Surah Al-Ma'idah 5:20-26 - Quran Translation Commentary

(5:20) And when Musa told his people: ‘My people! Remember the favors of Allah upon you, (such as) when He made Prophets from among you,⁷⁸ made you kings⁷⁹ and gave you what He gave no one else of the worlds.⁸⁰

(5:21) My people! Enter the holy land⁸¹ which Allah has prescribed for you,⁸² and turn not around, else you will be turning losers.'

(5:22) They said, ‘O Musa! Therein are a people of mighty strength.⁸³ We shall never enter it until they leave it. But if they leave it, then we shall enter.'⁸⁴

(5:23) Two people,⁸⁵ of those who feared Allah, and whom Allah had blessed, said, ‘Assault them at the gate. Once you are in, you will be the victors. And place your trust in Allah if you are believers.'⁸⁶

(5:24) They replied, ‘Musa! We shall not set foot in it, so long as they are there. Go forth, you and your Lord, and the two of you fight. We shall remain seated right here.'⁸⁷

(5:25) Musa said, ‘O my Lord! I have no power over anybody except myself and my brother. Therefore, judge between us and (these) wicked people.'⁸⁸

(5:26) (Allah) said, ‘Then it shall remain forbidden unto them for forty years,⁸⁹ (during which time) they shall wander in the land.⁹⁰ Therefore, grieve not for a people wicked.'⁹¹

Commentary

78. The verse implies that to be of the family of the righteous is a blessing of Allah that one must be thankful for. But, there is no room for pride and bragging (Thanwi).

79. "I.e., masters of your own selves. A "malik" is not necessarily a king. He may be anybody possessing dominion, authority, or even independence" (Majid).

Shawkani also writes on the same lines: "It has been said that since, after a long spell of slavery at the hands of Fir`awn's folk, the Israelites were led to freedom by Musa (asws) to be once again in full command of their affairs, their state of freedom was referred to as kingship."

Asad has written: "According to most of the commentators (e.g. Tabari, Zamakhshari, Razi), the "kingship" of the Israelites is a metaphorical allusion to their freedom and independence after their Egyptian bondage, the term "king" being equivalent here to "a free man who is master of his own affairs" (Manar VI, 323f.), and can, therefore, adopt any way of life he chooses."

Ibn `Abbas, Hakam, Mujahid and others have however said that whoever possesses a wife, a house and a servant is a king, and it is in this sense that the word has been used here. It is reported of `Abdullah b. `Amr that someone asked him: "Are we not the destitute Muhajirun (that the Qur'an has mentioned in 59: 8)?" He asked him: "Do you have a wife that you seek comfort with?" He said: "Yes." He asked him: "Do you have a house?" The man replied: "Yes." `Abdullah told him: "Then you are a rich man." The man said: "I have a servant too." `Abdullah replied: "Then you are a king" (Ibn Jarir, Ibn Kathir). The report is in Muslim (Qurtubi). And the Prophet has said (in a hadith of Ibn Majah: H.Ibrahim):

مَنْ أَصْبَحَ مِنْكُمْ آمِنًا فِي سِرْبِهِ مُعَافًى فِي جَسَدِهِ عِنْدَهُ قُوتُ يَوْمِهِ فَكَأَنَّمَا حِيزَتْ لَهُ الدُّنْيَا قَالَ أَبُو عِيسَى هَذَا حَدِيثٌ حَسَنٌ غَرِيبٌ

"Whoever woke up in the morning peaceful with himself, hale and hearty, and has enough provision for the day, then as if he has been given the whole of the world" (Qurtubi, Ibn Kathir).

The hadith is also in Tirmidhi and is of hasan status (S. Ibrahim).

80. Such as Mann, Salwa, shelter from the sun, water out of a rock, etc. (Ibn `Abbas, Mujahid: Ibn Jarir).

81. Yusuf Ali beautifully summarizes the background incidents as in the Bible: "We have now come to the events detailed in the 13th and 14th chapters of the Book of Numbers in the Old Testament. Read these as a Commentary, and examine a good map of the Sinai Peninsula, showing its connections with Egypt on the west, North-West Arabia on the east, and Palestine on the north-east. We may suppose that Israel crossed from Egypt into the Peninsula somewhere near the northern extremity of the Gulf of Suez. Moses organized and numbered the people, and instituted priesthood. They went south about 200 miles to Mount Sinai where the Torah was received. Then, perhaps a hundred and fifty miles north was the desert of Paran, close to the southern borders of Canaan. From the camp there, twelve men were sent to spy out the land, and they penetrated as far as Hebron, say about 150 miles north of their camp, about 20 miles south of the future Jerusalem. They saw a rich country, and brought from it pomegranates and figs and a bunch of grapes so heavy that it had to be carried by two men on a staff. They came back and reported that the land was rich, but the men there were too strong for them. The people of Israel had no courage and no faith, and Moses remonstrated with them."

82. Qatadah and Suddi have said that "kataba" of the original is in the sense of a command, i.e., "(Allah has) ordered you (to fight your way through and enter the land)" - Ibn Jarir, Ibn Kathir, Shawkani.

That is, it is in the same sense as (2: 183) "kutiba ‘alykum al-siyamu", i.e., "Fasts have been prescribed for you." Yet, other commentators have said that the allusion might be to the promise made to Ibrahim that the land of Palestine would be given to his progeny. Such a promise, however, is not to be found in the present day Torah. The best that can be got of the Torah are the words of Genesis: "Then the Lord appeared to Abram and said, ‘To your descendants I will give this land.'" (12: 7) Abram is presumably Abraham. The earlier verses are however, speaking of the land in which the Canaanites lived: people of an obscure territory who never occupied the whole of the Palestine at any time. Finally, Abraham's progeny include the Isma`lites (Au.).

83. Ibn Kathir rejects the story (in Ibn Jarir and others) as untrustworthy that reports Mujahid and Suddi as saying that the Amalekites (or Canaanites) were of such gigantic size as to reduce the Israelites to Lilliputian size. But it is possible that when the 12 chieftains brought in the reports of the impressive physical stature of the Canaanites, the Israelites blew the description out of all proportions. And those reports might have lingered among the Israelites acquiring the fairy tale status which Mujahid and Suddi were re-narrating (Au.).

Majid quotes what the Israelites had to report: ‘We will not be able to go up against the people; for they are stronger than we ... The land ... is a land that eateth up the inhabitants thereof, and all the people that we saw in it are men of a great stature. And there we saw the giants, the sons of Anak, which come of the giants; and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight' (Nu. 13: 31-33).

Majid also quotes Rawlinson from his Moses, His Life and Times: ‘The Amalekites were ... exceedingly warlike, well-armed, and fairly disciplined, having been long accustomed to hold their own against the surrounding nations, with whom they had frequent collisions.'

84. It is said that unduly scared by the reports of the chieftains, the Israelites began to moan and even to contemplate returning to Egypt (Ibn Jarir).

The Torah says: "Then all the congregation raised a loud cry; and the people wept that night. And all the people of Israel murmured against Moses and Aaron; the whole congregation said to them, "Would that we had died in the land of Egypt! Or would that we had died in this wilderness! Why does the lord bring us into this land, to fall by the sword? Our wives and our little ones will become a prey; would it not be better for us to go back to Egypt?" (Nu. 14: 1-4) - Au.

85. Ibn `Abbas, Mujahid, Suddi, and others have said that the two were: Yusha` b. Nun and Kalib b. Yuqanna (Ibn Jarir).

86. That is, prepare yourself to the best of possibility, but do not depend on the material means, rather have trust in Allah (Alusi).

The Bible confirms the remonstration of the two with their people. Majid quotes: ‘And Joshua ... and Caleb ... rent their clothes: And they spoke unto all the company of the children of Israel saying ... Only rebel not ye against the Lord, neither fear ye the people of the land; for they are bread for us; their defence is departed from them, and the Lord is with us; fear then not. But all the congregation bade stone them with stones' (Nu. 14: 6-10).

87. In contrast, when Muslims were prevented at Hudaybiyyah from entering into Makkah and perform ‘Umrah and the news spread of the murder of `Uthman's b. `Affan, the Prophet tried to ascertain the support of his Companions. Miqdad b. al-Aswad, spoke out the minds of the Ansar and Muhajirun when he said: "We do not say what the Israelites said, ‘Go, you and your Lord, and the two of you fight them. We shall remain seated right here.' Rather, we say, ‘Go, you and your Lord, and fight them. We are right with you'" (Ibn Jarir). It is widely reported, including a report in Bukhari, that Miqdad al-Aswad had replied similarly when the Prophet had sought the consent of the Ansar whether to fight or not the Makkans at Badr (Ibn Kathir).

In his usual subtle style and mild manner, Shabbir censures the Ummah al-Muslimah of today. He writes: "Keep these set of verses before you and consider the situation of the Muslim Ummah today. Allah favored this Ummah as He favored none before, and will none ever after. He raised a Messenger among them who was the Final Messenger bearing a final message. He raised up among them such scholars as, although not prophets, gave the peoples of the world lessons in morals and ways of organized life. (Just as the Israelites) this Ummah was also commanded to wage jihad, not against the Amalekites alone, rather, against all the tyrants of the world; not merely to subdue the Syrian region, rather to raise high the Word of Allah and uproot shirk from all parts of the world. The Israelites were promised the holy land. But to the Ummah the promise was (24: 55): ‘Allah promises those of you who believe and do good deeds that He shall grant them inheritance of the earth as He granted inheritance to those who went before, and shall establish the religion for them that He approves of and shall change their fear to peace...' If Allah had forbidden the Israelites from turning their backs from jihad, then He also addressed this Ummah in words (8: 15): ‘Believers! When you meet the unbelievers in a hostile encounter, do not turn away showing your backs to them.' The Israelites however said to their Prophet: "Go forth, you and your Lord, and the two of you fight (them)." But the Companions of the Prophet told him: ‘By Allah. If you ask us to rush into the waves of the oceans, we shall do that, not one of us will back out...' The result was that in a period less than that which the Israelites spent wandering in the Sinai, the followers of Muhammad pitched the flags of guidance in the East and the West: "Allah was pleased with them and they with Him. That (reward), for those who fear their Lord (98: 8)."

88. The translation of "faf-ruq" follows the interpretation of Ibn `Abbas as in Ibn Jarir (Au.).

89. Accordingly, Ibn `Abbas and Qatadah have said that none survived who was above twenty, including Musa and Harun, peace upon them. It was Yusha` b. al-Nun who was appointed a Prophet after them and it is he who led the new generation into the lands of Palestine (Ibn Jarir).

Majid writes: "The wandering lasted, according to Sir Charles Marston's computation, from 1440 to 1400 B.C."

The Torah records: ‘And the Lord said to Moses and to Aaron, "How long shall this wicked congregation murmur against me? ... Say to them, ‘As I live,' says the Lord, ‘what you have said in my hearing I will do to you; your dead bodies shall fall in the wilderness; and all of your number, numbered from twenty year old ... shall come into the land ... And your children shall be shepherd in the wilderness forty years ..." (Nu. 14: 26: 30) - (Au.)

Further, the punishment matched their insolence. The Israelites had said scornfully, ‘We shall remain seated here,' therefore, the punishment to them was that they remained where they were, unable to leave the desert and settle into a town" (Au.).

90. Here Imam Razi raises a doubt. Although the commentators have said that the Israelites wandered aimlessly in the Sinai, without finding a way out, it is not very convincing that that should have happened. Had they simply followed the sun they would have come out of the desert. Therefore, he says, it is possible that the "forbidding" of the original was a religious command, i.e., it is possible that the Israelites were banned from entering the land of Palestine.

Yet another possibility is that although the Israelites could follow the sun and march eastward, they could not be very sure of the exact point at which they would arrive without first determining the geographical location of the place they were in on any given day. After all, from the Sinai they were facing the whole of the 400 km border line of the Syrian region. And that region was divided into several petty states, each well fortified and well defended by its people - the Canaanites, Amalekites, Philistines and others - who were all well known for their ferocity.

Therefore, without being sure of the point at which they would arrive, the Israelites could not venture in any direction, without the risk of arriving at a point where they would come face to face with a hostile people that would slaughter them with little effort. Safety of the desert would have been better for a people, who were in no mood to fight for a land they thought Yahweh should have gifted them. Therefore, they had to wait until the various kingdoms broke down into fragments, with each town declaring its independence. That obviously facilitated the subjugation of the area. Town after town fell to the Israeli onslaught, as depicted in the book entitled Joshua of the Old Testament (Au.).

Muslim has a report that, according to some of the Salaf, (as stated in Qurtubi, Ibn Kathir and some others), is referring to Yusha` b. Nun. Abu Hurayrah says the Prophet (saws) said (in a hadith shortened here):

عَنْ أَبِي هُرَيْرَةَ رَضِيَ اللَّهُ عَنْهُ قَالَ قَالَ رَسُولُ اللَّهِ صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ غَزَا نَبِيٌّ مِنْ الْأَنْبِيَاءِ فَقَالَ لِقَوْمِهِ لَا يَتْبَعْنِي رَجُلٌ مَلَكَ بُضْعَ امْرَأَةٍ وَهُوَ يُرِيدُ أَنْ يَبْنِيَ بِهَا وَلَمَّا يَبْنِ بِهَا وَلَا أَحَدٌ بَنَى بُيُوتًا وَلَمْ يَرْفَعْ سُقُوفَهَا وَلَا أَحَدٌ اشْتَرَى غَنَمًا أَوْ خَلِفَاتٍ وَهُوَ يَنْتَظِرُ وِلَادَهَا فَغَزَا فَدَنَا مِنْ الْقَرْيَةِ صَلَاةَ الْعَصْرِ أَوْ قَرِيبًا مِنْ ذَلِكَ فَقَالَ لِلشَّمْسِ إِنَّكِ مَأْمُورَةٌ وَأَنَا مَأْمُورٌ اللَّهُمَّ احْبِسْهَا عَلَيْنَا فَحُبِسَتْ حَتَّى فَتَحَ اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ فَجَمَعَ الْغَنَائِمَ فَجَاءَتْ يَعْنِي النَّارَ لِتَأْكُلَهَا فَلَمْ تَطْعَمْهَا فَقَالَ إِنَّ فِيكُمْ غُلُولًا فَلْيُبَايِعْنِي مِنْ كُلِّ قَبِيلَةٍ رَجُلٌ فَلَزِقَتْ يَدُ رَجُلٍ بِيَدِهِ فَقَالَ فِيكُمْ الْغُلُولُ فَلْيُبَايِعْنِي قَبِيلَتُكَ فَلَزِقَتْ يَدُ رَجُلَيْنِ أَوْ ثَلَاثَةٍ بِيَدِهِ فَقَالَ فِيكُمْ الْغُلُولُ فَجَاءُوا بِرَأْسٍ مِثْلِ رَأْسِ بَقَرَةٍ مِنْ الذَّهَبِ فَوَضَعُوهَا فَجَاءَتْ النَّارُ فَأَكَلَتْهَا ثُمَّ أَحَلَّ اللَّهُ لَنَا الْغَنَائِمَ رَأَى ضَعْفَنَا وَعَجْزَنَا فَأَحَلَّهَا لَنَا.

"One of the Prophets went out in a campaign. He reached a town at ‘Asr time or thereabout. He addressed the sun in words, ‘You are commissioned and I am commissioned. O Allah hold it for me for a couple of hours.' Accordingly, the sun was held stationary for some time until he captured the town. Then they gathered the booty (and offered it to the heavenly fire for consumption). The fire (appeared, but) would not consume it. He said, ‘One of you is a deceiver.' Then he ordered that a representative of every tribe give his hand into his in turns. One of them stuck to his. He said, ‘The deceiver is from your tribe. Therefore, bring up everyone.' When the tribesmen placed their hands in his, in turns, two or three of them got stuck to his. He said, ‘You have deceived.' So they brought out what they had stolen of the booty. It was gold the size of a sheep's head. It was placed with the booty which was lying in the field. The fire descended and consumed it all. This is because booty was not lawful unto anyone before us. It has been made lawful to us alone because of the weakness that Allah observed in us and so made it lawful to us."

And the reason why the Prophet in question had requested delaying of the sunset is that it was a Friday. Had evening set in, they would have entered into Saturday - the day of Sabbath. They would then have had to cease fighting (Ibn Kathir). Accordingly, the commentators of the Qur'an as well as of the hadith quoted above, guess that it was an Israeli Prophet, and most likely it was Yusha`. But the hadith itself does not specify him. The story is in the Bible too (Joshua 10: 12-14), but it alleges there that the Sun stayed in the sky for a whole day (Au.).

91. Although Musa had himself asked for a punishment, he had not expected it to be so severe. Therefore, he felt aggrieved when the judgment was announced, which explains these words of consolation (Ibn Jarir).

It has also been said that although it was much inconvenient for the Israelites to be wandering in the desert, the sojourn was made easy for Musa and Harun so that it turned out to be no punishment for them (Razi, Qurtubi and others). Thanwi adds that in fact it must have been a pleasure for Musa and Harun to be with them since they were there to guide those people, and all efforts toward such objectives are a pleasurable reward in themselves.

The Relationship

The incident of the two sons of Adam seems to be directly connected with verse 11 which said, "Believers! Recall the favors of Allah that He bestowed upon you ..." until the end of the verse. With the incident of the two sons they are now being told, ‘If the people of the Book are envious of you, O Muslims, and respond with machinations, deceptions and conspiracies, it is nothing new in the history of man. The first murder in fact took place because of envy.'

The story also implies that the Jews and Christians opposing Islam would end up a regretters. Also, the Jews and Christians used to proudly link themselves to great historical figures, in which vein they would claim, as in verse 18 above, "We are the children of God." Allah tells them that even Qabil was the son of a virtuous man and a Prophet, but stood condemned because of his evil deed (Based on Razi's notes).

Further, in the injunction concerning highway robbers, and their exemplary punishment that follows immediately (verse 30), is the implied meaning that those who wage war against a Prophet and his message, are equal in crime with them (Au.).