Prophetic Commentary on the Qur'an (Tafseer of the Prophet (pbuh))

I was a blacksmith in Mecca Once I made a sword for Al-`Asi bin Wail As-Sahmi. When I went to demand its price, he said, "I will not give it to you till you disbelieve in Muhammad." I said, "I shall not disbelieve in Muhammad till Allah make you die and then bring you to life again." He said, "If Allah should make me die and then resurrect me and I would have wealth and children." So Allah revealed:-- 'Have you seen him who disbelieved in Our Signs, and (yet) says I shall certainly be given wealth and children? Has he known the unseen or has he taken a covenant from (Allah) the Beneficent?' (19.77- 78)

A man accused his wife of illegal sexual intercourse and denied his paternity to her (conceived) child during the lifetime of Allah's Messenger (ﷺ). Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) ordered them both to do Mula'ana as Allah decreed and then gave his decision that the child would be for the mother, and a divorce decree was issued for the couple involved in a case of Mula'ana.

`Abdur-Rahman bin Abza ordered me to ask Ibn `Abbas regarding the two Verses (the first of which was ): "And whosoever murders a believer intentionally." (4.93) So I asked him, and he said, "Nothing has abrogated this Verse." About (the other Verse): 'And those who invoke not with Allah any other god.' he said, "It was revealed concerning the pagans."

(the wife of the Prophet) Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) came to me when Allah ordered him to give option to his wives. So Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) started with me, saying, "I am going to mention to you something but you should not hasten (to give your reply) unless you consult your parents.' He knew that my parents would not order me to leave him. Then he said, "Allah says:-- "O Prophet! Say to your wives..." (33.28-29) On that I said to him, "Then why should I consult my parents? Verily, I seek Allah, His Apostle and the Home of the Hereafter."

The Prophet (ﷺ) said, "I will be the first to raise my head after the second blowing of the trumpet and will see Moses hanging the Throne, and I will not know whether he had been in that state all the time or after the blowing of the trumpet."

The Prophet (ﷺ) said, "Between the two blowing of the trumpet there will be forty." The people said, "O Abu Huraira! Forty days?" I refused to reply. They said, "Forty years?" I refused to reply and added: Everything of the human body will decay except the coccyx bone (of the tail) and from that bone Allah will reconstruct the whole body.

I asked `Abdullah bin `Amr bin Al-`As to inform me of the worst thing the pagans had done to Allah's Apostle. He said: "While Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) was praying in the courtyard of the Ka`ba, `Uqba bin Abi Mu'ait came and seized Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) by the shoulder and twisted his garment round his neck and throttled him severely. Abu Bakr came and seized `Uqba's shoulder and threw him away from Allah's Apostle and said, "Would you kill a man because he says: 'My Lord is Allah,' and has come to you with clear Signs from your Lord?" (40.28)

I came upon `Abdullah and he said, "When Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) invited Quraish (to Islam), they disbelieved him and stood against him. So he (the Prophet) said, "O Allah! Help me against them by afflicting them with seven years of famine similar to the seven years of Joseph.' So they were stricken with a year of drought that destroyed everything, and they started eating dead animals, and if one of them got up he would see something like smoke between him and the sky from the severe fatigue and hunger." `Abdullah then recited:-- 'Then watch you for the Day that the sky will bring forth a kind of smoke plainly visible, covering the people. This is a painful torment... (till he reached) ........ We shall indeed remove the punishment for a while, but truly you will revert (to heathenism): (44.10-15) `Abdullah added: "Will the punishment be removed from them on the Day of Resurrection?" He added," The severe grasp" was the Day of the Battle of Badr."

While a man from the companions of the Prophet (ﷺ) was reciting (Qur'an) and his horse was tied in the house, the horse got startled and started jumping. The man came out, looked around but could not find anything, yet the horse went on jumping. The next morning he mentioned that to the Prophet. The Prophet (ﷺ) said, "That was the tranquility (calmness) which descended because of the recitation of the Qur'an."

The Prophet (ﷺ) performed a prostration when he finished reciting Surat-an-Najm, and all the Muslims and pagans and Jinns and human beings prostrated along with him.

The first Sura in which a prostration was mentioned, was Sura An-Najm (The Star). Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) prostrated (while reciting it), and everybody behind him prostrated except a man whom I saw taking a hand-full of dust in his hand and prostrated on it. Later I saw that man killed as an infidel, and he was Umaiya bin Khalaf.

The Prophet (ﷺ) recited: 'Fahal-min Muddakir': 'And verily, We have destroyed nations like unto you; then is there any that will receive admonition?' (54.51)

`Abdullah (bin Masud) said. "Allah curses those ladies who practice tattooing and those who get themselves tattooed, and those ladies who remove the hair from their faces and those who make artificial spaces between their teeth in order to look more beautiful whereby they change Allah's creation." His saying reached a lady from Bani Asd called Um Yaqub who came (to `Abdullah) and said, "I have come to know that you have cursed such-and-such (ladies)?" He replied, "Why should I not curse these whom Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) has cursed and who are (cursed) in Allah's Book!" Um Yaqub said, "I have read the whole Qur'an, but I did not find in it what you say." He said, "Verily, if you have read it (i.e. the Qur'an), you have found it. Didn't you read: 'And whatsoever the Apostle gives you take it and whatsoever he forbids you, you abstain (from it). (59.7) She replied, "Yes, I did," He said, "Verily, Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) forbade such things." "She said, "But I see your wife doing these things?" He said, "Go and watch her." She went and watched her but could not see anything in support of her statement. On that he said, "If my wife was as you thought, I would not keep her in my company."

Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) has cursed the lady who uses false hair.

While I was with my uncle, I heard `Abdullah bin Ubai bin Salul saying, "Do not spend on those who are with Allah's Messenger (ﷺ), that they may disperse and go away (from him). And if we return to Medina, surely, the more honorable will expel therefrom the meaner. "I mentioned that to my uncle who, in turn, mentioned it to the Prophet. The Prophet (ﷺ) called me and I told him about that. Then he sent for `Abdullah bin Ubai and his companions, and they swore that they did not say so. The Prophet (ﷺ) disbelieved my statement and believed theirs. I was distressed as I have never been before, and I remained in my house. My uncle said to me, "You just wanted the Prophet (ﷺ) to consider you a liar and hate you." Then Allah revealed:-- 'When the hypocrites come to you, they say: 'We bear witness that you are indeed the Apostle of Allah." (63.1) So the Prophet (ﷺ) sent for me and recited it and said, "Allah has confirmed your statement."

I intended to ask `Umar about those two ladies who back each other against 'Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) . For one year I was seeking the opportunity to ask this question, but in vain, until once when I accompanied him for Hajj. While we were in Zahran, `Umar went to answer the call of nature and told me to follow him with some water for ablution. So I followed him with a container of water and started pouring water for him. I found it a good opportunity to ask him, so I said, "O chief of the Believers! Who were those two ladies who had backed each other (against the Prophet)?" Before I could complete my question, he replied, "They were `Aisha and Hafsa."

I heard the Prophet (ﷺ) describing the period of pause of the Divine Inspiration. He said in his talk, "While I was walking, I heard voices from the sky. I looked up, and behold ! I saw the same Angel who came to me in the cave of Hira' sitting on a chair between the sky and the earth. I was too much afraid of him (so I returned to my house) and said, 'Fold me up in garments!' They wrapped me up. Then Allah revealed: 'O you wrapped...and desert the idols before the prayer became compulsory.' Rujz means idols.

While we were with the Prophet (ﷺ) in a cave, Surat wal-Mursalat was revealed to him and he recited it, and I heard it directly from his mouth as soon as he recited its revelation. Suddenly a snake sprang at us, and the Prophet (ﷺ) said, "Kill it!" We ran to kill it but it escaped quickly. The Prophet (ﷺ) said. "It has escaped your evil, and you too have escaped its evil."

While the Prophet (ﷺ) was in a funeral procession, he took a small stick and started scraping the earth with it and said, "There is none among you but has his place written for him, either in the Hell Fire or in Paradise." They (the people) said, "Allah's Messenger (ﷺ)! Shall we depend on this (and leave work)?" He replied. "Carry on doing (good deeds), for everybody will find easy (to do) such deeds as will lead him to his destined place." The Prophet (ﷺ) then recited:-- 'As for him who gives (in charity) and keeps his duty to Allah, and believes in the Best Reward.'.....(92.5-10)

Abu Jahl said, "If I see Muhammad praying at the Ka`ba, I will tread on his neck." When the Prophet (ﷺ) heard of that, he said, "If he does so, the Angels will snatch him away."