The Ocean of the Quran

A verse by verse explanation of The Ultimate Scripture

Al-Muṭaffifīn – Verse 1

بِسمِ اللَّهِ الرَّحمٰنِ الرَّحيمِ

وَيلٌ لِلمُطَفِّفينَ

Woe to the defrauders who use short measures.

EXEGESIS

Wayl is a word used to strongly express threat of a severe punishment, disgrace, and the worst of consequences, misery, pain, and inflection.‎[1] It is used in many places in the Quran to address the deniers of the Day of Judgement (21:18, 52:11, 77:17, 77:19, 77:24, 77:28, 77:34, 77:37, 77:40, 77:45, 77:47, 77:49, 83:10), the deniers of the truth (kāfirīn) (14:2, 19:37, 38:27, 21:97, 51:60, 45:7), polytheists (41:6), the ones who cheat and promote their own writings as the words of God (2:79), the ones who become heedless about their prayers (107:4), and the scandal-mongers and slanderers (104:1).

Muṭaffifīn comes from the word taṭfīf, which is used in the context of measurement and weight to indicate reducing a very small amount from the weight such that the scale is not exactly full.‎[2] Thus the people who diminish in the measurement fraudulently are called muṭaffifīn because they steal only small amounts.‎[3]

INSIGHTS FROM HADITH

  1. Imam al-Bāqir (a) said about Sūrat al-Muṭaffifīn: ‘It was revealed to the Prophet (s) when he arrived in Medina. Its people were the worst in measurement. After that, they began to give full weight and measure.’‎[4] 
[1] Mizan, 1/215; Tahqiq, 13/220.
[2] Tabrisi, 10/686.
[3] Tabrisi, 10/687.
[4] Qummi, 2/410.