Surah Hadid Ayat 28 (57:28 Quran) With Tafsir

Ala-Maududi

(57:28) Believers, have fear of Allah and believe in His Messenger,^[55] and He will grant you a two-fold portion of His Mercy, and will appoint for you a light whereby you shall walk;^[56] and He will forgive you.^[57] Allah is Most Forgiving, Most Compassionate.

55. The commentators differ in the explanation of this verse, One group says that the address here is directed to the people who believed in the Prophet Jesus (peace be upon him). It is being said to them: Believe in the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) now; for this you will be given a double reward, one reward for believing in the Prophet Jesus (peace be upon him) and the other reward for believing in the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him). The second group says that the followers of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) are being addressed. They are being admonished to the effect: Do not rest content with your verbal affirmation of the faith only, but you should believe sincerely and truly. For this you will be given a double reward: one reward for giving up disbelief and turning to Islam, and the second reward for believing sincerely in Islam and remaining steadfast to it. The first commentary is supported by (Surah Al-Qasas, ayat 52-54), and furthermore by the tradition reported by Abu Musa al-Ashari, according to which the Prophet (peace be upon him) said: There are three men who will get a double reward, one of them is a person from among the followers of the earlier Books who believed in this earlier Prophet and then believed in the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him). (Bukhari Muslim). The second commentary is supported by (Surah Saba, ayat 37), which says that the righteous believers will have a double reward. From the point of view of argument both the commentaries are equally weighty. However, considering the theme that follows, one feels that the second commentary is more in keeping with the context here; and in fact the whole theme of this Surah, from beginning to end, supports this very commentary. From the beginning of this Surah the addressees are the people who had entered Islam after affirming the Prophethood of the Prophet (peace be upon him) and it is they whom the Surah invites to believe sincerely and truly and not merely verbally with the tongue.

56. That is, He will bless you with such a light of knowledge and vision in the world by which you will be able clearly distinguish at every step the straight way of Islam from the crooked paths of ignorance in different matters of life, and in the Hereafter He will grant you the light that has been mentioned in verse 12 above.

57. That is, He will forgive you your errors that you may happen to commit due to human weaknesses in spite of your sincere efforts to fulfill the demands of the faith, and will also forgive those sins of yours that you had committed in the pre-Islamic days of ignorance.

Ibn-Kathir

28. O you who believe! Have Taqwa of Allah, and believe in His Messenger, He will give you a double portion of His mercy, and He will give you a light by which you shall walk (straight). And He will forgive you. And Allah is Oft-Forgiving, Most Merciful. 29. So that the People of the Scriptures may know that they have no power whatsoever over the grace of Allah, and that (His) grace is in His Hand to bestow it on whomsoever He wills. And Allah is the Owner of great bounty.

Earlier we mentioned a Hadith that An-Nasa’i collected from Ibn `Abbas that this Ayah is about the People of the Scriptures who believe in Islam, and that they will earn double their reward if they do so. There is an Ayah in Surat Al-Qasas to support this meaning. Also, there is a Hadith from Ash-Sha`bi from Abu Burdah from his father from Abu Musa Al-Ash`ari that the Messenger of Allah said,

(Three will get their reward twice. A believer from the People of the Scriptures who has been a true believer in his Prophet and then believes in me, will get a double reward. A slave who fulfills Allah’s rights and obligations as well as the duties of his master, will get a double reward. A person who has a slave-girl and he educates her properly and teaches her good manners properly (without violence) and then manumits and marries her, will get a double reward.) This Hadith is recorded in the Two Sahihs. Ad-Dahhak, `Utbah bin Abi Hakim and others agreed with Ibn `Abbas in this, and Ibn Jarir preferred it. Allah the Exalted said in another Ayah,

(O you who believe! If you have Taqwa of Allah, He will grant you a criterion, and will expiate for you your sins, and forgive you; and Allah is Owner of the great bounty.)(8:29) Sa`id bin `Abdul-`Aziz said, `Umar bin Al-Khattab asked a Jewish rabbi, `What is the maximum a reward would be increased for you’ He replied, `A Kifl (portion) which is about three hundred and fifty good merits.’ So `Umar said, `Praise be to Allah who gave us two Kifls.’ Then Sa`id mentioned Allah’s saying:

(He will give you a double portion of His mercy,) Sa`id said, “And the two Kifls on Friday are similar to that.” This was recorded by Ibn Jarir. This view has support from the Hadith that Imam Ahmad recorded from `Abdullah bin `Umar that the Messenger of Allah said,

(The parable of you and the Jews and Christians is that of a person who employed some laborers and asked them, “Who will work for me from the Dawn prayer until midday for one Qirat (a special weight of gold) each” So, the Jews worked. The person asked, “Who will do the work for me from the Zuhr prayer to the time of the `Asr prayer for one Qirat each” So, the Christians worked. Then the person asked, “Who will do the work for me from `Asr prayer until sunset for two Qirat each” You are those who did this work. The Jews and the Christians got angry and said, “We did more work, but got less wages.” Allah said, “Have I been unjust to you with your reward” They said, “No.” So, Allah said, “Then it is My grace which I bestow on whomever I will.”) Al-Bukhari collected this Hadith. Al-Bukhari recorded that Abu Musa said that the Prophet said,

(The parable of the Muslims, Jews and Christians is that of a man who employed laborers to work for him from morning until night for a known wage. So, they worked until midday and said, `We are not in need of the wages that you promised and our work was in vain.’ So, the man said, `Do not quit now, complete the rest of the work and yours will be the full wage I have fixed for it.’ However, they refused and quit, and he had to hire another batch of workers. He said (to the second batch), `Complete the work for the rest of the day and I will give you the same wage I promised the first batch.’ So, they worked until the time of the `Asr prayer and said, `Whatever we have done is in vain and we forfeit the wages you promised us.’ He said to them, `Complete your day’s work, for only a small part of the day remains.’ However, they refused, and he employed another batch to work for the rest of the day, and they worked until sunset and received the wages of the two former batches. This is an example of them (i.e., the Jews and Christians) and of those who accepted this light (i.e., Islam).) Al-Bukhari was alone in recording it. Allah the Exalted said;

(So that the People of the Scriptures may know that they have no power whatsoever over the grace of Allah,) meaning, so that they become sure that they cannot prevent what Allah gives, or give what Allah prevents,

(and that (His) grace is (entirely) in His Hand to bestow it on whomsoever He wills. And Allah is the Owner of great bounty.) This is the end of the Tafsir of Surat Al-Hadid, all praise is due to Allah, and all favors come from Him.