Verse. 774

٥ - ٱلْمَائِدَة

5 - Al-Ma'ida

يٰۗاَيُّھَا الَّذِيْنَ اٰمَنُوْا عَلَيْكُمْ اَنْفُسَكُمْ۝۰ۚ لَا يَضُرُّكُمْ مَّنْ ضَلَّ اِذَا اہْتَدَيْتُمْ۝۰ۭ اِلَى اللہِ مَرْجِعُكُمْ جَمِيْعًا فَيُنَبِّئُكُمْ بِمَا كُنْتُمْ تَعْمَلُوْنَ۝۱۰۵
Ya ayyuha allatheena amanoo AAalaykum anfusakum la yadurrukum man dalla itha ihtadaytum ila Allahi marjiAAukum jameeAAan fayunabbiokum bima kuntum taAAmaloona

English

Ahmed Ali

O you who believe, on you rests (the responsibility) for your own selves. If you follow the right path those who have gone astray will not be able to do you harm. To God have all of you to return, when He will tell you what you were doing.

105

Tafseer

'Abdullāh Ibn 'Abbās / Muḥammad al-Fīrūzabādī

تفسير : (o ye who believe! ye have charge of your own souls) hasten to save your own persons. (he who erreth) the error of the one who errs (cannot injure you if you are rightly guided) to faith and further show their error. (unto allah ye will all return) after you die; (and then he will inform you of what ye used to do) and say of good and evil. this verse was revealed about the idolaters of mecca when the prophet (pbuh) accepted the capitation tax from the people of the book and then refused to take it from them. this story has already been mentioned in surah al-baqarah.

Jalāl al-Dīn al-Maḥallī

تفسير : o you who believe, you are responsible for your own souls, in other words, preserve them and do what is in their best interest; he who is astray cannot hurt you, if you are rightly guided: it is said that this means, ‘none of those misguided ones from among the people of the scripture can hurt you’; it is also said to mean others, on the basis of the [following] hadīth of abū tha‘laba al-khushanī: ‘i asked the messenger of god (s) about it [this verse] and he said, “enjoin one other to decency and forbid one another indecency, and then if you see niggardliness being obeyed, whims being followed, this present world being preferred, and every intelligent person proud of his own opinions, then you are [still] responsible for [looking after] your own soul”,’ as reported by al-hākim and others. unto god you shall return, all together, and he will inform you of what you used to do, and requite you for it.

Ali ibn Ahmad al-Wahidi

تفسير : (o ye who believe! ye have charge of your own souls. he who erreth cannot injure you if ye are rightly guided) [5:105]. al-kalbi reported from abu salih who related that ibn 'abbas said: “the messenger of allah sent a letter to the people of hajar, whose chief was mundhir ibn sawa, inviting them to islam, or to pay the jizyah if they chose not to embrace islam. when mundhir ibn sawa received the letter, he showed it to the arabs, jews, christians, sabeans and magians who were around him. they all agreed to pay the jizyah and disliked embracing islam. the messenger of allah, allah bless him and give him peace, wrote back to him, saying: 'as for the arabs, do not accept from them except islam otherwise they will have nothing but the sword. as for the people of the book and the magians, accept the jizyah from them. when this letter was read to them, the arabs embraced islam while the people of the book and the magians agreed to pay the jizyah. the hypocrites among the arabs said: 'how strange from muhammad! he claims that allah has sent him to fight all people until they surrender to allah and does not accept the jizyah except from the people of the book. but we only see that he has accepted from the idolaters of the people of hajar that which he had rejected from the arab idolaters'. allah, exalted is he, then revealed (o ye who believe! ye have charge of your own souls. he who erreth cannot injure you if ye are rightly guided), i.e. who errs from amongst the people of the book”.