ترجمة معاني آية 172 سورة الأعراف - الترجمة الإنجليزية - د. وليد بليهش العمري - موسوعة القرآن الكريم

آية: 172

وَإِذۡ أَخَذَ رَبُّكَ مِنۢ بَنِيٓ ءَادَمَ مِن ظُهُورِهِمۡ ذُرِّيَّتَهُمۡ وَأَشۡهَدَهُمۡ عَلَىٰٓ أَنفُسِهِمۡ أَلَسۡتُ بِرَبِّكُمۡۖ قَالُواْ بَلَىٰ شَهِدۡنَآۚ أَن تَقُولُواْ يَوۡمَ ٱلۡقِيَٰمَةِ إِنَّا كُنَّا عَنۡ هَٰذَا غَٰفِلِينَ

(172) ˹Mention˺ When your Lord took the posterity of the children of Adam from their backs and made them bear witness about themselves ˹thus˺: “Am I not your Lord?” They said: “Yes, indeed! We bear witness ˹to it˺”.^[1815] That, lest that you say on the Day of Judgement: “We were not aware of this!”

[1815] There are two equally strong, potentially reconcilable, views as to the time and nature of this testimony which is widely known among scholars as mīthāq al-fiṭrah (the covenant of innate nature). The first being that God (سبحانه وتعالى) extracted the children of Adam from his back and hence generated them one generation after the other from their fathers’ backs and made them all bear this testimony (cf. al-Ṭabarī, al-Wāḥidī, al-Shawkānī, al-Shinqīṭī). The hadiths cited in support of this view are the one narrated by Abū Hurayrah (رضي الله عنه) that the Messenger (ﷺ) said: “When Allah created Adam, He swiped his back and from his back fell everyone He would create from his posterity until the Day of Judgement” (al-Tirmidhī: 3076, al-Bazzār: 8892, al-Ḥākim, al-Mustadrak: 4132; it was deemed authentic by al-Albānī, Ṣaḥīḥ al-Tirmidhī, Ibn Baṭṭāl, Sharḥ Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī, 3/370, and Ibn al-ʿArabī, Aḥkām al-Qur’ān, 2/333); and that which was narrated by Ibn ʿAbbās (رضي الله عنهما) that the Messenger (ﷺ) said: “Allah took the pledge from the back of Adam; He took from his loin all the posterity He created and scattered them between His Hands like small ants, then He talked to them directly ˹saying˺: “Am I not your Lord?” They said: “Yes, indeed! We bear witness ˹to it˺.” That, lest that you say on the Day of Judgement: “We were not aware of this!” Or that you may say: “Nay, but our fathers Associated before and we were nothing but a posterity ˹taking˺ after them; do You do away with us for what falsifiers committed?”” (Imām Aḥmad: 2455, al-Nasā’ī, al-Sunan al-Kubrā: 11127; it was deemed authentic by al-Ḥākim: 75, al-Dhahabī, Aḥmad Shākir, Musnad Aḥmad, and al-Albānī, Takhrīj Mishkāt al-Maṣābīḥ, p. 171)
The other view, which is held by such mighty scholars as Ibn Taymiyyah, Dar’ Taʿāruḍ al-ʿAql wa al-Naql, 8/487, Ibn al-Qayyim, Shifā’ al-ʿAlīl, pp. 12-13, Ibn Kathīr and al-Saʿdī, is that God made it innate for people, generation after the other, and that it is hard-wired in our very nature to Believe and vouch for the Oneness of God, being rightly-inclined to pristine Faith (ḥanīfiyyah): “Devote yourself uprightly to the Religion and follow the innate nature ˹/constitution˺ as made by Allah, that innate nature in which He has created mankind. There is no altering the creation of Allah. That is the right religion. But most people do not realize it” (30: 30). Since God created all humans thus, scattered His Signs all around them in all His creation and sent them Messengers as bearers of glad tidings and warners, they have no excuse but to Believe in Him and dedicate their worship to Him alone (Tafsīr al-Madīnah al-Munawwarah).