Verse. 250

٢ - ٱلْبَقَرَة

2 - Al-Baqara

اَلَمْ تَرَ اِلَى الَّذِيْنَ خَرَجُوْا مِنْ دِيَارِھِمْ وَھُمْ اُلُوْفٌ حَذَرَ الْمَوْتِ۝۰۠ فَقَالَ لَہُمُ اللہُ مُوْتُوْا۝۰ۣ ثُمَّ اَحْيَاھُمْ۝۰ۭ اِنَّ اللہَ لَذُوْ فَضْلٍ عَلَي النَّاسِ وَلٰكِنَّ اَكْثَرَ النَّاسِ لَا يَشْكُرُوْنَ۝۲۴۳
Alam tara ila allatheena kharajoo min diyarihim wahum oloofun hathara almawti faqala lahumu Allahu mootoo thumma ahyahum inna Allaha lathoo fadlin AAala alnnasi walakinna akthara alnnasi la yashkuroona

English

Ahmed Ali

Have you never thought of men who went out of their homes as a measure of safety against death, and they were thousands, to whom God said: "Die," then restored them to life? Indeed God bestows His blessings on men; only most men are not grateful.

243

Tafseer

'Abdullāh Ibn 'Abbās / Muḥammad al-Fīrūzabādī

تفسير : then allah mentioned the story of the fighters among the children of israel, saying: (bethink thee (o muhammad)) have you not been informed, o muhammad, (of those of old, who went forth from their habitations) to fight their enemies (in their thousands) eight thousand in total, but they proved too cowardly to fight, (fearing death) out of fear of being killed, (and allah said unto them: die) allah killed them on the spot, (and then he brought them back to life) after eight days. (lo! allah is the lord of kindness to mankind) to these people for he brought them back to life, (but most of mankind give not thanks) for life.

Jalāl al-Dīn al-Maḥallī

تفسير : have you not seen (an interrogative to provoke amazement and a longing to hear what will follow), that is, ‘has your knowledge not attained’, those thousands, four, eight, ten, thirty, forty or seventy thousand, who went forth from their habitations fearful of death? (hadhara’l-mawt: an object denoting reason). these were a people from among the children of israel who fled their homeland after it was afflicted with plague. god said to them, ‘die!’, and they did. then he gave them life, after eight days or more, as a result of the supplication of their prophet ezekiel (hizqīl), and they lived on for a while with the effects of death still upon them, such that when they wore garments these turned into shrouds for the deceased; and this [phenomenon] remained with their descendants. truly god is bounteous to people, such as when he gave life back to those just mentioned, but most people, that is, disbelievers, are not thankful. the purpose of mentioning the story of these people is to encourage believers to fight [in the way of god], which is why the following [statement] is supplemented to it: