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Draft:Qur'an 5:27

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Qur'an 5:27
Verse's Information
Suraal-Ma'ida
Verse27
Juz'6
TopicThe story of the killing of Adam's (a) son by his brother

Qur'an 5:27 is God's command to the Prophet of Islam (s) regarding narrating the story of the two sons of Prophet Adam, one of whom killed his brother due to envy. According to Shia narrations, Abel and Cain, the sons of Prophet Adam (a), had a dispute over the will and succession of their father, and to resolve the dispute, they intended to offer a sacrifice to the Divine threshold so that whichever sacrifice was accepted, the right would be given to him.

According to this verse, Abel's sacrifice was accepted by God due to his observance of Taqwa, and the other brother threatened to kill him. God expresses the conversation that took place between these two brothers in verses 28 and 29 of Sura al-Ma'ida, and the execution of Cain's threat and the slaying of Abel in verse 30.

According to some exegetes, considering the context of the previous verses which are about the Jewish people, the command to the Prophet (s) to state the story of Adam's children for the Jews is an analogy of their oppression to Cain's action and also a rebuke to them whose envy and stubbornness prevented them from accepting Islam.

Habib Allah al-Khu'i maintains the invalidity of the theory that links the cause of the two brothers' dispute to the issue of their marriage with each other's sisters and says this theory is consistent with the culture of the Magians who believe in the permissibility of marriage between mahrams.

According to Sayyid Muḥammad Ḥusayn Ṭabāṭabā'ī, this story has been distorted in the Torah, and in it, God is presented as an individual possessing a body; thus, God at the beginning of the verse asks the Prophet (s) to narrate this story truthfully and away from distortion for his audience.

General Points

Qur'an 5:27 is a Divine command to the Prophet Muhammad (s) to recount the story of the two children of Prophet Adam (a) for the People of the Book with a truthful recitation;[1] exegetes have considered the reasons for this command to be the following:

  • Expressing the unfortunate fate that envy entails;[2]
  • Consoling the Prophet (s) and calming him regarding the ignorance and denial of the People of the Book;[3]
  • Rebuking the Jews and likening their Oppression, Breach of covenant, and sins to Cain's action;[4]
  • Lesson-taking for the People of the Book who refrained from accepting Islam due to envy and stubbornness.[5]

According to narrations, the names of these two individuals are Abel and Cain, sons of Prophet Adam (a), the first Divine prophet.[6] According to Ṭabāṭabā'ī, the purpose of truthful recitation is a recitation away from distortion and Shirk; because in the Torah, this story is mentioned in a way that leads to the theory of God possessing a body.[7] According to some narrations and the words of Muslim thinkers, the cause of the Killing of Abel is stated as his brother's envy toward him.[8] According to the verse under discussion, the story is such that each of the two sons of Adam (a) performed an act to seek closeness to God, which was accepted from one and not from the other.[9] This issue caused the one whose action was not accepted to threaten his brother with murder.[10] That brother considered himself blameless regarding the acceptance of his sacrifice by God and said in response to the brother who had threatened him that God accepts the action of the god-wary.[11]

The Origin of the Dispute between Abel and Cain and the Reason for Sacrificing

Main article: Killing of Abel

Among Shia exegetes, two causes for offering a sacrifice to the Divine threshold and the dispute between Abel and Cain have been stated.[12] In al-Tibyān fī tafsīr al-Qur'ān, according to a narration from Imam Muhammad al-Baqir (a), Cain and Abel were both born with two sisters: Iqlima and Labudha. God had commanded them that Cain marry Labudha and Abel marry Iqlima, but Cain considered this distribution unfair. To resolve the dispute, Adam asked them to sacrifice. Abel sacrificed his best sheep and Cain his worst wheat. Abel's sacrifice was accepted (caught fire) but Cain's sacrifice was not. Cain said to Abel, "Do you want to take the beautiful sister and I the ugly sister?" and for this reason, he killed Abel.[13]

The second cause is a narration quoted from Tafsir al-'Ayyāshī in exegeses such as Tafsir al-Ṣāfī[14] and Tafsir kanz al-daqā'iq[15] in which Imam al-Sadiq (a) considers the dispute between Abel and Cain to be over the station of the will and succession of Prophet Adam (a). He states that God commanded Adam to give the Greatest Name and the station of will to Abel. Cain became angry and Adam, to end the dispute, brought forward the issue of offering a sacrifice.[16] In this narration, Prophet Adam's (a) consent to marriage with a sister is stated as incorrect and has deemed this belief invalid.[17]

The author of Tafsir kanz al-daqa'iq considers the first narration, in which the cause of Abel and Cain's dispute is marriage with a sister, to be out of Taqiyya; as it is consistent with the view of the Ahl al-Sunna.[18] Also, al-Khū'ī in Sharḥ Nahj al-balāgha considers the first opinion consistent with the view of the Sunni and Magians and believes this theory has been brought for the sake of justifying and strengthening marriage with mahrams which is the culture of the Magians.[19]

The Reason and Sign for Acceptance of the Sacrifice

A number of exegetes believe that the sentence "Allah accepts only from the Godwary" at the end of the verse contains the reason for the acceptance of Abel's sacrifice.[20] Abel in this sentence considers the fault to be Cain's and points out to him that your action was not accompanied by piety.[21] Accordingly, the reason for the acceptance of Abel's sacrifice is his clear-sightedness and purity, and the reason for the rejection of Cain's sacrifice is his dark-heartedness, envy, and stubbornness.[22] According to Makārim Shīrāzī, there is no explanation in the Qur'an regarding the sign of understanding the acceptance of the sacrifices, and only in some narrations, a lightning bolt that descended upon one of the two sacrifices is considered the sign of the acceptance of that sacrifice.[23] He says according to some exegetes, the acceptance of the sacrifice was made understood to Adam through revelation.[24] According to Shaykh al-Ṭūsī, most exegetes have considered the sign of the sacrifice being accepted as its catching fire, but some believe in the rejected sacrifice catching fire.[25] Ṭabāṭabā'ī, examining evidences such as the verse being in the status of reminding the Bani Isra'il and that the Jews, according to Qur'an 3:183, believed that an accepted sacrifice catches fire; considers the probability of the accepted sacrifice catching fire to be higher.[26]

Abel and Cain or Two Individuals from the Bani Isra'il

According to Fakhr al-Razi, some Sunni exegetes believe that the purpose of "Bani Adam" in the verse is two individuals from the Bani Isra'il and the Qur'an expresses the story of their dispute. The claimants provide evidences for proving this matter such as:

  1. The verse expresses envy, which is from the old habit of the Bani Isra'il.
  2. In the subsequent verses, based on this story, the ruling of killing a soul is intensified in the Bani Isra'il.[27]

Some Shia and Sunni exegetes such as Fakhr al-Razi and Ṭabāṭabā'ī reject this probability due to reasons such as the murderer's bewilderment regarding the corpse after the killing and not knowing the burial of the slain, which is recounted in Qur'an 5:31.[28]

Notes

  1. ↑ Ṭabāṭabā'ī, al-Mīzān fī tafsīr al-Qur'ān, 1390 Sh, vol. 5, p. 298.
  2. ↑ Makārim Shīrāzī, Tafsīr-i nimūna, 1371 Sh, vol. 4, p. 349.
  3. ↑ Ṭabrisī, Majma' al-bayān, 1372 Sh, vol. 3, p. 283.
  4. ↑ Ṭūsī, al-Tibyān, Dār Iḥyā' al-Turāth al-'Arabī, vol. 3, p. 492.
  5. ↑ Ṭabāṭabā'ī, al-Mīzān, 1390 Sh, vol. 5, p. 298.
  6. ↑ Kulaynī, Kāfī, 1407 AH, vol. 8, p. 113.
  7. ↑ Ṭabāṭabā'ī, al-Mīzān, 1390 Sh, vol. 5, p. 300.
  8. ↑ Baḥrānī, al-Burhān, 1415 AH, vol. 2, p. 275; Makārim Shīrāzī, Tafsīr-i nimūna, 1371 Sh, vol. 4, p. 345; Ṭabāṭabā'ī, al-Mīzān, 1390 Sh, vol. 5, p. 301.
  9. ↑ Makārim Shīrāzī, Tafsīr-i nimūna, 1371 Sh, vol. 4, p. 346.
  10. ↑ Makārim Shīrāzī, Tafsīr-i nimūna, 1371 Sh, vol. 4, p. 346.
  11. ↑ Makārim Shīrāzī, Tafsīr-i nimūna, 1371 Sh, vol. 4, p. 346.
  12. ↑ Ṭabrisī, Majma' al-bayān, 1372 Sh, vol. 3, p. 283; Ṭūsī, al-Tibyān, Dār Iḥyā' al-Turāth al-'Arabī, vol. 3, p. 493.
  13. ↑ Ṭūsī, al-Tibyān, Dār Iḥyā' al-Turāth al-'Arabī, vol. 3, p. 492.
  14. ↑ Fayḍ Kāshānī, Tafsīr al-Ṣāfī, 1415 AH, vol. 1, p. 416.
  15. ↑ Qummī Mashhadī, Tafsīr kanz al-daqā'iq, 1368 Sh, vol. 4, p. 86.
  16. ↑ 'Ayyāshī, Tafsīr al-'Ayyāshī, 1380 AH, vol. 1, p. 312.
  17. ↑ 'Ayyāshī, Tafsīr al-'Ayyāshī, 1380 AH, vol. 1, p. 312.
  18. ↑ Qummī Mashhadī, Tafsīr kanz al-daqā'iq, 1368 Sh, vol. 4, p. 87.
  19. ↑ al-Khū'ī, Minhāj al-barā‘a, Maktabat al-Islāmiyya, vol. 2, p. 136.
  20. ↑ Makārim Shīrāzī, Tafsīr-i nimūna, 1371 Sh, vol. 4, p. 347.
  21. ↑ Makārim Shīrāzī, Tafsīr-i nimūna, 1371 Sh, vol. 4, p. 347.
  22. ↑ Makārim Shīrāzī, Tafsīr-i nimūna, 1371 Sh, vol. 4, p. 350.
  23. ↑ Makārim Shīrāzī, Tafsīr-i nimūna, 1371 Sh, vol. 4, p. 350.
  24. ↑ Makārim Shīrāzī, Tafsīr-i nimūna, 1371 Sh, vol. 4, p. 350.
  25. ↑ al-Tibyān, Dār Iḥyā' al-Turāth al-'Arabī, vol. 3, p. 493.
  26. ↑ Ṭabāṭabā'ī, al-Mīzān, 1390 Sh, vol. 5, p. 300.
  27. ↑ Fakhr al-Rāzī, al-Tafsīr al-kabīr, 1420 AH, vol. 11, p. 338.
  28. ↑ Fakhr al-Rāzī, al-Tafsīr al-kabīr, 1420 AH, vol. 11, p. 338; Ṭabāṭabā'ī, al-Mīzān, 1390 Sh, vol. 5, p. 298.

References

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  • al-Khū'ī, Sayyid Ḥabīb Allāh, Minhāj al-barā'a fī sharḥ al-Nahj al-balāgha, Tehran, Maktabat al-Islāmiyya, n.d.
  • Shaykh al-Ṭūsī, Muḥammad b. al-Ḥasan, al-Tibyān fī tafsīr al-Qur'ān, research: Aḥmad Qaṣīr 'Āmilī, Beirut, Dār Iḥyā' al-Turāth al-'Arabī, n.d.
  • Ṭabāṭabā'ī, Sayyid Muḥammad Ḥusayn, al-Mīzān fī tafsīr al-Qur'ān, Beirut, Mu'assisa al-A'lamī li-l-Maṭbū'āt, second edition, 1390 Sh.
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  • Fakhr al-Rāzī, Muḥammad b. 'Umar, al-Tafsīr al-kabīr (Mafātīḥ al-ghayb), Beirut, Dār Iḥyā' al-Turāth al-'Arabī, third edition, 1420 AH.
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  • Makārim Shīrāzī, Nāṣir, Tafsīr-i nimūna, Tehran, Dār al-Kutub al-Islāmiyya, tenth edition, 1371 Sh.
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