَلَٰٓئِكَةَ وَكَلَّمَهُمُ ٱلْمَوْتَىٰ وَحَشَرْنَا عَلَيْهِمْ كُلَّ شَىْءٍۢ قُبُلًۭا مَّا كَانُوا۟ لِيُؤْمِنُوٓا۟ إِلَّآ أَن يَشَآءَ ٱللَّهُ وَلَٰكِنَّ أَكْثَرَهُمْ يَجْهَلُونَ

    Even if We had sent down angels to them, and the dead had spoken to them, and We had gathered before them all things manifestly, they would [still] not believe unless Allah wished. But most of them are ignorant.

  2. 112

    وَكَذَٰلِكَ جَعَلْنَا لِكُلِّ نَبِىٍّ عَدُوًّۭا شَيَٰطِينَ ٱلْإِنسِ وَٱلْجِنِّ يُوحِى بَعْضُهُمْ إِلَىٰ بَعْضٍۢ زُخْرُفَ ٱلْقَوْلِ غُرُورًۭا ۚ وَلَوْ شَآءَ رَبُّكَ مَا فَعَلُوهُ ۖ فَذَرْهُمْ وَمَا يَفْتَرُونَ

    That is how for every prophet We appointed as enemy the devils from among humans and jinn, who inspire each other with flashy words, deceptively. Had your Lord wished, they would not have done it. So leave them with what they fabricate,

  3. 113

    وَلِتَصْغَىٰٓ إِلَيْهِ أَفْـِٔدَةُ ٱلَّذِينَ لَا يُؤْمِنُونَ بِٱلْءَاخِرَةِ وَلِيَرْضَوْهُ وَلِيَقْتَرِفُوا۟ مَا هُم مُّقْتَرِفُونَ

    so that toward it may incline the hearts of those who do not believe in the Hereafter, and so that they may be pleased with it and commit what they commit.

  4. 114

    أَفَغَيْرَ ٱللَّهِ أَبْتَغِى حَكَمًۭا وَهُوَ ٱلَّذِىٓ أَنزَلَ إِلَيْكُمُ ٱلْكِتَٰبَ مُفَصَّلًۭا ۚ وَٱلَّذِينَ ءَاتَيْنَٰهُمُ ٱلْكِتَٰبَ يَعْلَمُونَ أَنَّهُۥ مُنَزَّلٌۭ مِّن رَّبِّكَ بِٱلْحَقِّ ۖ فَلَا تَكُونَنَّ مِنَ ٱلْمُمْتَرِينَ

    [Say,] ‘Shall I seek a judge other than Allah, while it is He who has sent down to you the Book, well-elaborated?’ Those whom We have given the Book know that it has been sent down from your Lord with the truth; so do not be one of the skeptics.

  5. 115

    وَتَمَّتْ كَلِمَتُ رَبِّكَ صِدْقًۭا وَعَدْلًۭا ۚ لَّا مُبَدِّلَ لِكَلِمَٰتِهِۦ ۚ وَهُوَ ٱلسَّمِيعُ ٱلْعَلِيمُ

    The word of your Lord has been fulfilled in truth and justice. Nothing can change His words, and He is the All-hearing, the All-knowing.

  6. 116

    وَإِن تُطِعْ أَكْثَرَ مَن فِى ٱلْأَرْضِ يُضِلُّوكَ عَن سَبِيلِ ٱللَّهِ ۚ إِن يَتَّبِعُونَ إِلَّا ٱلظَّنَّ وَإِنْ هُمْ إِلَّا يَخْرُصُونَ

    If you obey most of those on the earth, they will lead you astray from the way of Allah. They follow nothing but conjectures and they do nothing but surmise.

  7. 117

    إِنَّ رَبَّكَ هُوَ أَعْلَمُ مَن يَضِلُّ عَن سَبِيلِهِۦ ۖ وَهُوَ أَعْلَمُ بِٱلْمُهْتَدِينَ

    Indeed your Lord knows best those who stray from His way; and He knows best those who are guided.

  8. 118

    فَكُلُوا۟ مِمَّا ذُكِرَ ٱسْمُ ٱللَّهِ عَلَيْهِ إِن كُنتُم بِـَٔايَٰتِهِۦ مُؤْمِنِينَ

    Eat from that over which Allah’s Name has been mentioned, if you are believers in His signs.

  9. 119

    وَمَا لَكُمْ أَلَّا تَأْكُلُوا۟ مِمَّا ذُكِرَ ٱسْمُ ٱللَّهِ عَلَيْهِ وَقَدْ فَصَّلَ لَكُم مَّا حَرَّمَ عَلَيْكُمْ إِلَّا مَا ٱضْطُرِرْتُمْ إِلَيْهِ ۗ وَإِنَّ كَثِيرًۭا لَّيُضِلُّونَ بِأَهْوَآئِهِم بِغَيْرِ عِلْمٍ ۗ إِنَّ رَبَّكَ هُوَ أَعْلَمُ بِٱلْمُعْتَدِينَ

    Why should you not eat that over which Allah’s Name has been mentioned, while He has already elaborated for you whatever He has forbidden you, excepting what you may be compelled to [eat in an emergency]? Indeed many mislead [others] by their fancies, without any knowledge. Indeed your Lord knows best the transgressors.

  10. 120

    وَذَرُوا۟ ظَٰهِرَ ٱلْإِثْمِ وَبَاطِنَهُۥٓ ۚ إِنَّ ٱلَّذِينَ يَكْسِبُونَ ٱلْإِثْمَ سَيُجْزَوْنَ بِمَا كَانُوا۟ يَقْتَرِفُونَ

    Renounce outward sins and the inward ones. Indeed those who commit sins shall be requited for what they used to commit.

  11. 121

    وَلَا تَأْكُلُوا۟ مِمَّا لَمْ يُذْكَرِ ٱسْمُ ٱللَّهِ عَلَيْهِ وَإِنَّهُۥ لَفِسْقٌۭ ۗ وَإِنَّ ٱلشَّيَٰطِينَ لَيُوحُونَ إِلَىٰٓ أَوْلِيَآئِهِمْ لِيُجَٰدِلُوكُمْ ۖ وَإِنْ أَطَعْتُمُوهُمْ إِنَّكُمْ لَمُشْرِكُونَ

    Do not eat [anything] of that over which Allah’s Name has not been mentioned, and that is indeed transgression. Indeed the satans inspire their friends to dispute with you; and if you obey them, you will indeed be polytheists.

  12. 122

    أَوَمَن كَانَ مَيْتًۭا فَأَحْيَيْنَٰهُ وَجَعَلْنَا لَهُۥ نُورًۭا يَمْشِى بِهِۦ فِى ٱلنَّاسِ كَمَن مَّثَلُهُۥ فِى ٱلظُّلُمَٰتِ لَيْسَ بِخَارِجٍۢ مِّنْهَا ۚ كَذَٰلِكَ زُيِّنَ لِلْكَٰفِرِينَ مَا كَانُوا۟ يَعْمَلُونَ

    Is he who was lifeless, then We gave him life and provided him with a light by which he walks among the people, like one who dwells in a manifold darkness which he cannot leave? To the faithless is thus presented as decorous what they have been doing.

  13. 123

    وَكَذَٰلِكَ جَعَلْنَا فِى كُلِّ قَرْيَةٍ أَكَٰبِرَ مُجْرِمِيهَا لِيَمْكُرُوا۟ فِيهَا ۖ وَمَا يَمْكُرُونَ إِلَّا بِأَنفُسِهِمْ وَمَا يَشْعُرُونَ

    Thus have We installed in every town its major criminals that they may plot therein. Yet they do not plot except against their own souls, but they are not aware.

  14. 124

    وَإِذَا جَآءَتْهُمْ ءَايَةٌۭ قَالُوا۟ لَن نُّؤْمِنَ حَتَّىٰ نُؤْتَىٰ مِثْلَ مَآ أُوتِىَ رُسُلُ ٱللَّهِ ۘ ٱللَّهُ أَعْلَمُ حَيْثُ يَجْعَلُ رِسَالَتَهُۥ ۗ سَيُصِيبُ ٱلَّذِينَ أَجْرَمُوا۟ صَغَارٌ عِندَ ٱللَّهِ وَعَذَابٌۭ شَدِيدٌۢ بِمَا كَانُوا۟ يَمْكُرُونَ

    When a sign comes to them, they say, ‘We will not believe until we are given the like of what was given to Allah’s apostles.’ Allah knows best where to place His apostleship! Soon the guilty will be visited by a degradation and severe punishment from Allah because of the plots they used to devise.

  15. 125

    فَمَن يُرِدِ ٱللَّهُ أَن يَهْدِيَهُۥ يَشْرَحْ صَدْرَهُۥ لِلْإِسْلَٰمِ ۖ وَمَن يُرِدْ أَن يُضِلَّهُۥ يَجْعَلْ صَدْرَهُۥ ضَيِّقًا حَرَجًۭا كَأَنَّمَا يَصَّعَّدُ فِى ٱلسَّمَآءِ ۚ كَذَٰلِكَ يَجْعَلُ ٱللَّهُ ٱلرِّجْسَ عَلَى ٱلَّذِينَ لَا يُؤْمِنُونَ

    Whomever Allah desires to guide, He opens his breast to Islam, and whomever He desires to lead astray, He makes his breast narrow and straitened as if he were climbing to a height. Thus does Allah lay [spiritual] defilement on those who do not have faith.

  16. 126

    وَهَٰذَا صِرَٰطُ رَبِّكَ مُسْتَقِيمًۭا ۗ قَدْ فَصَّلْنَا ٱلْءَايَٰتِ لِقَوْمٍۢ يَذَّكَّرُونَ

    This is the straight path of your Lord. We have already elaborated the signs for a people who take admonition.

  17. 127

    ۞ لَهُمْ دَارُ ٱلسَّلَٰمِ عِندَ رَبِّهِمْ ۖ وَهُوَ وَلِيُّهُم بِمَا كَانُوا۟ يَعْمَلُونَ

    For them shall be the abode of peace near their Lord and He will be their guardian because of what they used to do.

  18. 128

    وَيَوْمَ يَحْشُرُهُمْ جَمِيعًۭا يَٰمَعْشَرَ ٱلْجِنِّ قَدِ ٱسْتَكْثَرْتُم مِّنَ ٱلْإِنسِ ۖ وَقَالَ أَوْلِيَآؤُهُم مِّنَ ٱلْإِنسِ رَبَّنَا ٱسْتَمْتَعَ بَعْضُنَا بِبَعْضٍۢ وَبَلَغْنَآ أَجَلَنَا ٱلَّذِىٓ أَجَّلْتَ لَنَا ۚ قَالَ ٱلنَّارُ مَثْوَىٰكُمْ خَٰلِدِينَ فِيهَآ إِلَّا مَا شَآءَ ٱللَّهُ ۗ إِنَّ رَبَّكَ حَكِيمٌ عَلِيمٌۭ

    On the day He will gather them all together, [He will say], ‘O company of jinn! You claimed many of the humans.’ Their friends from among the humans will say, ‘Our Lord, we used each other, and we completed our term which You had appointed for us.’ He will say, ‘The Fire is your abode, to remain in it [forever], except what Allah may wish.’ Indeed your Lord is all-wise, all-knowing.

  19. 129

    وَكَذَٰلِكَ نُوَلِّى بَعْضَ ٱلظَّٰلِمِينَ بَعْضًۢا بِمَا كَانُوا۟ يَكْسِبُونَ

    That is how We make the wrongdoers one another’s friends because of what they used to earn.

English translation: Ali Quli Qarai

✦ Synthesisopus-4.8every claim cited to a source below

Synthesis: Sūrat al-Anʿām 6:111–129 (Six-Source Tafsīr Triangulation)

Sources present: Ṭabarsī, Majmaʿ al-Bayān [tabarsi_majma_al_bayan]; Ṭūsī, al-Tibyān [tusi_al_tibyan]; Baḥrānī, al-Burhān [bahrani_al_burhan]; al-Qummī [qummi]; Ṭabāṭabāʾī, al-Mīzān [tabatabai_al_mizan]; An Enlightening Commentary [enlightening_commentary]. All six present.

The passage consoles the Prophet by setting his opponents within a pattern — every prophet faced human and jinn "devils" of gilded speech (6:111–113) — then turns to the sufficiency of God's revealed word as judge (6:114–116), the dietary law of the divine name (6:118–121), the contrast of the living believer and the dead unbeliever (6:122–124), and God's expanding or constricting the breast, ending with the gathering of jinn and men (6:125–129).

Convergence

1. Enemies of every prophet (6:112). All read this as consolation: every prophet had adversaries. [tabarsi_majma_al_bayan] and [tusi_al_tibyan] expound that God "appointed" them only by leaving them to their chosen enmity, not by compulsion, and identify the "devils of men and jinn." [bahrani_al_burhan] and [qummi] add the distinctive tradition naming two satans for each prophet (for Muḥammad, Ḥabtar and Zurayq), and [tabatabai_al_mizan] reads the inspiration (waḥy) of "gilded speech" as the natural suggestion of falsehood.

2. The complete word and conjecture (6:115–116). [tabarsi_majma_al_bayan] and [tusi_al_tibyan] read "the word of your Lord is fulfilled in truth and justice" of the unchangeable promise and command, and 6:116 as the rule that truth is weighed by evidence, not numbers (with ʿAlī's maxim to al-Ḥārith). [bahrani_al_burhan] and [qummi] uniquely apply 6:115 to the Imam — the verse written on his arm at his creation — and read 6:116's "they mislead you" as confusion about the Imam.

3. The dietary law of the Name (6:118–121). All four Arabic sources treat the obligation of the tasmiya at slaughter, the prohibition of the unnamed and of the polytheists' carrion, and the rule of necessity. [bahrani_al_burhan] supplies the detailed jurisprudence (the Magians, the woman or boy who slaughters, forgetting the name, the nāṣib's slaughter), while [tabatabai_al_mizan] and [enlightening_commentary] dwell on the rationale of distinguishing the lawful from the unlawful.

4. The living and the dead (6:122). All read the contrast as faith versus unbelief. [tabarsi_majma_al_bayan] and [tusi_al_tibyan] gloss the "light" as knowledge, the Qurʾān, or faith; [bahrani_al_burhan] and [qummi] read it through al-Bāqir as the Imam and his walāya, the "darknesses" being the walāya of other than the Imams.

5. The breast expanded or constricted (6:125). [tabarsi_majma_al_bayan] and [tusi_al_tibyan] insist the expansion is a reward and the constriction a recompense for unbelief, not a barring from faith — citing the Prophetic report on the "light cast in the heart." [bahrani_al_burhan] supplies the parallel narrations (the white and black points, the heart's restlessness, the definitions of ḍīq and ḥaraj) and [qummi] the image of the hemmed-in tree.

Distinctive contributions

[bahrani_al_burhan] alone carries the long birth-of-the-Imam cluster (the angel Ḥaywān, the draught from beneath the Throne, the pillar of light) and the tafwīḍ narration; [qummi] uniquely names the satan-pairs in compact form and concentrates the walāya readings. [tabatabai_al_mizan] frames the passage around free will and the meaning of "appointing enemies," and [enlightening_commentary] supplies the running prose on the prophets' trials and the dietary law. The classical pair [tabarsi_majma_al_bayan] and [tusi_al_tibyan] carry the qirāʾāt, the kalām on the originated divine will, and the proof that numbers do not establish truth. No source is silent for this passage.

The tafsīr (6 sources)