Section 13: The twelve and their mission

On 57:27

On the interpretation of His words, Exalted: Then We sent following in their footsteps Our messengers, and We followed them with Jesus son of Mary and gave him the Gospel, and We placed in the hearts of those who followed him compassion and mercy; and monasticism they invented — We did not prescribe it for them — only seeking the good pleasure of God; but they did not observe it with its due observance. So We gave those who believed among them their reward, but many of them are transgressors. (27) (57:27)

He says, Exalted be His remembrance: Then We sent, following in their footsteps, Our messengers whom We sent with the clear proofs in the footsteps of Noah and Abraham — Our messengers — and We followed them with Jesus son of Mary; and We placed in the hearts of those who followed him, meaning those who followed Jesus upon his way and his law, compassion, which is the most intense form of mercy, and mercy; and monasticism they invented: He says: they originated it; We did not prescribe it for them: He says: We did not make that monasticism obligatory upon them; only seeking the good pleasure of God: He says: but they invented it seeking the good pleasure of God; but they did not observe it with its due observance.

The people of interpretation differed concerning those who did not observe monasticism with its due observance.

• Some of them said: They are those who invented it; they did not carry it out, but rather altered and departed from the religion of God with which He sent Jesus, and became Christians and Jews.
• Others said: Rather, they are a people who came after those who invented it and did not observe it with its due observance, because they were unbelievers; but they said: We shall do as those did who did that originally. So they are the ones whom God described as not having observed it with its due observance.

The people of interpretation said the like of what we have said in the interpretation of these expressions, up to the point at which we mentioned that the people of interpretation differ about it.

Those who said this

Bishr related to me: Yazīd related to us: Saʿīd related to us, from Qatādah: and We placed in the hearts of those who followed him compassion and mercy (57:27): these two are from God; but monasticism a people invented of their own accord, and it was not prescribed for them; rather they sought by it, and intended, the good pleasure of God, but they did not observe it with its due observance. It was mentioned to us that they renounced women and took to cells (ṣawāmiʿ).

Ibn ʿAbd al-Aʿlā related to us: Ibn Thawr related to us, from Maʿmar, from Qatādah: and monasticism they invented (57:27): he said: it was not prescribed for them; they invented it seeking the good pleasure of God.

Yūnus related to me: Ibn Wahb informed us: Ibn Zayd said, concerning His words We did not prescribe it for them (57:27): he said: Then why? He said: They invented it seeking the good pleasure of God, as a voluntary act; but they did not observe it with its due observance.

Those who said: those who did not observe monasticism with its due observance were other than those who invented it, but were people who wished to emulate them

Al-Ḥusayn ibn al-Ḥurayth, Abū ʿAmmār al-Marwazī, related to us: al-Faḍl ibn Mūsā related to us, from Sufyān, from ʿAṭāʾ ibn al-Sāʾib, from Saʿīd ibn Jubayr, from Ibn ʿAbbās, who said: There were kings after Jesus who altered the Torah and the Gospel, and there were among them believers who read the Torah and the Gospel. It was said to their king: We find nothing harder upon us than the reviling with which these people revile us, for they read and whoever does not judge by what God has sent down — those are the unbelievers (5:44), these verses, together with the faults they find in us in their reading; so summon them, and let them read as we read and believe as we have believed. He said: So he summoned them and gathered them, and offered them death, or else that they abandon the reading of the Torah and the Gospel save what they had altered of them. They said: What do you want by that? Leave us be! He said: Then a party of them said: Build us a pillar, then raise us up onto it, then give us something by which we may draw up our food and drink, and we shall not come back to you. And a party of them said: Leave us to wander in the land and roam, and drink as the wild beasts drink; and if you get hold of us in your land, kill us. And a party said: Build us dwellings in the wastelands, and we shall dig wells and cultivate vegetables, and we shall not come back to you nor pass by you — and there was not one of these but he had a close kinsman among them. He said: So they did that, and God, Majestic is His praise, sent down and monasticism they invented — We did not prescribe it for them — only seeking the good pleasure of God; but they did not observe it with its due observance (57:27). The later ones said: We shall devote ourselves to worship as so-and-so devoted himself, and wander as so-and-so wandered, and take dwellings as so-and-so took — while they were upon their polytheism, having no knowledge of the faith of those whom they emulated. He said: When the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) was sent, and only a few of them remained, a man came down from his cell, a wanderer came from his wandering, and the dweller came from his dwelling, and they believed in him and affirmed him. So God, Majestic is His praise, said: O you who believe, fear God and believe in His Messenger; He will give you two portions of His mercy (57:28). He said: two rewards, for their faith in Jesus and their affirmation of the Torah and the Gospel, and their faith in Muḥammad (peace and blessings be upon him) and their affirmation of him. He said: and make for you a light by which you may walk (57:28): the Qurʾān, and their following the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him). And He said: so that the People of the Book may know that they have no power over anything of the bounty of God, and that bounty is in the hand of God; He gives it to whom He wills, and God is the possessor of great bounty (57:29).

Yaḥyā ibn Abī Ṭālib related to us: Dāwud ibn al-Muḥabbar related to us: al-Ṣaʿq ibn Ḥazn related to us: ʿAqīl al-Jaʿdī related to us, from Abū Isḥāq al-Hamdānī, from Suwayd ibn Ghafalah, from ʿAbd Allāh ibn Masʿūd, who said: The Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) said: “Those who were before us split into seventy-one sects, of which three were saved and the rest perished. One sect of the three confronted the kings and fought them over the religion of God and the religion of Jesus son of Mary (the blessings of God be upon them), and the kings killed them. And one sect had no strength to confront the kings, so they remained in the midst of their people, calling them to the religion of God and the religion of Jesus son of Mary (the blessings of God be upon him), and the kings killed them and sawed them asunder with saws. And one sect had no strength either to confront the kings or to remain in the midst of their people calling them to the religion of God and the religion of Jesus (the blessings of God be upon him), so they betook themselves to the deserts and the mountains and became monks there; and that is the word of God, Mighty and Majestic: and monasticism they invented — We did not prescribe it for them.” He said: they did it only seeking the good pleasure of God; but they did not observe it with its due observance: he said: those who came after them did not observe it with its due observance; So We gave those who believed among them their reward: he said: and they are those who believed in me and affirmed me. He said: but many of them are transgressors: he said: and they are those who denied me and called me a liar.

Ibn Ḥumayd related to us: Mihrān related to us, from Sufyān, from ʿAṭāʾ ibn al-Sāʾib, from Saʿīd ibn Jubayr, from Ibn ʿAbbās: and monasticism they invented — We did not prescribe it (57:27): he said: The later ones, from among those of the people of polytheism who devoted themselves to worship, after those of them who had passed away had passed away, would say: We shall devote ourselves to worship as so-and-so devoted himself, and wander as so-and-so wandered — while they were in their polytheism, having no knowledge of the faith of those whom they emulated.

Those who said: those who did not observe it with its due observance were those who invented it

Muḥammad ibn Saʿd related to me: my father related to me: my paternal uncle related to me: my father related to me, from his father, from Ibn ʿAbbās, concerning His words and We placed in the hearts of those who followed him compassion and mercy up to His words with its due observance (57:27): He says: they did not obey Me in it, and they spoke in it with disobedience to God. That is because God, Mighty and Majestic, had prescribed fighting for them before He sent Muḥammad (peace and blessings be upon him); and when the people of faith had been rooted out and only a few of them remained, and the people of polytheism had grown many, and the messengers had gone and been overpowered, they withdrew into the caves, and that state persisted with them until a party of them disbelieved and abandoned the command of God, Mighty and Majestic, and His religion, and took up innovation and Christianity and Judaism, and so did not observe it with its due observance; while a party remained firm upon the religion of Jesus son of Mary (the blessings of God be upon him), as it was when he came to them with the clear proofs, and God, Mighty and Majestic, sent Muḥammad as a messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) while they were in that state; and that is His word: O you who believe, fear God and believe in His Messenger; He will give you two portions of His mercy up to and God is Forgiving, Merciful (57:28).

I was told, from al-Ḥusayn, who said: I heard Abū Muʿādh say: ʿUbayd related to us, saying: I heard al-Ḍaḥḥāk say concerning His words and monasticism they invented — We did not prescribe it for them (57:27): God, Mighty and Majestic, had prescribed fighting for them before Muḥammad (peace and blessings be upon him) was sent; and when the people of faith had been rooted out and only the few of them remained, and the people of polytheism had grown many, and the messengers had ceased, they withdrew from the people and came to be in the caves, and they remained so until a party of them changed, and abandoned the religion of God and His command and His covenant which He had made with them, and took up innovations, and invented Christianity and Judaism; so God, Mighty and Majestic, said to them: but they did not observe it with its due observance; while a party of them remained firm upon the religion of Jesus (the blessings of God be upon him) until God sent Muḥammad (peace and blessings be upon him), and they believed in him.

Yaʿqūb ibn Ibrāhīm related to me: Hushaym related to us: Zakariyyā ibn Abī Maryam informed us, saying: I heard Abū Umāmah al-Bāhilī say: God has prescribed for you the fasting of Ramaḍān, but He has not prescribed for you its night vigil; the night vigil is only something you have innovated. And a people innovated an innovation that God had not prescribed for them, seeking by it the good pleasure of God, but they did not observe it with its due observance, and so God censured them for abandoning it, saying: and monasticism they invented — We did not prescribe it for them — only seeking the good pleasure of God; but they did not observe it with its due observance (57:27).

The most likely of the opinions on this to be correct is to say: Those whom God described as not having observed monasticism with its due observance were some of the groups which invented it. That is because God, Majestic is His praise, informed that He gave those who believed among them their reward; and so He indicated thereby that among them were those who did observe it with its due observance, for had there not been among them those who were such, there would have been no one deserving of the reward of which He, Majestic is His praise, said: So We gave those who believed among them their reward. Only, those who did not observe it with its due observance may have been in the time of those who invented it, and may have been after them; for when those who are their descendants did not observe it, it is permissible in the speech of the Arabs to say: the people did not observe it, in general terms, while those meant by it are the part of them who were present. The like of this has already been dealt with in many places in this book.

On His words: So We gave those who believed among them their reward (57:27)

He says, Exalted be His remembrance: So We gave those who believed in God and His messengers from among these people who invented monasticism their recompense, in the Hereafter, for their seeking the good pleasure of God and their faith in Him and in His Messenger; but many of them are people of acts of disobedience, who have departed from obedience to Him and from faith in Him.

The people of interpretation said the like of what we have said concerning that.

Those who said this

Yūnus related to me: Ibn Wahb informed us: Ibn Zayd said: So We gave those who believed among them their reward (57:27): he said: those who observed that properly.

Read this commentary with the other passages on its own page.

On 57:27

And We sent Noah and Abraham, and We placed prophethood and the Book among their descendants; and among them are some who are guided, but many of them are rebellious. (26) Then We sent in their footsteps Our messengers, and We sent after them Jesus son of Mary and gave him the Gospel, and We placed in the hearts of those who followed him (57:27), in his religion, compassion, which is the most intense tenderness, and mercy: they were affectionate towards one another, as God, Exalted, said in describing the Companions of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), merciful among themselves (48:29). And monasticism which they innovated, of their own accord. This is not in apposition to what precedes it; it takes the accusative by an implied verb, as though He said: and they innovated monasticism, that is, they brought it of their own accord. We did not prescribe it, that is, We did not make it obligatory, for them, only seeking the good pleasure of God, meaning: but they sought the good pleasure of God by that monasticism. That monasticism was the hardships they imposed upon themselves in abstaining from food, drink, clothing and marriage, and in devoting themselves to worship in the mountains. But they did not observe it with its due observance, that is, they did not observe monasticism with its due observance; rather, they neglected it, disbelieved in the religion of Jesus, became Jews and Christians, entered into the religion of their kings and abandoned the monastic life. Some of them remained upon the religion of Jesus (peace and blessings be upon him) until they met Muḥammad (peace and blessings be upon him) and believed in him, and that is His words, Exalted: So We gave those of them who believed their reward, and they are those who remained steadfast in it, the people of compassion and mercy; but many of them are rebellious, and they are those who abandoned monasticism and disbelieved in the religion of Jesus (peace and blessings be upon him).

Abū Saʿīd al-Shurayḥī informed us: Abū Isḥāq al-Thaʿlabī informed us: ʿAbd Allāh ibn Ḥāmid informed me: Aḥmad ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-Muzanī informed us: Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Sulaymān related to us: Shaybān ibn Farrūkh related to us: al-Ṣaʿq ibn Ḥazn related to us, from ʿAqīl al-Jaʿdī, from Abū Isḥāq, from Suwayd ibn Ghafalah, from Ibn Masʿūd (may God, Exalted, be pleased with him), who said: I went in to the Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) and he said: “O Ibn Masʿūd, those before you split into seventy-two sects, of which three were saved and the rest perished. One sect stood up against the kings and fought them for the religion of Jesus (peace and blessings be upon him), and they seized them and killed them. Another sect had no strength to stand against the kings, nor to remain among them calling them to the religion of God and the religion of Jesus (peace be upon him), so they wandered through the lands and took up the monastic life, and they are those of whom God, Mighty and Majestic, said: And monasticism which they innovated; We did not prescribe it for them.” Then the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: “Whoever believes in me, affirms me and follows me has observed it with its due observance, and whoever does not believe in me, those are the ones who perish.”

It is related from Ibn Masʿūd (may God be pleased with him) that he said: I was riding behind the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) on a donkey, and he said to me: “O Ibn Umm ʿAbd, do you know from where the Children of Israel took monasticism?” I said: God and His Messenger know best. He said: “Tyrants prevailed over them after Jesus (peace be upon him), committing acts of disobedience, and the people of faith were angered and fought them, and the people of faith were defeated three times, until only a few of them remained. They said: If we show ourselves to these people they will annihilate us, and no one will remain to call to the religion. So they said: Come, let us scatter through the earth until God sends the prophet whom Jesus (peace be upon him) promised us,” meaning Muḥammad (peace and blessings be upon him). “So they scattered into the caves of the mountains and instituted monasticism; some of them held fast to their religion and some of them disbelieved.” Then he recited this verse: And monasticism which they innovated, to the end of the verse. So We gave those of them who believed, meaning those who remained steadfast in it, their reward. Then the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: “O Ibn Umm ʿAbd, do you know what the monasticism of my community is?” I said: God and His Messenger know best. He said: “Emigration, striving in God’s cause, prayer, fasting, the pilgrimage, the lesser pilgrimage, and proclaiming God’s greatness upon the hills.”

It is related from Anas, from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), that he said: “Every community has a monasticism, and the monasticism of this community is striving in the cause of God.”

Saʿīd ibn Jubayr related from Ibn ʿAbbās (may God be pleased with them both) that he said: After Jesus (peace be upon him) there were kings who altered the Torah and the Gospel, and among them were believers who read the Torah and the Gospel and called them to the religion of God. It was said to their kings: If only you would gather these people who are making trouble for you, and either kill them or have them enter into what we are in. So their kings gathered them and offered them death, or else that they abandon the reading of the Torah and the Gospel except what they had altered of them. They said: We will spare you the trouble of dealing with us. One party said: Build us a pillar, then raise us up onto it, then give us something by which we can draw up our food and drink, and we shall not come back to you. Another party said: Leave us to wander through the earth and roam, and drink as the wild beasts drink; and if you find us in any land, kill us. Another party said: Build us dwellings in the wildernesses; we shall dig wells and cultivate herbs, and we shall not come back to you nor pass by you. So they did this for them, and those people went on in the way of Jesus (peace and blessings be upon him). After them there came a generation of those who had altered the Book, and a man would say: We shall be in the place of so-and-so and worship as so-and-so worshipped, and wander as so-and-so wandered, and take dwellings as so-and-so took dwellings; yet they were in their polytheism, with no knowledge of the faith of those whom they imitated. That is His words, Mighty and Majestic: “And monasticism which they innovated”, that is, these righteous people innovated it; but they did not observe it with its due observance, meaning the later ones who came after them; so We gave those of them who believed their reward, meaning those who innovated it seeking the good pleasure of God; “but many of them are rebellious”, and they are those who came after them. He said: When the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) was sent, and only a few of them remained, a man came down from his hermitage, a wanderer came from his wandering, and the keeper of a monastery came from his monastery, and they believed in him.

Then God, Mighty and Majestic, said: O you who believe, fear God (57:28).

Read this commentary with the other passages on its own page.

On 57:27

This passage contains four questions (masāʾil).

• The first: His words, Exalted: Then We sent following (57:27), that is, We caused to follow, in their footsteps, that is, in the footsteps of the offspring; and it has been said: in the footsteps of Noah and Abraham, Our messengers: Moses, Elias, David, Solomon, Jonah and others; and We sent following Jesus son of Mary, for he is of the offspring of Abraham on his mother’s side; and We gave him the Gospel, which is the book sent down to him. Its derivation has already been given at the beginning of Sūrat Āl ʿImrān.⁷
• The second: His words, Exalted: and We placed in the hearts of those who followed him (57:27), in his religion, meaning the disciples and their followers, compassion and mercy, that is, affection, so that they loved one another. It has been said: this is an indication that they were commanded in the Gospel to make peace and to refrain from harming people, and God softened their hearts to that, unlike the Jews, whose hearts hardened and who altered the words from their places. Compassion (raʾfah) is gentleness, and mercy (raḥmah) is tenderness. It has been said: compassion is the lightening of a burden, and mercy is the bearing of a weight. And it has been said: compassion is the most intense form of mercy. Here the sentence is complete. Then He said: and monasticism which they invented (57:27), that is, of their own accord. The better view is that “monasticism” (rahbāniyyah) is in the accusative governed by an implied verb. Abū ʿAlī said: “and they invented it: a monasticism which they invented”. Al-Zajjāj said: that is, “they invented it, a monasticism”, as you say “I saw Zayd, and ʿAmr I spoke to”. It has been said that it is coordinated with “compassion and mercy”, and on this view the meaning is that God, Exalted, gave it to them and then they altered it and innovated in it. Al-Māwardī said: there are two readings of it, one with fatḥah on the rāʾ, which is fear, from rahab; the second with ḍammah on the rāʾ, which is a relative adjective from ruhbān, “monks”, like ruḍwāniyyah from ruḍwān. That is because they imposed hardships upon themselves in abstaining from food, drink and marriage, and in attaching themselves to caves and hermitages; and this was because their kings altered and changed the religion, and a small band remained who became monks and devoted themselves wholly to God. Al-Ḍaḥḥāk said: kings after Jesus (peace be upon him) committed forbidden things for three hundred years, and those who had remained upon the way of Jesus censured them for it, so the kings killed them. Then a people who remained after them said: “If we forbid them, they will kill us; it is not possible for us to remain among them.” So they withdrew from people and took to hermitages. Qatādah said: the monasticism which they invented was the renunciation of women and the taking of hermitages. In a report traced to the Prophet: “It is their betaking themselves to the deserts and the mountains.”

We did not prescribe it for them (57:27), that is, We did not make it obligatory upon them nor command them to it; Ibn Zayd said this. And His words, Exalted: except seeking the good pleasure of God (57:27), that is, We commanded them nothing except what pleases God; Ibn Muslim said this. Al-Zajjāj said: the meaning of We did not prescribe it for them is “We did not prescribe anything at all upon them”, and seeking the good pleasure of God is a substitute for the hāʾ and alif in katabnāhā, the meaning being: We did not prescribe for them anything except the seeking of God’s good pleasure. It has been said that except seeking is a discontinuous exception (istithnāʾ munqaṭiʿ), and the implied construction is: We did not prescribe it for them, but they invented it seeking the good pleasure of God.

but they did not observe it with its due observance (57:27), that is, they did not discharge it with its due discharge. This is a specific statement, because those who failed to observe it were only some of the people, who made monasticism a means to seeking leadership over people and consuming their wealth, as He, Exalted, said: O you who believe, indeed many of the rabbis and monks consume the wealth of people by falsehood and turn others away from the path of God (9:34). This concerns a people whose monasticism led them, in the end, to the seeking of leadership. Sufyān al-Thawrī related from ʿAṭāʾ ibn al-Sāʾib, from Saʿīd ibn Jubayr, from Ibn ʿAbbās, concerning His words, Exalted, and monasticism which they invented (57:27), who said: There were kings after Jesus who altered the Torah and the Gospel, and among them were believers who recited the Torah and the Gospel and called to the religion of God, Exalted. Some people said to their king: “If only you would kill this party.” The believers said: “We will spare you the trouble of ourselves.” So one party said: “Build us a pillar and raise us up on it, and give us something by which we may hoist up our food and drink, and we shall not come back among you.” Another party said: “Let us roam the earth and wander, and drink as the wild beasts drink in the wilderness, and if you get hold of us, kill us.” And another party said: “Build us houses in the deserts, and we shall dig wells and cultivate vegetables, and you will not see us.” There was not one of these but had a close kinsman among them, so they did so. Those men continued upon the way of Jesus, and after them came a people from among those who had altered the Book, who said: “We shall wander and devote ourselves to worship as those men devoted themselves”, while they were upon their polytheism, having no knowledge of the faith of those who had gone before them, whom they imitated. That is His word, Exalted: and monasticism which they invented; We did not prescribe it for them, except seeking the good pleasure of God to the end of the verse. He says: those righteous ones invented it, but they did not observe it, the later ones, with its due observance; so We gave those of them who believed their reward (57:27), meaning those who first invented it and observed it, but many of them are transgressors (57:27), meaning the later ones. When God sent Muḥammad (peace and blessings be upon him), and only a few of them remained, they came out of the caves, the hermitages and the caverns and believed in Muḥammad (peace and blessings be upon him).

• The third: This verse indicates that every newly introduced thing is an innovation (bidʿah), so it behoves whoever introduces something good to persist in it and not turn away from it to its opposite, lest he fall under the verse. From Abū Umāmah al-Bāhilī, whose name was Ṣuday ibn ʿAjlān, who said: “You have introduced the night prayer of Ramaḍān, and it was not prescribed for you; only the fast was prescribed for you. So persist in the night prayer now that you have undertaken it, and do not abandon it, for some of the Children of Israel invented innovations which God had not prescribed for them, seeking by them the good pleasure of God, but they did not observe them with their due observance, so God censured them for abandoning them and said: and monasticism which they invented; We did not prescribe it for them, except seeking the good pleasure of God, but they did not observe it with its due observance (57:27).”
• The fourth: In the verse there is a proof for withdrawal from people in hermitages and houses, and that is recommended when the age is corrupt and friends and brethren have changed. The exposition of this has already been given in full in Sūrat al-Kahf,⁸ and praise be to God. In the Musnad of Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal, from the ḥadīth of Abū Umāmah al-Bāhilī (may God be pleased with him), who said: We went out with the Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) on one of his expeditions, and he said: A man passed by a cave in which there was some water, and he said to himself that he would settle in that cave, and the water in it would sustain him, and he would gather the vegetables around it and withdraw from the world. He said: “Suppose I were to go to the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) and mention that to him; if he gives me leave I shall do it, and if not I shall not.” So he came to him and said: “O Prophet of God, I passed by a cave in which there is enough water and vegetables to sustain me, and I said to myself that I would settle in it and withdraw from the world.” He said: the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: “I was not sent with Judaism nor with Christianity, but I was sent with the tolerant primordial faith (al-ḥanīfiyyah al-samḥah). By Him in whose hand is the soul of Muḥammad, a morning’s or an evening’s going forth in the path of God is better than the world and all that is in it, and the standing of one of you in the first row is better than his prayer for sixty years.” The Kufans related from Ibn Masʿūd, who said: the Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) said to me: “Do you know which of people is the most knowledgeable?” He said: I said: “God and His Messenger know best.” He said: “The most knowledgeable of people is the one with the clearest sight of the truth when people differ about it, even if he falls short in works, and even if he crawls upon his backside. Do you know whence the Children of Israel took up monasticism? Tyrants gained mastery over them after Jesus, acting in disobedience to God, and the people of faith grew angry and fought them, and the people of faith were defeated three times until only a few of them remained. They said: ‘If they annihilate us, there will be no one left for the religion to call people to it; so come, let us scatter through the earth until God sends the unlettered Prophet whom Jesus promised us’, meaning Muḥammad (peace and blessings be upon him). So they scattered into the caverns of the mountains and introduced a monasticism; and among them were those who held fast to their religion, and among them were those who disbelieved.” And he recited and monasticism to the end of the verse. “Do you know what the monasticism of my community is? Emigration, struggle in the path of God, fasting, prayer, the pilgrimage, the lesser pilgrimage, and proclaiming God’s greatness upon the hills. O Ibn Masʿūd, those of the Jews who were before you split into seventy-one sects, of which one was saved and the rest perished; and those of the Christians who were before you split into seventy-two sects, of which three were saved and the rest perished: a sect which confronted the kings and fought them for the religion of God and the religion of Jesus (peace be upon him) until they were killed; a sect which had no strength to confront the kings, so they remained among their people and called them to the religion of God and the religion of Jesus son of Mary, and the kings seized them and killed them and cut them in pieces with saws; and a sect which had no strength to confront the kings nor to remain among their people and call them to the religion of God and the religion of Jesus son of Mary, so they wandered in the mountains and became monks there, and they are those of whom God, Exalted, said: and monasticism which they invented to the end of the verse. So whoever believes in me and follows me and affirms me has observed it with its due observance, and whoever does not believe in me, those are the transgressors“, meaning those who became Jews and Christians. It has been said: these are those who lived to see Muḥammad (peace and blessings be upon him) and did not believe in him; those are the transgressors. In the verse there is consolation for the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), that is: the earlier peoples also persisted in unbelief, so do not marvel at the people of your age if they persist in unbelief. And God knows best.

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On 57:27

He, Exalted, informs that since He sent Noah (peace be upon him) He has not sent after him any messenger or prophet except from his progeny; and likewise Abraham (peace be upon him), the Intimate Friend of the Most Merciful: He has not sent down from heaven any scripture, nor sent any messenger, nor revealed to any human being after him, except that he was of his lineage, as He said in the other verse: and We placed among their progeny prophethood and the Scripture (57:26), meaning, until the last of the prophets of the Children of Israel was Jesus son of Mary, who gave glad tidings after him of Muḥammad (the blessings and peace of God be upon them both). For this reason He, Exalted, said: Then We sent Our messengers to follow in their footsteps, and We sent Jesus son of Mary to follow, and We gave him the Gospel (57:27),

which is the Book that God revealed to him; and We placed in the hearts of those who followed him (57:27)—and they are the disciples—compassion and mercy (57:27), that is: compassion (raʾfah), which is reverent fear, and mercy (57:27) towards creation.

And His words: and monasticism which they invented (57:27), that is: the community of the Christians invented it; We did not prescribe it for them (57:27), that is: We did not legislate it for them; rather, they bound themselves to it of their own accord.

And His words: except seeking the good pleasure of God (57:27): on this there are two views.

• One of them: that they intended by that the good pleasure of God; so said Saʿīd ibn Jubayr and Qatādah.
• The other: We did not prescribe that for them; We prescribed for them only the seeking of the good pleasure of God.

And His words: but they did not observe it with its due observance (57:27), that is: they did not fulfil what they had bound themselves to as it ought to be fulfilled. This is a censure of them from two aspects:

• the first, for innovating in the religion of God what God did not command;
• and the second, for their failure to fulfil what they had bound themselves to, of what they alleged to be an act of devotion bringing them near to God, Mighty and Majestic.

Ibn Abī Ḥātim said: Isḥāq ibn Abī Ḥamzah Abū Yaʿqūb al-Rāzī related to us: al-Sindī ibn ʿAbdawayh related to us: Bukayr ibn Maʿrūf related to us, from Muqātil ibn Ḥayyān, from al-Qāsim ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Masʿūd, from his father, from his grandfather Ibn Masʿūd, who said: The Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) said to me: “O Ibn Masʿūd.” I said: At your service, O Messenger of God. He said: “Do you know that the Children of Israel split into seventy-two sects, of which none were saved but three sects? One stood up among the kings and the tyrants after Jesus son of Mary (peace be upon him) and called to the religion of God and the religion of Jesus son of Mary; it fought the tyrants and was slain, and it endured patiently and was saved. Then another group stood up which had no strength for fighting; it stood up among the kings and the tyrants and they called to the religion of God and the religion of Jesus son of Mary, and it was slain and sawn asunder with saws and burnt with fire, and it endured patiently and was saved. Then another group stood up which had no strength for fighting and was not able to uphold justice, so it took to the mountains and devoted itself to worship and became monks; and these are the ones whom God, Mighty and Majestic, mentioned: and monasticism which they invented; We did not prescribe it for them (57:27).”

Ibn Jarīr related it with another wording by another route, saying: Yaḥyā ibn Abī Ṭālib related to us: Dāwūd ibn al-Muḥabbar related to us: al-Ṣaʿq ibn Ḥazn related to us: ʿUqayl al-Jaʿdī related to us, from Abū Isḥāq al-Hamdānī, from Suwayd ibn Ghafalah, from ʿAbd Allāh ibn Masʿūd, who said: The Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) said: “Those who were before us split into seventy-three sects; three of them were saved and the rest of them perished…”, and he mentioned the like of what has preceded, and in it: “So We gave those of them who believed their reward (57:27): they are the ones who believed in me and affirmed me; but many of them are transgressors (57:27): they are the ones who denied me and opposed me.”

The condition of Dāwūd ibn al-Muḥabbar—for he is one of the fabricators of ḥadīth—does not impair this corroborating transmission (mutābaʿah), since Abū Yaʿlā has also transmitted it with a chain of his own, from Shaybān ibn Farrūkh, from al-Ṣaʿq ibn Ḥazn, with the like of that; and so the ḥadīth is strengthened by this route.

Ibn Jarīr and Abū ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Nasāʾī—the wording being his—said: al-Ḥusayn ibn Ḥurayth informed us: al-Faḍl ibn Mūsā related to us, from Sufyān ibn Saʿīd, from ʿAṭāʾ ibn al-Sāʾib, from Saʿīd ibn Jubayr, from Ibn ʿAbbās (may God be pleased with them both), who said: There were kings after Jesus (peace be upon him) who altered the Torah and the Gospel, and among the people were believers who used to recite the Torah and the Gospel. It was said to their kings: We find nothing more severe than the abuse with which these people abuse us: they recite: And whoever does not judge by what God has sent down—those are the disbelievers (5:44), these verses, together with what they reproach us with concerning our deeds in their recitation; so summon them and let them recite as we recite and believe as we believe. So he summoned them and gathered them together and offered them death, or else that they abandon the recitation of the Torah and the Gospel, except what they had altered of them. They said: What do you want with that? Leave us be. One group of them said: Build us a pillar, then raise us up onto it, then give us something by which we may hoist up our food and drink, and we shall not trouble you. Another group said: Leave us to wander in the earth and roam and drink as the wild beasts drink, and if you catch us in your land, then kill us. Another group said: Build us houses in the deserts, and we shall dig wells and cultivate vegetables, and we shall not trouble you nor pass by you. And there was no tribe but had a close kinsman among them, so they did that; and God, Mighty and Majestic, sent down: and monasticism which they invented; We did not prescribe it for them, except seeking the good pleasure of God; but they did not observe it with its due observance (57:27). The others said: We shall worship as So-and-so worshipped, wander as So-and-so wandered, and take houses as So-and-so took houses—while they were upon their polytheism, having no knowledge of the faith of those whom they imitated. When the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) was sent and only a few of them remained, a man came down from his hermitage, a wanderer came from his wandering and the master of a monastery from his monastery, and they believed in him and affirmed him. So God, Mighty and Majestic, said: O you who believe, fear God and believe in His Messenger; He will give you a double portion of His mercy (57:28): two rewards, for their belief in Jesus son of Mary, the Torah and the Gospel, and for their belief in Muḥammad (peace and blessings be upon him) and their affirmation of him. He said: and He will appoint for you a light by which you shall walk (57:28): the Qurʾan and their following of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him). He said: so that the People of the Book may know (57:29)—those who imitate you—that they have no power over anything of the bounty of God, and that bounty is in the hand of God; He gives it to whom He wills, and God is the possessor of great bounty (57:29).

This narrative contains some strangeness, and the interpretation of these latter two verses will come in a manner other than this; and God knows best.

The Ḥāfiẓ Abū Yaʿlā al-Mawṣilī said: Aḥmad ibn ʿĪsā related to us: ʿAbd Allāh ibn Wahb related to us: Saʿīd ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Abī al-ʿAmyāʾ related to me that Sahl ibn Abī Umāmah related to him that he and his father went in to Anas ibn Mālik in Medina in the time of ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz, when he was governor, and he was praying a light prayer, as though it were the prayer of a traveller or close to it. When he gave the salutation, he said: May God have mercy on you; do you consider this prayer to be the prescribed prayer, or something supererogatory you have performed? He said: It is the prescribed prayer, and it is the prayer of the Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him); I have not erred except in something I have forgotten. For the Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) used to say: “Do not be severe with yourselves, lest severity be shown to you; for a people were severe with themselves and severity was shown to them, and those are their remnants in the hermitages and the monasteries: ‘monasticism which they invented; We did not prescribe it for them’.” Then they set out the next morning and said: Let us ride and look and take a lesson. He said: Yes. So they all rode, and behold, they came upon desolate dwellings whose people had perished, died out and passed away, fallen in upon their roofs. They said: Do you know these dwellings? He said: How well I know them and their people! These are the people of these dwellings; oppression and envy destroyed them. Surely envy extinguishes the light of good deeds, and oppression confirms that or belies it; and the eye commits fornication, and the hand, the foot, the body and the tongue, and the private parts confirm that or belie it.

Imām Aḥmad said: Yaʿmar related to us: ʿAbd Allāh related to us: Sufyān informed us, from Zayd al-ʿAmmī, from Abū Iyās, from Anas ibn Mālik, that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: “Every prophet has a monasticism, and the monasticism of this community is striving (jihād) in the way of God, Mighty and Majestic.”

The Ḥāfiẓ Abū Yaʿlā related it from ʿAbd Allāh ibn Muḥammad ibn Asmāʾ, from ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Mubārak, with this chain, and its wording is: “Every community has a monasticism, and the monasticism of this community is striving in the way of God.”

Imām Aḥmad said: Ḥusayn—that is, Ibn Muḥammad—related to us: Ibn ʿAyyāsh—meaning Ismāʿīl—related to us, from al-Ḥajjāj ibn Marwān al-Kalāʿī and ʿUqayl ibn Mudrik al-Sulamī, from Abū Saʿīd al-Khudrī (may God be pleased with him), that a man came to him and said: Counsel me. He said: You have asked about what I asked the Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) before you. I counsel you to fear God, for it is the head of everything; and hold fast to striving (jihād), for it is the monasticism of Islam; and hold fast to the remembrance of God and the recitation of the Qurʾan, for it is your spirit in heaven and your mention on the earth. Aḥmad alone has related it.

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On 57:27

57:27. Then We caused to follow in their footsteps: We sent following and in succession, after Noah and Abraham, among their descendants; Our messengers: one upon the track of another; and We caused to follow in their footsteps: We sent following and in succession, after these messengers, other than Muḥammad (peace and blessings be upon him); Jesus son of Mary, and We gave him: We bestowed upon him; the Gospel, and We placed in the hearts of those who followed him: who followed the religion of Jesus; compassion: tenderness and kindness, each of them inclining in kindness towards the other; and mercy: each of them showing mercy to the other; and monasticism, which they innovated: they prepared for it the hermitages and the monasteries, so as to live as monks therein and to escape the trial of Paul the Jew; We did not prescribe it for them: We did not make monasticism obligatory for them; except seeking the good pleasure of God: except the seeking of God’s good pleasure; and it is said: they innovated it only seeking the good pleasure of God; We did not prescribe it for them, that is, We did not make monasticism obligatory for them, and had We made monasticism obligatory for them, they did not observe it: they did not keep monasticism; with its due observance: with its due keeping; so We gave: so We bestowed upon; those of them who believed: of the monks; their reward: their recompense, twice over, for faith and worship; and they are those who did not depart from the religion of Jesus son of Mary; and there remained of them twenty-four men among the people of Yemen, who came to the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), believed in him and entered his religion; but many of them: of the monks; are rebellious: unbelievers, and they are those who departed from the religion of Jesus.

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On 57:27

Then We sent following in their footsteps Our messengers, and We sent following Jesus son of Mary, and gave him the Gospel, and placed in the hearts of those who followed him compassion and mercy, and monasticism (57:27) – this is the renouncing of women and the taking up of hermit-cells – which they innovated, of their own accord; We did not prescribe it for them, We did not command them with it, except – but they did it – seeking the good pleasure, the approval, of God; but they did not observe it with its due observance, since many of them abandoned it and disbelieved in the religion of Jesus and entered into the religion of their king; while many of them remained upon the religion of Jesus and believed in our Prophet. So We gave those of them who believed, in him, their reward; but many of them are transgressors.

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On 57:27

His words, Exalted: And We placed in the hearts of those who followed him (57:27), the verse.

ʿAbd ibn Ḥumayd, al-Ḥakīm al-Tirmidhī in Nawādir al-uṣūl, Abū Yaʿlā, Ibn Jarīr, Ibn al-Mundhir, Ibn Abī Ḥātim, al-Ṭabarānī, al-Ḥākim—who declared it sound—Ibn Mardawayh, al-Bayhaqī in Shuʿab al-īmān and Ibn ʿAsākir reported through several routes from Ibn Masʿūd, who said: The Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) said: “O ʿAbd Allāh!” I said: At your service, O Messenger of God—three times. He said: “Do you know which of the handholds of faith is the firmest?” I said: God and His Messenger know best. He said: “The firmest of faith is allegiance for the sake of God: loving for His sake and hating for His sake.” He said: “Do you know which of people is the most excellent?” I said: God and His Messenger know best. He said: “The most excellent of people is the most excellent of them in deeds, when they have understanding in their religion. O ʿAbd Allāh, do you know which of people is the most knowledgeable?” I said: God and His Messenger know best. He said: “The most knowledgeable of people is the one with the clearest sight of the truth when people differ, even if he falls short in deeds, and even if he crawls along on his backside. Those who were before us split into seventy-two sects; three of them were saved and the rest perished. One sect stood against the kings and fought them over the religion of God and of Jesus son of Mary, until they were killed. One sect had no strength to stand against the kings, so they remained in the midst of their people and called them to the religion of God and the religion of Jesus, and the kings killed them and sawed them with saws. And one sect had no strength to stand against the kings nor to remain among them, so they wandered in the mountains and took up the life of monks there; and they are those of whom God said: and monasticism, which they innovated—We did not prescribe it for them—only seeking the good pleasure of God; but they did not observe it with the observance due to it. So We gave those of them who believed their reward (57:27): they are those who believed in me and affirmed me; but many of them are sinners (57:27): those who disbelieved in me and rejected me.”

al-Nasāʾī, al-Ḥakīm al-Tirmidhī in Nawādir al-uṣūl, Ibn Jarīr, Ibn al-Mundhir and Ibn Mardawayh reported from Ibn ʿAbbās, who said: There were kings after Jesus who altered the Torah and the Gospel, while among them were believers who recited the Torah and the Gospel. It was said to their kings: We find nothing harsher than the abuse these people heap upon us, for they recite: And whoever does not judge by what God has sent down, they are the disbelievers (5:44), And whoever does not judge by what God has sent down, they are the wrongdoers (5:45), And whoever does not judge by what God has sent down, they are the sinners (5:47), together with the way they fault our deeds in their recitation. So summon them, and let them recite as we recite and believe as we believe. So he summoned them and gathered them, and offered them death, or else that they abandon the recitation of the Torah and the Gospel except for what they had altered of it. They said: What do you want with that? Leave us be. One party of them said: Build us a pillar, then raise us up onto it, then give us something by which we may hoist up our food and drink, and we shall not come back to you. Another party said: Leave us to wander in the land and roam, and to eat of what the wild beasts eat and drink as they drink; and if you get hold of us in your land, kill us. Another party said: Build us houses in the wastelands, and we shall dig wells and cultivate vegetables, and we shall not come back to you nor pass by you. And there was no tribe but had a close kinsman among them. So they did that, and God sent down: and monasticism, which they innovated—We did not prescribe it for them—only seeking the good pleasure of God; but they did not observe it with the observance due to it (57:27). He said: And the others—those of the people of polytheism who took up devotions, after those of the former had passed away who passed away—said: We shall worship as so-and-so worshipped, and wander as so-and-so wandered, and take houses as so-and-so took them; yet they were upon their polytheism, having no knowledge of the faith of those whom they imitated. When the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) was sent and only a few of them remained, the man of the cell came down from his cell, the wanderer came from his wandering, and the man of the monastery from his monastery, and they believed in him and affirmed him. So God Exalted said: O you who believe, fear God and believe in His Messenger; He will give you two portions of His mercy (57:28): two rewards, for their faith in Jesus, their wearying of themselves, and the Torah and the Gospel, and for their faith in Muḥammad (peace and blessings be upon him) and their affirmation of him; and He will make for you a light by which you walk (57:28): the Qurʾān and their following the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him).

Abū Dāwūd, Abū Yaʿlā and al-Ḍiyāʾ reported from Anas that the Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) said: “Do not be severe upon yourselves lest severity be imposed upon you; for a people were severe upon themselves and severity was imposed upon them, and those are their remnants in the cells and the monasteries: and monasticism, which they innovated—We did not prescribe it for them (57:27).”

al-Ṭabarānī and al-Bayhaqī in Shuʿab al-īmān reported from Sahl ibn Abī Umāmah ibn Sahl ibn Ḥunayf, from his father, from his grandfather, that the Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) said: “Do not be severe upon yourselves, for those who were before you perished only through their severity upon themselves; and you will find their remnants in the cells and the monasteries.”

Saʿīd ibn Manṣūr, ʿAbd ibn Ḥumayd, Ibn Jarīr, Ibn Mardawayh and Ibn Naṣr reported from Abū Umāmah, who said: “God prescribed for you the fast of the month of Ramaḍān, but He did not prescribe for you its night prayer; the night prayer is only something you innovated, so persevere in it and do not abandon it; for some people of the Children of Israel innovated an innovation, and God faulted them for abandoning it,” and he recited this verse: and monasticism, which they innovated (57:27), the verse.

Aḥmad, al-Ḥakīm al-Tirmidhī, Abū Yaʿlā and al-Bayhaqī in Shuʿab al-īmān reported from Anas that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: “Every community has a monasticism, and the monasticism of this community is striving (jihād) in the way of God.”

ʿAbd ibn Ḥumayd and Ibn al-Mundhir reported from Qatādah concerning His words: and monasticism, which they innovated (57:27): he said: It was mentioned to us that they renounced women and took to cells.

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On 57:27

Then We sent following, that is, We caused to follow in their footsteps Our messengers, and We sent following Jesus son of Mary. God singled out Jesus (peace be upon him) because the context concerns the Christians, who claim to follow Jesus. And We gave him the Gospel, which is one of God’s excellent books, and We placed in the hearts of those who followed him compassion and mercy, as He, Exalted, said: You will surely find the most intense of people in enmity towards those who believe to be the Jews and those who associate partners with God, and you will surely find the nearest of them in affection towards those who believe to be those who say: We are Christians. That is because among them are priests and monks, and because they are not arrogant (5:82), and the following verses. For this reason the Christians were softer of heart than others when they were upon the law of Jesus (peace be upon him). And monasticism, which they invented: monasticism (rahbāniyya) is worship; they invented of their own accord a form of worship, imposed it upon themselves and bound themselves to its requirements, which God had not written for them nor made obligatory; rather it was they who bound themselves to it of their own accord, their intent in that being the good pleasure of God. Yet despite that, they did not observe it with its due observance, that is, they did not carry it out nor fulfil its rights. So they fell short in two respects: in respect of their innovation, and in respect of their failure to carry out what they had imposed upon themselves. This condition is the predominant one among their conditions, though among them are those who are upright upon the command of God, and for this reason He said: So We gave those of them who believed their reward, that is, those who believed in Muḥammad (peace and blessings be upon him) together with their faith in Jesus: God gave each one according to his faith; but many of them are corrupt (57:27).

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