42.23
Abbas - Tanwîr al-Miqbâs min Tafsîr Ibn ‘Abbâs
(This) bounty (it is which Allah announceth unto His bondmen) in the life of the world (who believe) in Muhammad and the Qur'an (and do good works) between them and their Lord. (Say) O Muhammad, to your Companions; and it is said: to the people of Mecca: (I ask of you no fee) no payment (therefore, save loving kindness among kinsfolk) except that you treat kindly my kinsfolk after me; it is also said this means: except that you draw closer to Allah through the profession of Allah's divine Oneness, according to al-Hasan al-Basri; and according to al-Farra' this means: draw closer to Allah by means of repentance. (And whoso scoreth a good deed we add unto its good for him) nine times. (Lo! Allah is Forgiving) He forgives the one who repents, (Responsive) He is thankful for very little and rewards for it abundantly.
That is the good tidings read yubshiru or yubashshiru from bishāra ‘good news’ which God gives to His servants who believe and perform righteous deeds. Say ‘I do not ask of you any reward for it for delivering the Message except the affection for my kinsfolk illā ‘except’ this represents a discontinuous exception in other words ‘but I do ask of you that you show affection for my kinship with you which at the same time is your kinship’; for he the Prophet had kinship ties with all the subdivisions of the tribe of Quraysh. And whoever acquires a good deed an act of obedience We shall enhance for him its goodness by multiplying the reward for it. Surely God is Forgiving of sins Appreciative even of little good and so He multiplies it manifold.
(That is whereof Allah gives glad tidings to His servants who believe and do righteous good deeds.) meaning, this will undoubtedly come to them, because it is glad tidings from Allah to them.
(Say: "No reward do I ask of you for this except to be kind to me for my kinship with you.'') means, `say, O Muhammad, to these idolators among the disbeliever of Quraysh: I do not ask you for anything in return for this message and sincere advice which I bring to you. All I ask of you is that you withhold your evil from me and let me convey the Messages of my Lord. If you will not help me, then do not disturb me, for the sake of the ties of kinship that exist between you and I.' Al-Bukhari recorded that Ibn `Abbas, may Allah be pleased with him, was asked about the Ayah:
إِلاَّ الْمَوَدَّةَ فِى الْقُرْبَى
(except to be kind to me for my kinship with you.) Sa`id bin Jubayr said, "To be kind to the family of Muhammad.'' Ibn `Abbas said, "No, you have jumped to a hasty conclusion. There was no clan among Quraysh to whom the Prophet did not have some ties of kinship.'' Ibn `Abbas said, "Except that you uphold the ties of kinship that exist between me and you.'' This was recorded by Al-Bukhari. It was also recorded by Imam Ahmad with a different chain of narration.
(And whoever earns a good righteous deed, We shall give him an increase of good in respect thereof) means, `whoever does a good deed, We will increase him in good for it, i.e., in reward.' This is like the Ayah:
(Surely, Allah wrongs not even of the weight of a speck of dust, but if there is any good, He doubles it, and gives from Him a great reward.) (4:40)
إِنَّ اللَّهَ غَفُورٌ شَكُورٌ
(Verily, Allah is Oft-Forgiving, Most Ready to appreciate.) means, He forgives many bad deeds and increases a small amount of good deeds; He conceals and forgives sins and He multiplies and increases the reward of good deeds.
The Accusation that the Prophet fabricated the Qur'an -- and the Response to that
(Or say they: "He has invented a lie against Allah'' If Allah willed, He could have sealed up your heart.) means, `if you had invented any lies against Him, as these ignorant people claim,'
يَخْتِمْ عَلَى قَلْبِكَ
(He could have sealed up your heart.) means, `and thus caused you to forget what had already come to you of the Qur'an.' This is like the Ayah:
(And if he had forged a false saying concerning Us (Allah), We surely would have seized him by his right hand, and then We certainly would have cut off his life artery, And none of you could have withheld Us from (punishing) him.) (69:44-47) which means, `We would have wrought the utmost vengeance upon him, and no one among mankind would have been able to protect him.' And Allah said:
وَيُحِقُّ الْحَقَّ بِكَلِمَـتِهِ
(and establishes the truth by His Word.) means, He establishes it and strengthens it and makes it clear by His Words, i.e., by His evidence and signs.
إِنَّهُ عَلِيمٌ بِذَاتِ الصُّدُورِ
(Verily, He knows well what are in the breasts.) means, all that is hidden in the hearts of men.
42.21-23
Maududi - Sayyid Abul Ala Maududi - Tafhim al-Qur'an
In this verse the word shuraka (associates) obviously does not mean those beings whom the people invoke, or those in whose names they make offerings, or those before whom they carry out rites of worship, but inevitably it refers to those men whom the people regard as associates in the authority and sovereignty of Allah, whose thoughts, creeds, ideologies and philosophies they believe in, whose values they adroit, whose moral precepts and norms of civilization and culture they accept, and whose laws and rules and regulations they adopt to their rituals and rites of worship, in their personal and collective lives, in their trade and business dealings, in their politics and governments, as if they constituted the shari'ah that they had to follow faithfully. This is a complete code of life which the inventors invented against the legislation of Allah, Lord of the worlds, without His sanction and followed by the followers. This is the same sort of shirk as prostrating oneself before another and invoking another than Allah. (For further explanation, see An Nisa: 60; AI-Ma'idah: 87; AI.An'am: 121, 136. 137; At-Taubah: 31; Yunus: 59; IbrahIm: 22; An-Nahl: 115-116; AI.Kahf: 52: AI-Qasas: 62.64 : Saba : 41; Ya Sin: GO and the relevant E N.'s)
That is, 'This is such a boldness against Allah that had not judgement been deferred till Resurrection, the torment would have been sent down on every such person, who in spite of being Allah'. servant, enforced his own religion and way of life on Allah's earth, and those people also would have been visited by it, who forsook Allah's Religion and accepted the religion invented by others."
"This work": Every effort that the Holy prophet was making to save the people from Allah's punishment and to enable them to become worthy of the promise of Paradise.
The word qurba in the original has been interpreted differently by the different commentators. One section of them takes it in the meaning of kinship and has given this meaning to the verse "I do not ask of you any reward for this service, but I do desire that you (O people of Quraish) should show some regard tar the kinship that there is between me and you. You should have accepted my invitation. but if you do not accept it, you should not be so hard-hearted as to Become my bitterest enemies in the entire land of Arabia. " This is the interpretation given by Hadrat 'Abdullah bin 'Abbas, which has been cited by lmam Ahmad, Bukhari. Muslim. Tirmidhi, Ibn Jarir, Tabarani, Baihaqi. Ibn Said and others on the authority of many reporters and the same commentary has been given by Mujahid. 'Ikrimah, Qatadah, Suddi, Abu Malik, 'Abdur Rehman bin Zaid bin Aslam, Dahhak. 'Ata bin Dinar and the other major commentators. The other section takes qurba in the meaning of nearness and interprets the verse to mean: "I do not seek from you any other reward than this that you should develop in yourselves a desire for attaining nearness to Allah. That is; you should be reformed. That is my only reward. " This commentary has been reported from Hasan Basri and a saying of Qatadah also has been cited in support of this: so much so that in a tradition by Tabarani this saying has also been attributed to Ibn 'Abbas. In the Qur'an itself, at another place, this same subject has been treated, thus: "Tell them: I do not seek of you any reward for this work: I only ask of the one who will. to adopt the way of his Lord.' (AI-Furqan: 57). The third group takes qurba in the meaning of the kindred, and interprets the verse to mean this: "I do not seek from you any other reward than this that you should love my near and dear ones." Then, some of the commentators of this group interpret 'the kindred" to mean alt the children of 'Abdul Muttalib, and some others restrict it to Hadrat 'AIi and Fatimah and their children. This commentary has been reported from Said bin Jubair and 'Amr bin Shu'aib, and in some traditions it has been attributed to Ibn 'Abbas and Hadrat 'AIi bin Husain (Zam al-'Abedin), but this interpretation cannot be accepted for several reasons. Firstly. when Surah Ash-Shura was sent down at Makkah, Hadrat 'AIi and Fatimah had not yet been married and, therefore, there could be no question of their children. As for the children of 'Abdul Muttalib, they were not all following the Holy Prophet but some of them had openly joined with his enemies, and the enmity of Abu Lahab is too well known. Second, "the kindred" of the Holy Prophet were not only the children of 'Abdul Muttalib but he had his kindred among all the families of the Quraish through his mother and his father and his wife. Hadrat Khadijah. In all these clans he had his best supporters as well as his staunch enemies 'Third, and this is the most important paint, in view of the high position of a Prophet from which he starts his mission of inviting the people towards Allah, it does not seem fitting that he would ask the people to love his kindred in return for his services in connection with his great Mission. No person of fine taste could imagine that Allah would have taught His Prophet such a mean thing, and the Prophet would havc uttered the same before the Quraish. In the stones that have been narrated of the Prophets in the Qur'an, we find that a Prophet after a Prophet stands up before his people sad says: "I do not ask of you any reward: my reward is with Allah, Lord of the worlds." (Yunus: 72; Hud: 29, 51; Ash-Shu'ara': 109, 127, 145, 164, l80). In Surah Ya Sin the criterion given of a Prophet's truthfulness is that he gives his invitation without any selfish motive. (v. 21). In the Qur'an the Holy Prophet himself has been made to say again and again words to the effect: "I demand no reward from you for this message. " (Al An'am: 90, Yusuf: 104, Al-Mu'minun: 72, Al-Furqan: 57, Saba: 47, Suad: 86, At-Tur; 40, AI Qalam: 46). After this, what could be the occasion for the Holy Prophet to tell the people that in return for his service of inviting them to Allah, they should lout his relatives. Then it seems all the more irrelevant when we state that the addressees here are the disbelievers and not the believers. The whole discourse, from the beginning w the end, is directed to them. Therefore, there could be no question in this regard of asking the opponents for any reward, for a reward is asked of those who show some appreciation for the services that a person has rendered for them. The disbelievers were not at all appreciative of the Holy Prophet's services: on the contrary, they regarded them as a crime and had turned bitterly hostile to him.
That is, "Contrary to the culprits who commit disobedience knowingly, Allah's affair with the servants who strive to do good, is like this: (1) He makes them even more righteous than they could be solely by their own efforts; (2) He overlooks the weaknesses that remain in their work, and the sins that are committed by them inadvertently, in spite of striving to become good; and (3) Allah appreciates whatever little provision of the good deeds they bring and rewards them richly and generously for it. "
…Say ‘I do not ask of you any reward for it, except the affection due to [my] kinsfolk’…He said:The inner meaning of the verse refers to the link between the Sunna and obligatory acts (farḍ). It is related regarding this verse that Ḥasan [al-Baṣrī] said, ‘Whoever draws closer to God through obedience to Him, [will find that] God’s love becomes obligatory [for Him].’ His words:
…If anyone acquires a good deed, We shall enhance for him his goodness…He said:It refers to the cognisance (maʿrifa) [that a person should have] of his state relating to an act, before entering upon it, and after its completion, as to whether it is unhealthy (saqīm) or sound (saḥīḥ). His words, Exalted is He:
(Say (O Muhammad, unto mankind): I ask of you no fee therefor, save loving kindness among kinsfolk…) [42:23]. Said Ibn ‘Abbas: "When the Messenger of Allah, Allah bless him and give him peace, migrated to Medina, he went through periods of time when he faced needs and rights which he had to address but did not have the means to do so. The Helpers said: ‘Allah, exalted is He, has guided you through this man who is the son of your sister. He faces life’s vicissitudes and has rights but does not have the means to fulfil them. Collect for him from your wealth that which will not hurt you and give it to him so that he uses it to help himself with the ups and downs of life’. They collected some wealth and took it to him. They said: ‘O Messenger of Allah, you are the son of our sister, and Allah, exalted is He, has guided us through you. Sometimes you go through ups and downs in life and you also have rights to address. But you do not have the means to face up to all of this. We thought to collect for you some of our wealth so that you can use it when you need it. Here it is’. This verse was then revealed".
