[1109] Because of his having attained īmān, however with the precondition that he die in that condition.
[1110] Meaning “even if he does major wrong actions?”
[1111] To underline it more and to engrave it on his understanding.
[1112] And in one narration with the addition of, “Sincerely.”
[1113] Because īmān necessarily requires that one enter the Garden as one’s ultimate abode and that the person who has īmān will not be forever in the Fire. In it there is refutation of the khwārij and the muʿtazilah.
[1114] i.e., his nose cleave to the dust since he he goes too far in asking questions and insisting on an answer.
[1115] Abū Yūsuf narrated it on p.[197].
[1116] He used his kunyah in order to show honour to him.
[1117] Because the perpetrator of major wrong actions does not exit from īmān, contrary to the muʿtazilah.
[1118] Such as the khawārij and rebels.
[1119] Because they were mistaken in their independent exertion of their intellects to arrive at a judgement (ijtihād) and fell into a situation contrary to that which they intended. A group narrate this hadith as one ascribed directly to the Prophet (marfūʿ) even if it outwardly stops short at Ibn ʿUmar (as a mawqūf).
[1120] Buraydah ibn al-Ḥaṣīb.
[1121] Visiting in the sense of visiting the sick, so that visiting sick kuffār when they are sick would be permissible, and along with that the intention of guiding them is required for extra reward.
[1122] And in another narration, “and so he found him dying,” i.e., in the delirium and throes of death.
[1123] About his condition and his illness.
[1124] Hoping that he would have īmān and be saved from the Fire since what matters is the seal of destiny.
[1125] Like someone seeking advice so that he would tell him and advise him to have īmān, because his heart already inclined to the two acts of witnessing (shahādatayn) but his father’s prohibition held him back, and so he sought him to indicate to him.
[1126] Indicating that he was not pleased.
[1127] Taking into consideration his [son’s] inclination, and not from his own heart.
[1128] Rejoicing and happy because of his being saved and his acceptance of Islam, and the fact that he was the means of his salvation, and so he praised Allah for that.
[1129] A person (nafs) and a creature with a spirit.
[1130] From its punishment and from dwelling in it forever.
[1131] A Follower.
[1132] i.e., they had no āyāt or hadith, and had no answer to it.
[1133] It is probable that he meant the Tawrāh.
[1134] With conviction and certainty, so say, “You are mu’minūn,” and in another narration, “We are mu’minūn.”
[1135] Because of the lack of complete conviction in unqualified īmān. Indeed, even if one could securely assert one’s conviction of having īmān, it does not necessarily require that one have conviction that we are the people of the Garden but rather conviction in the promise, because His punishing all of the mu’minūn or not entering them into the Garden would not be unjust to such an extent that it is unthinkable and thus one could not realistically have conviction [of entering the Garden]. That is because complete and utter avoidance of falling short in what is due Him and discharge of the gratitude due His ceaseless blessings, which is the duty that is not possible for anyone, so much so that slips even issued from the prophets for which they were reproached, and thus they fear their Lord and have awe of the Day of Rising, and remember some of their slips when they seek to excuse themselves from interceding. Thus even if He were to punish them for the likes of these many shortcomings it would not be unjust but, on the contrary, just.
[1136] As to the wrong actions of the prophets and messengers, there are those who think that they can do minor wrong actions, and those who do not regard that as possible, but as for major wrong actions everyone is agreed that that is not possible for them. Some say that their wrong actions are very fine matters of courtesy towards Allah, etc.
[1137] She shepherded and safeguarded his flocks.
[1138] In another narration, “And the shepherdess was occupied (ishtaghalat I take to be the correct reading although my text has istaghallat) with some of the sheep and the wolf came and seized the sheep and killed it.
[1139] When the anger he experienced had gone, and in another narration, “Then later he regretted that.”
[1140] In another narration there is, “She is not known to have īmān.”
[1141] He asked her about His place in order to distinguish the fact that He is in the heaven from earthly idols. Though He is transcendent above residing in the heaven, it is also ascribed to Him as a way of exalting Him and honouring His authority, and He is named by it as an honorific form out of His exaltedness and the highness of His station.
[1142] i.e., His command rule, but otherwise He is pure beyond place and direction, and on that we have His saying, exalted is He, “It is He who is God in heaven and God on earth” (Sūrat az-Zukhruf: 84), and, “He is with you wherever you are” (Sūrat al-Ḥadīd: 4).
[1143] Thus we realise that the truth of īmān is affirmation of oneness and the message, and the other rulings are outside of that.
[1144] Muslims who perpetrate major wrong actions.
[1145] kuffār.
[1146] Ibrāhīm.
[1147] The kuffār will say when those disobedient Muslims exit [from the Fire], “If only we had been Muslims,” and that is the explanation of the saying of Allah , “It may be that those who are kāfir will wish that they had been Muslims.”
[1148] Foul smelling.
[1149] imtaḥashat means it has burnt their skins, their flesh and the outer parts of their bones, may Allah give us refuge from that.
[1150] Whose name was ʿAbdullāh ibn Hāni’ al-Kūfī.
[1151] The text mistakenly had “may Allah be pleased with both of them” in the Arabic text. We do not know of his father being a Muslim although his mother was. — Trans.
[1152] This question is asked of the criminal kuffār, meaning, “What thing made you enter into Jahannam?”
[1153] It is conceivable that [those who did ṣalāh] is a reference to the mu’minūn.
[1154] i.e., “We used to enter into falsehood.” Khawḍ [plunge] is originally to begin to enter water.
[1155] Death.
[1156] This āyah necessarily requires that even if the mu’minūn are deviant, the intercession of those who intercede will benefit them. The angels, prophets, martyrs, right-acting and all of the mu’minūn will intercede for them.
[1157] i.e., let him take his dwelling in the Fire, and it is said that it is a duʿā whose working is that of an indirect command, meaning “May Allah lodge him ” It is also said that it is simply an informing whose wording is a command, meaning, “He deserves that so let him ...”
[1158] i.e., stand for some time in the night.
[1159] “As an obligatory act over and above the five prayers which is particular to you [the Prophet ] but not for the Ummah.”
[1160] The generic noun “intercession”, “in which station the first and the last will praise you [the Prophet ]”.
[1161] One of the rivers of the Garden.
[1162] ḥayawān: the river of eternal life.
[1163] Everything they dislike will thus leave them.
[1164] The point of similarity being the speed of growth, [i.e., because the small cucumbers called thuʿrūr grow speedily. – Trans.].
[1165] They will seek the removal of that name because it is written on their foreheads, “These have been freed from the Fire.”
[1166] He will erase that name from their foreheads and from the hearts of the people of the Garden.
[1167] Abū Yūsuf narrated it on p.[207] in an abridged form.
[1168] Thus named because he had an affliction in the vertebrae of his back, from which he suffered so much pain that he would have a crooked posture.
[1169] Who have done wrong actions.
[1170] Meaning that outwardly it gives the sense that all those who enter it will not come out of it, as some of the people of bidʿah falsely imagined.
[1171] So that you will learn its interpretation, “As for those who are kāfir, ...” (Sūrat al-Mā’idah: 36) means that it is about those who are kuffār and their not coming out of the Fire and dwelling therein forever is particular for them. As for the ruling on wickedly wrong-acting people, they are subject to His will, as in His saying, exalted is He, “but He forgives whoever He wills for anything other than that.” (Sūrat an-Nisā’: 47, 115) They must necessarily come out of it just as is shown by decisive proofs from the hadith, such as his saying , “Whoever says, ‘There is no god but Allah,’ will enter the Garden,” i.e., even if belatedly, in order to reconcile the different arguments.
[1172] i.e., the reality of its affair.
[1173] i.e., For what reason are things decided on the basis of action, since everything is according to the will of Allah, exalted is He?
[1174] i.e., “and which has been decreed among affairs in before-time?” meaning those decrees which Allah wrote in the Preserved Table (al-lawḥ al-maḥfūẓ).
[1175] i.e., do not give up action, because you are commanded to it. The upshot is that even if the actions which you bring into existence are decreed from before-time and written in the Tablet and are comprised in the knowledge of the Maker and His will and power, yet this decreeing does not necessarily require that it is coercive nor that it wrests the power to earn [their deeds] from the slaves because all deeds are of the rank of citation and expression and not of the rank of practical effectiveness, so they do not lead to coercion. There is no doubt that actions are comprised under our power and choice according to what is sensed outwardly. Yes of course, this is the power of acquisition [of decreed deeds] and not the power of creation and effectiveness.
[1176] i.e., what action is decreed for him will be eased and ready formed.
[1177] Until he dies in that state.
[1178] Muslim narrated the like of it under “the Decree” in the chapter on “how the human (Ādamī) was created.”
[1179] i.e., of the children of Adam.
[1180] The place of his entrance and its time and all the rest of his business from the beginning of his birth until the end of his life.
[1181] The place of his exit and its time and the end of his period and the requirements (muqtaḍā) of his knowledge.
[1182] i.e., that which it will meet after the two conditions from the beginning of the rising from the dead up until endless time whether it will be one of the people of the Garden or be punished, and in it there is a nod to His saying, “O Man! You are toiling laboriously towards your Lord but meet Him you will!” (Sūrat al-Inshiqāq: 6)
[1183] Because he thought that action makes reward necessary and necessarily requires punishment irrespective of what was previously decreed.
[1184] i.e., The manifestation of the benefit of action has become firmly established.
[1185] i.e., about īmān from the perspective of his affirmation or negation because of the disagreement people have about it.
[1186] I know him better than you.
[1187] The company of Followers.
[1188] i.e., that there is no foreordained destiny.
[1189] Because of their confusing the matter of the dīn.
[1190] From the Prophet .
[1191] Greeting him particularly.
[1192] Turning to his Companions generally.
[1193] And in one narration placing his hands on his thighs meaning to come completely close to him.
[1194] i.e., about that which is believed in, in summary.
[1195] īmān has multiple meanings including “to believe in” as well as its classical definition taṣdīq which has the sense of “affirmation.” As an attribute of Allah, Who is al-Mu’min, it means “to render secure or safe from fear.” “Its primary meaning is the becoming true to the trust with respect to which God has confided in one, by a firm believing with the heart; not by profession of belief with the tongue only, without the assent of the heart.” (Lane’s Arabic-English Lexicon in which the entry is translated from the Tahdhīb of al-Azharī). – Trans.
[1196] The sweet and bitter of it, the benefit and the harm of it.
[1197] From His decree and His command.
[1198] As if he knew the ruling specifically and asked about it as a test.
[1199] About its obligations and its essential elements.
[1200] Establishment of the prayer with its preconditions (such as wuḍū’ and facing the qiblah) and its essential elements (arkān). In the famous narrations instead of these five, there is the shahādah that there is no god but Allah and that Muḥammad is the Messenger of Allah, which is as it were the first pillar, and that is in agreement to that which is transmitted in the ṣaḥīḥ “Islam is built upon five.”
[1201] iḥsān or “excellence” is the beautification (taḥsīn) of īmān and Islam. – Trans.
[1202] And in the famous narration it is “that you worship Allah
[1203] i.e., when is the time at which it will come about?
[1204] Everyone asked about is incapable of answering about it just as is the questioner.
[1205] “Seek him out and bring him to me,” or “Bring the man back to me.”
[1206] A synopsis of its legislations which are useful to you, or the way to ask about them.
[1207] Such as Diḥyah [al-Kalbī] and others.
[1208] Al-Bukhārī narrated it under “īmān” in the chapter on “Jibrīl’s questioning the Prophet about īmān,” [and] in the chapter on “īmān, Islam and iḥsān.”
[1209] A town near Damascus, and in this place ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb gave his famous khuṭbah.
[1210] qass is one of the Christian ʿulamā’, worshippers and one of their leaders. The root of the word is to do with following something and seeking it out, and from that an ʿālim was thus named because of his following knowledge.
[1211] ʿahd here is covenant.
[1212] “Because of your denial of the decree.”
[1213] A viscous fluid.
[1214] A morsel of flesh as much as can be chewed.
[1215] Al-Bukhārī narrated it under “the beginning of creation” in the chapter on “mention of the angels,” and under “the Decree” in the chapter on “how the human being was create.