al-Durr al-manthūr fī al-tafsīr bi-l-maʾthūr, by Jalāl al-Dīn al-Suyūṭī (d. 911 AH / 1505 CE). Al-Suyūṭī’s collection of every transmitted report on each verse, drawn from the ḥadīth collections and the early commentaries, many of them otherwise lost.
The complete commentary on Compassion, mercy and monasticism (57:27), covering 57:27.
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.
About this text
This is a complete English rendering of al-Durr al-manthūr fī al-tafsīr bi-l-maʾthūr on these verses, prepared for this website from the public-domain Arabic text (tafsir.app, src=aldur-almanthoor). 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. The modern editors’ apparatus is not part of the classical text and is left untranslated; a second translator has not checked the rendering, and the Arabic is linked so that any passage can be compared.
Compassion, mercy and monasticism (57:27): all commentaries · The classical commentaries