The Ocean of the Quran

A verse by verse explanation of The Ultimate Scripture

Al-ʿAlaq‎ – Verses 9 & 10

أَرَأَيتَ الَّذي يَنهىٰ

عَبدًا إِذا صَلّىٰ

Have you seen the one who forbids

a servant when he prays?

EXPOSITION

Verses 9, 11, and 13 all begin with a specific interrogative phrase constituting of the interrogative particle a, and the second person singular perfect tense verb raʾayta, becoming araʾayta (have you seen?). One interpretation for this interrogative phrase is that it denotes surprise,‎[1] astonishment,‎[2] and amazement,‎[3] while its meaning is suggested to be ‘tell me/inform me …!’ This is while its repetition is to emphasise the same.‎[4]

The apparent sense of verses 9-10 suggests that the person censured for preventing one of God’s servants from worship is the same one as in the previous verses, and thus it would not be farfetched to conclude that these verses are with respect to Abū Jahl.‎[5] Indeed, the historical material contained in the Quran commentary literature relevant to these verses specifically identify the person censured here as Abū Jahl. Some of the relevant reports shall be cited under Insights from Hadith, while the following are several early authorities who are attributed to have identified the one who forbids as Abū Jahl. These include al-Farrāʾ, the famous grammarian of Kufa and author of, among many works, the Quran commentary Maʿānī al-Qurʾān,‎[6] along with Qummī and Ṭabarī, authors of two early narrative-based Quran commentaries,‎[7] although Qummī also writes that al-Walīd ibn al-Mughīrah also used to forbid the prayer, and obedience of God and His Messenger.‎[8] Both Abū Jahl and Walīd were prominent members of the Banī Makhzūm branch of the Quraysh,‎[9] and the latter was also the former’s paternal uncle,‎[10] whose place as chief of the Banī Makhzūm he inherited on the latter’s death.‎[11] Ṭabarī writes that this verse was revealed regarding Abū Jahl ‘since he forbade the Prophet to pray, saying: “If I see Muhammad praying I shall tread on his neck”’‎[12] while Ṭūsī gives the names of Ibn Abbas and Qatādah as holding the same opinion. Ṭūsī records in his Quran commentary that Ibn Abbas and Qatādah reported that Abū Jahl used to forbid the Prophet from prayer and the Prophet would rebuke and reproach him, whereupon Abū Jahl would intimidate him, saying: ‘I have a greater majority of comrades in this valley [whom I can call upon to my aid if I wish to harm you or if you retaliate].’‎[13] And thus a servant when he prays and who is harassed is a reference to Prophet Muhammad (s),‎[14] not only on account of the historical reports that say so, but also in light of the last verse which asks the Prophet to ignore the one forbidding him from prayers and to continue the prayers, to prostrate, and to draw near to God.‎[15] Nevertheless, if these verses were truly revealed in reference to Abū Jahl as they very probably were in light of a very specific historical incident that these verses appear to portray, which is corroborated by historical literature, they can yet be applied to any other person who shares the qualities of Abū Jahl enumerated here or engages in similar misdeeds subjected to censure in these verses‎[16] in light of the principle of jary. Another relevant interpretive principle that may be invoked is that of al-ʿibratu bi-ʿumūm al-lafẓ lā bi-khuṣūṣ al-sabab, especially since the words used in these verses such as the noun ʿabd (servant) and the pronouns (inherent to verbs used in these verses such as raʾayta (you saw), yanhā (he forbids), ṣallā (he prayed), kāna (he was), amara (he enjoined), kadhdhaba (he lied), tawallā (he turned away)), as well as the relative pronoun alladhī (the one who), are general with no specific person mentioned by name.‎[17] However, if these verses are truly general in nature and were not in fact revealed in reference to a specific historical person (which is most probably not the case) then their identification with Abū Jahl or al-Walīd ibn al-Mughīrah would be a case of the application of the principle of application (taṭbīq).

Thus, verses 9-10, which address Prophet Muhammad (s), refer to the unnamed bully, and mean: Have you [O Muhammad] seen the one who forbids a servant of God when he prays? Tell me about him and about what he is doing? What will be his recompense and state or condition with God?‎[18] It is suggested that this rhetorical question has its response elided since the response is self-evident.‎[19]

INSIGHTS FROM HADITH

  1. Ibn Abbas related that Abū Jahl said: ‘If I see him [i.e. Prophet Muhammad (s)] praying at the Kaaba then I shall go to him and trample on his neck.’ News of this threat reached the Messenger of Allah whereupon he retorted: ‘If he does so then the angels shall surely seize him while he looks on.’‎[20]
  2. Abū Hurayrah related that Abū Jahl asked: ‘Does Muhammad rub his face on the earth in prostration among you?’ The reply came back in the affirmative, whereupon he said: ‘I swear by al-Lāt and al-ʿUzzā, if I see him praying in that manner I shall surely trample on his neck and shall rub his face in the dirt!’ Abū Hurayrah continues the narrative: ‘Subsequently he went to the Messenger of Allah while the latter was praying so that he could tread on his neck but he had hardly reached him when he recoiled, shielding himself with his hands. He was asked: “What is the matter with you?” He replied: “There is indeed a trench full of fire between him and me … and horror … and wings!’‎[21] The Messenger of Allah (s) said: “Had he come closer to me the angels would have surely seized him, part by part!”’ Ṭabarī then writes that he is unsure if it was stated in the report of Abū Hurayrah or not but thereafter God revealed verses 6-19.‎[22]
  3. Ibn Abbas said that verses 9-10 were revealed when Abū Jahl hurled the skin or membrane of an animal, one which carries a camel or horse’s foetus, on the back of the Messenger of God while the Messenger of God was prostrate in devotion to God, the mighty and majestic.‎[23]
  4. It is related in Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī that ʿAbd-Allāh ibn Masʿūd narrated: ‘While the Messenger of Allah (s) was standing in ritual prayer at the Kaaba, a group of the Quraysh was in their meeting place, when one of them said: “Do you not see this hypocrite! Which one of you shall go to the slaughtered camels and sheep of such and such a tribe in order to get its excrements, blood, and uterine sacs, bring it here, and then give him time till he prostrates, when he would place it between his shoulders?” Thus the most wretched of them was sent. When the Messenger of Allah (s) prostrated, he placed it between his shoulders, due to which the Prophet (s) was unable to move, remaining immobile in prostration, at which they all laughed, so much so that some of them leaned on others due to laughter. So a person rushed to Fatimah although she was a little girl. She hurried forward while the Prophet was immobile in prostration till she flung it away from him, and turned to them, cursing them. When the Messenger of Allah (s) finished the ritual prayer, he said: “O Allah, punish the Quraysh. O Allah, punish the Quraysh. O Allah, punish the Quraysh.” Then he mentioned the following by name: “O Allah, punish ʿAmr ibn Hishām [that is, Abū Jahl], ʿUtbah ibn Rabīʿah, Shaybah ibn Rabīʿah, Walīd ibn ʿUtbah, Umayyah ibn Khalaf, ʿUqbah ibn Abī Muʿayṭ, and ʿAmmārah ibn al-Walīd.”’ ʿAbd-Allāh narrates: ‘I swear by Allah I saw them felled to the ground on the day of the Battle of Badr. Then they were dragged to the well – the well of Badr – and then the Messenger of Allah (s) said: “And the fellows of the well were followed up with malediction.”’‎[24]
  5. Ṭabarsī writes in his collective biography of the Infallibles, Iʿlām al-Warāʾ bi-Aʿlām al-Hudā, that one day Abū Jahl swore by God that he would break the Prophet’s head with a stone when he prostrated in prayer. When the Messenger of God stood in prayer, praying and prostrating between the two corners of the Kaaba – the corner of the Black Stone and the corner facing Yemen – whilst facing the Kaaba, Abū Jahl carried a stone and came toward him. But as he approached, he suddenly turned away, pale with fear, his hands gripping the stone tightly in terror until at last he threw it away from himself. Some men of the Quraysh came to him, enquiring: ‘What has happened to you O Abū al-Ḥakam?’ He answered: ‘A powerful camel stood between him and me, the like of its head, thick neck, and sharp teeth I had never seen before. It was about to devour me.’‎[25]
  6. Abū Jahl, which means ‘father of ignorance’, was one of the Prophet’s pagan opponents in Mecca. His actual name was ʿAmr ibn Hishām ibn al-Mughīrah of the tribe of Makhzūm of the Quraysh.‎[26] Born in 554 ce, the derogatory nickname of ‘Abū Jahl’ was reportedly given to him by the Prophet, according to the early historian Balādhūrī,‎[27] and was designed to replace his actual teknonym (kunyah) which was Abū al-Ḥakam (the father of wisdom).‎[28] A verse by Ḥassān ibn Thābit, the Prophet’s poet, regarding Abū Jahl, states that ‘his kinsmen named him Abū al-Ḥakam, but God named him Abū Jahl’.‎[29]
  7. Ibn Hishām describes him in his edition of Ibn Isḥāq’s biography of the Prophet as a thin man with a stern countenance, sharp tongue, and piercing look, or with a squint as Balādhūrī writes.‎[30] Both Ibn Saʿd and Balādhūrī write that he was a bitter enemy of Islam, together with Abū Lahab, the Prophet’s paternal uncle, and ʿUqbah ibn Abī Muʿayṭ,‎[31] while al-Wāḥidī, the author of the famous work on the occasions of the revelation of Quranic verses, Kitāb Asbāb al-Nuzūl, writes that the root cause of his enmity towards the Prophet and his message most probably lay with the intense feeling of jealousy he felt towards the fact that the greater tribe of the Quṣayy, to which the Prophet’s clan of Hāshim belonged but to which his own clan of Makhzūm did not, held all the sacred offices of the Kaaba, which were now further augmented with the honour of prophethood.‎[32] He became the head of the clan of Makhzūm at the death of his paternal uncle, al-Walīd ibn al-Mughīrah, while prior to the latter it was Abū Jahl’s father who had been head of this clan.‎[33] But even before his accession to the leadership of his clan it is said he was already an influential member of the greater tribe of Quraysh having been made a member of the council of elders when he was barely thirty years old as a result of his aptitude. This was a special concession since anyone not of the Quṣayy tribe had to wait until the age of forty to be allowed in it.‎[34]

Notes: 1. The sources provide several episodes which detail his persecution of the Prophet, his abuse of the Prophet’s message while stating his devotion to his own pagan religion, and preventing others from becoming Muslims including his own uterine brother, ʿAyyāsh ibn Abū Rabīʿah.‎[35] Many of these episodes are recorded in the commentary of various Quranic verses such as in the commentary to 6:26, 6:33, 6:52, 6:108, 6:122, 8:19, 9:113, 17:60, 20:2, 28:56, 38:5, 44:49, 74:11-26, and 96:1-19. Later, his mother Asmāʾ, daughter of Makhrabah ibn Jandal al-Ḥanẓalī of the Banī Tamīm, converted to the Muslim faith, write Ibn Saʿd and Balādhūrī,‎[36] as did his son ʿIkramah.‎[37] 2. Balādhūrī writes that the Prophet also called him ‘the pharaoh of this community’, and that when he was informed of his death at Badr he reportedly fell prostrate in gratitude to God.‎[38] Several of the Prophet’s companions took pride in having participated in his killing, namely Muʿādh ibn ʿAmr and Muʿawwidh ibn ʿAfrāʾ who wounded him, and ʿAbd-Allāh ibn Masʿūd who finished him off.‎[39] 

[1] Tabrisi, 10/783; Razi, 32/221; al-Jāmiʿ li-Aḥkām al-Qurʾān, 21/124; al-Tafsīr al-Qurʾānī lil-Qurʾān, 14/1628; Bayān al-Maʿānī, 1/70-71.
[2] Tabrisi, 10/783.
[3] Mizan, 20/326.
[4] Tabrisi, 10/783.
[5] Razi, 32/221.
[6] Maʿānī al-Qurʾān, 3/278.
[7] Qummi, 2/431; Tabari, 30/163; al-Aṣfā fī al-Tafsīr, 2/1460.
[8] Qummi, 2/431.
[9] Mohammad Ali Kazem Beigi and John Cooper, ‘Abu Jahl’, in Encyclopaedia Islamica.
[10] Uri Rubin, ‘Abu Jahl’, in Encyclopaedia of Islam.‎
[11] Mohammad Ali Kazem Beigi and John Cooper, ‘Abu Jahl’, in Encyclopaedia Islamica.
[12] Tabari, 30/163.
[13] Tibyan, 10/381.
[14] Al-Balāgh fī Tafsīr al-Qurʾān bil-Qurʾān, 1/597.
[15] Mizan, 20/325.
[16] Razi, 32/221 and 32/223; Munyat al-Ṭālibīn fī Tafsīr al-Qurʾān al-Mubīn, 30/510; Bayān al-Maʿānī, 1/71.
[17] Tabrisi, 10/782.
[18] Tafsīr Muqātil ibn Sulaymān, 4/763; Tibyan, 10/381; Mizan, 20/326; Munyat al-Ṭālibīn fī Tafsīr al-Qurʾān al-Mubīn, 30/510; al-Aṣfā fī al-Tafsīr, 2/1460; Furqan, 30/368; Razi, 32/221; al-Jāmiʿ li-Aḥkām al-Qurʾān, 21/124; al-Tafsīr al-Qurʾānī lil-Qurʾān, 14/1628; Daqaiq, 14/349; Amthal, 20/328.
[19] Munyat al-Ṭālibīn fī Tafsīr al-Qurʾān al-Mubīn, 30/510.
[20] Tabari, 30/165; Shawkani, 5/574; Suyuti, 6/369.
[21] Tabari, 30/165; Tabrisi, 10/782; Jawāmiʾ al-Jāmiʿ, 4/514; Zamakhshari, 4/777; Razi, 32/221; Shawkani, 5/574.
[22] Tabari, 30/165; Tabrisi, 10/782; Jawāmiʾ al-Jāmiʿ, 4/514; Shawkani, 5/574.
[23] Shawkani, 5/574.
[24] Bukhari, 1/194, h. 498.
[25] Iʿlām al-Warāʾ bi-Aʿlām al-Hudā, p. 45; The Life of Muhammad: a Translation of Ibn Ishaq’s Sirat Rasul Allah, p. 135.
[26] Uri Rubin, ‘Abu Jahl’, in Encyclopaedia of Islam.
[27] Mohammad Ali Kazem Beigi and John Cooper, ‘Abu Jahl’, in Encyclopaedia Islamica.‎
[28] Uri Rubin, ‘Abu Jahl’, in Encyclopaedia of Islam.
[29] Uri Rubin, ‘Abu Jahl’, in Encyclopaedia of Islam.
[30] Uri Rubin, ‘Abu Jahl’, in Encyclopaedia of Islam.
[31] Uri Rubin, ‘Abu Jahl’, in Encyclopaedia of Islam.
[32] Uri Rubin, ‘Abu Jahl’, in Encyclopaedia of Islam.
[33] Mohammad Ali Kazem Beigi and John Cooper, ‘Abu Jahl’, in Encyclopaedia Islamica.‎
[34] Mohammad Ali Kazem Beigi and John Cooper, ‘Abu Jahl’, in Encyclopaedia Islamica.‎
[35] Uri Rubin, ‘Abu Jahl’, in Encyclopaedia of Islam.
[36] Mohammad Ali Kazem Beigi and John Cooper, ‘Abu Jahl’, in Encyclopaedia Islamica.‎
[37] Uri Rubin, ‘Abu Jahl’, in Encyclopaedia of Islam.
[38] Uri Rubin, ‘Abu Jahl’, in Encyclopaedia of Islam.
[39] Uri Rubin, ‘Abu Jahl’, in Encyclopaedia of Islam.