Tafsīr al-Qurʾān al-ʿAẓīm, by Abū al-Fidāʾ Ismāʿīl ibn ʿUmar ibn Kathīr (d. 774 AH / 1373 CE). The most read of the commentaries by ḥadīth, which explains the Qur’an by the Qur’an, then by the Prophet’s words, then by the Companions, and weighs the chains it cites.
The complete commentary on The refuge on high ground (23:50), covering 23:50.
On 23:50
He, Exalted, says, informing about His servant and messenger Jesus son of Mary (peace be upon them both), that He made the two of them a sign for mankind, that is, a decisive proof of His power over whatever He wills: for He created Adam without father or mother, created Eve from a male without a female, created Jesus from a female without a male, and created the rest of mankind from a male and a female.
And His words: and We gave them refuge on a height, a place of rest and flowing water (23:50). Al-Ḍaḥḥāk said, from Ibn ʿAbbās: the “height” (rabwah) is the elevated part of the earth, and it is the best ground for vegetation. So too said Mujāhid, ʿIkrimah, Saʿīd ibn Jubayr and Qatādah.
Ibn ʿAbbās said: And His words a place of rest (23:50): He says, a place of fertility; and flowing water (23:50) means water visible on the surface.
Mujāhid said: a level height.
Saʿīd ibn Jubayr said: a place of rest and flowing water (23:50): the water lay level upon it. Mujāhid and Qatādah said: and flowing water (23:50): running water.
Then the exegetes differed as to the location of this height: in which of God’s lands is it? ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Zayd ibn Aslam said: There are no heights except in Egypt: when the water is released, the heights are what the villages stand upon, and were it not for the heights the villages would be drowned.
Something like this is related from Wahb ibn Munabbih, and it is very far-fetched.
Ibn Abī Ḥātim said: Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Yazīd al-Muqriʾ related to us: Sufyān related to us, from Yaḥyā ibn Saʿīd, from Saʿīd ibn al-Musayyab, concerning His words, Exalted: and We gave them refuge on a height, a place of rest and flowing water (23:50), he said: It is Damascus.
He said: And something like that is related from ʿAbd Allāh ibn Salām, al-Ḥasan, Zayd ibn Aslam and Khālid ibn Maʿdān.
Ibn Abī Ḥātim said: Abū Saʿīd al-Ashajj related to us: Wakīʿ related to us, from Isrāʾīl, from Simāk, from ʿIkrimah, from Ibn ʿAbbās: a place of rest and flowing water (23:50), he said: the rivers of Damascus.
Layth ibn Abī Sulaym said, from Mujāhid: and We gave them refuge on a height, a place of rest and flowing water (23:50), he said: Jesus son of Mary and his mother, when they took refuge in the Ghūṭah of Damascus1 and its surroundings.
ʿAbd al-Razzāq said, from Bishr ibn Rāfiʿ, from Abū ʿAbd Allāh, the paternal cousin of Abū Hurayrah, who said: I heard Abū Hurayrah say, concerning His words: on a height, a place of rest and flowing water (23:50), he said: It is Ramlah in Palestine.
Ibn Abī Ḥātim said: My father related to us: Ibrāhīm ibn Muḥammad ibn Yūsuf al-Firyābī related to us: Rawwād ibn al-Jarrāḥ related to us: ʿAbbād ibn ʿAbbād al-Khawwāṣ Abū ʿUtbah related to us: al-Saybānī related to us, from Ibn Waʿlah, from Kurayb al-Saḥūlī, from Murrah al-Bahzī, who said: I heard the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) say to a man: “You will die at the height (al-rabwah)”, and he died at Ramlah. This is a very strange (gharīb) ḥadīth.
The nearest of the opinions on this is what al-ʿAwfī related from Ibn ʿAbbās concerning His words: and We gave them refuge on a height, a place of rest and flowing water (23:50), he said: the “flowing water” (maʿīn) is running water, and it is the stream of which God, Exalted, said: Your Lord has placed beneath you a rivulet (19:24).
So too said al-Ḍaḥḥāk and Qatādah: on a height, a place of rest and flowing water (23:50): it is Jerusalem (Bayt al-Maqdis). This—and God knows best—is the most evident view, because it is what is mentioned in the other verse; and the Qurʾan explains one part of itself by another. That is the most fitting means by which it is to be explained, then the sound ḥadīths, then the transmitted reports (āthār).
About this text
This is a complete English rendering of Tafsīr al-Qurʾān al-ʿAẓīm on these verses, prepared for this website from the public-domain Arabic text (tafsir.app, src=ibn-katheer). Nothing is abridged: every opinion, every report with its chain of transmission, every verse of poetry and every grammatical note is translated. Qur’anic quotations are in bold; the translator’s own notes are confined to the numbered footnotes and identify names, terms and variant readings only. A second translator has not checked the rendering, and the Arabic is linked so that any passage can be compared. The modern editors’ apparatus is not part of the classical text and is not translated.
The refuge on high ground (23:50): all commentaries · The classical commentaries
Notes
- The irrigated oasis of orchards surrounding Damascus. ↩