Tafsir of Surah Al-Anfal - Verse 37

The Disbelievers spend Their Wealth to hinder Others from Allah's Path, but this will only cause Them Grief

Muhammad bin Ishaq narrated that Az-Zuhri, Muhammad bin Yahya bin Hibban, `Asim bin `Umar bin Qatadah, and Al-Husayn bin `Abdur-Rahman bin `Amr bin Sa`id bin Mu`adh said, "The Quraysh suffered defeat at Badr and their forces went back to Makkah, while Abu Sufyan went back with the caravan intact. This is when `Abdullah bin Abi Rabi`ah, `Ikrimah bin Abi Jahl, Safwan bin Umayyah and other men from Quraysh who lost their fathers, sons or brothers in Badr, went to Abu Sufyan bin Harb. They said to him, and to those among the Quraysh who had wealth in that caravan, `O people of Quraysh! Muhammad has grieved you and killed the chiefs among you. Therefore, help us with this wealth so that we can fight him, it may be that we will avenge our losses.' They agreed." Muhammad bin Ishaq said, "This Ayah was revealed about them, according to Ibn `Abbas,

إِنَّ الَّذِينَ كَفَرُواْ يُنفِقُونَ أَمْوَلَهُمْ

(Verily, those who disbelieve spend their wealth...) until,

هُمُ الْخَـسِرُونَ

(they who are the losers. )" Mujahid, Sa`id bin Jubayr, Al-Hakam bin `Uyaynah, Qatadah, As-Suddi and Ibn Abza said that this Ayah was revealed about Abu Sufyan and his spending money in Uhud to fight the Messenger of Allah ﷺ. Ad-Dahhak said that this Ayah was revealed about the idolators of Badr. In any case, the Ayah is general, even though there was a specific incident that accompanied its revelation. Allah states here that the disbelievers spend their wealth to hinder from the path of truth. However, by doing that, their money will be spent and then will become a source of grief and anguish for them, availing them nothing in the least. They seek to extinguish the Light of Allah and make their word higher than the word of truth. However, Allah will complete His Light, even though the disbelievers hate it. He will give aid to His religion, make His Word dominant, and His religion will prevail above all religions. This is the disgrace that the disbelievers will taste in this life; and in the Hereafter, they will taste the torment of the Fire. Whoever among them lives long, will witness with his eyes and hear with his ears what causes grief to him. Those among them who are killed or die will be returned to eternal disgrace and the everlasting punishment. This is why Allah said,

فَسَيُنفِقُونَهَا ثُمَّ تَكُونُ عَلَيْهِمْ حَسْرَةً ثُمَّ يُغْلَبُونَ وَالَّذِينَ كَفَرُواْ إِلَى جَهَنَّمَ يُحْشَرُونَ

(And so will they continue to spend it; but in the end it will become an anguish for them. Then they will be overcome. And those who disbelieve will be gathered unto Hell. )

Allah said,

لِيَمِيزَ اللَّهُ الْخَبِيثَ مِنَ الطَّيِّبِ

(In order that Allah may distinguish the wicked from the good.), meaning recognize the difference between the people of happiness and the people of misery, according to Ibn `Abbas, as `Ali bin Abi Talhah reported from him. Allah distinguishes between those believers who obey Him and fight His disbelieving enemies and those who disobey Him. Allah said in another Ayah,

مَّا كَانَ اللَّهُ لِيَذَرَ الْمُؤْمِنِينَ عَلَى مَآ أَنتُمْ عَلَيْهِ حَتَّى يَمِيزَ الْخَبِيثَ مِنَ الطَّيِّبِ وَمَا كَانَ اللَّهُ لِيُطْلِعَكُمْ عَلَى الْغَيْبِ

(Allah will not leave the believers in the state in which you are now, until He distinguishes the wicked from the good. Nor will Allah disclose to you the secrets of the Ghayb (Unseen).) 3:179, and,

أَمْ حَسِبْتُمْ أَن تَدْخُلُواْ الْجَنَّةَ وَلَمَّا يَعْلَمِ اللَّهُ الَّذِينَ جَـهَدُواْ مِنكُمْ وَيَعْلَمَ الصَّـبِرِينَ

(Do you think that you will enter Paradise before Allah (tests) those of you who fought (in His cause) and (also) tests those who are the patient)3:142.

Therefore, the Ayah (8:37) means, `We tried you with combatant disbelievers whom We made able to spend money in fighting you,'

لِيَمِيزَ اللَّهُ الْخَبِيثَ مِنَ الطَّيِّبِ وَيَجْعَلَ الْخَبِيثَ بَعْضَهُ عَلَى بَعْضٍ فَيَرْكُمَهُ

(in order that Allah may distinguish the wicked from the good, and put the wicked one over another, heap them together) put in a pile on top of each other,

فَيَجْعَلَهُ فِى جَهَنَّمَ أُوْلَـئِكَ هُمُ الْخَـسِرُونَ

(and cast them into Hell. Those! It is they who are the losers.) 8:37, in this life and the Hereafter.

قُل لِلَّذِينَ كَفَرُواْ إِن يَنتَهُواْ يُغْفَرْ لَهُمْ مَّا قَدْ سَلَفَ وَإِن يَعُودُواْ فَقَدْ مَضَتْ سُنَّتُ الاٌّوَّلِينِ

Verse 37 describes some consequences of the events mentioned earlier which, in a nutshell, are that the disbelievers used their wealth against Islam, then they were bitten by remorse and were utterly disgraced. This series of happenings had its own advantages which find mention in the opening sentence of this verse: لِيَمِيزَ اللَّـهُ الْخَبِيثَ مِنَ الطَّيِّبِ (so that Allah separates the impure from the pure).

The two words, الْخَبِيثَ (al-khabith: impure) and الطَّيِّبِ (at-tayyib : pure), stand in contrast to each other. The word, الْخَبِيثَ al-khabith, is used to refer to that which is impure, filthy and forbidden while الطَّيِّبِ at-taiyyib set against it denotes what is pure, clean, nice and lawful. At this place, the use of these two words may be referring to the impure possessions of the dis-believers, and the pure possessions of Muslim as well. Given this projection, it would mean that the enormous wealth spent by the disbelievers was impure and filthy. The evil end it met was that they suffered the loss of wealth, and the loss of lives as well. As compared to them, Muslims spent very little of whatever they had in the name of wealth, but that wealth was pure and lawful. Those who spent it succeeded, not to mention the additional spoils of war that fell into their hand. After that, it was said:

وَيَجْعَلَ الْخَبِيثَ بَعْضَهُ عَلَىٰ بَعْضٍ فَيَرْ‌كُمَهُ جَمِيعًا فَيَجْعَلَهُ فِي جَهَنَّمَ ۚ أُولَـٰئِكَ هُمُ الْخَاسِرُ‌ونَ ﴿37﴾

'and (Allah) puts some of the impure on some others, and heaps them all together and puts them into Jahannam. Those are the losers - 37'

The sense is that the way magnet pulls iron and amber pulls grass and in the light of new scientific discoveries, the system of the world is held together by the constant of force fields pulling things together, the case in deeds and morals is also identical. They have a pull of their own. One bad deed draws in another bad deed and a good deed draws in another good deed. Impure wealth pulls in another body of impure wealth and then this heap of impure wealth generates vestiges which are equally impure. As a result of this, Allah Ta` ala will heap all impure wealth into Jahannam and those to whom it belonged would find themselves in a terrible loss.

And there is a large number of commentators who take الْخَبِيثَ al-khabith and الطَّيِّبِ at-tayyib in the general sense at this place, that is, pure and impure. Thus, pure would signify true believers and impure would mean the disbelievers. Given this approach, the verse would mean that through conditions mentioned above, Allah Ta` ala likes to make the pure distinct from the impure, that is, make a true believer distinct from a disbeliever and - as a consequence of which - true believers are gathered together in Jannah and the disbelievers, all of them at one place, into Jahannam.

Among human beings some are clean and pure, while some are unclean. Some souls draw nourishment from the things that are liked by God, while others have a taste for things that are the favourites of their base selves or of Satan.Under normal conditions, both types of people live together. On the face of it, there appears to be no difference between them. So, Almighty God causes a struggle between True and false, so that the people of both types separate from each other and it becomes clear as to who is who. During this struggle it becomes clear as to who immediately accepts the Truth when it comes before him and who rejects it; who, in dealing with others remains within the limit of justice, and who resorts to injustice; who remains modest and humble in the world and who becomes arrogant, who spends money for the cause of Truth and who spends as a matter of prejudice and show.The actions of those who expend their efforts in ways other than the way of Truth are glorified and made handsome in their eyes by Satan in such a way that they start thinking that they are performing superior acts; that they are proceeding towards a glorious future. But this misunderstanding is short-lived. Very soon man reaches the stage when he comes to know that whatever he had done was merely a wastage of his energy and money. The future towards which he was proceeding was only one of unfulfilled longing and frustration, though on the basis of false hopes he had considered it a journey towards a bright future. When the call for pure religion is given, all those people who had gained a position of leadership on the basis of adulterated religion feel adversely affected by that call. So, they spend all their energy in protecting the custom-based, traditional structure which had conferred the position of superiority on them. But such people necessarily fail when opposed by the unadulterated Truth, sometimes in the field of argument and sometimes in the field of action as well.The activities of this world have been designed just to separate pure and impure souls from each other. When this process of sorting out is over, God will send the pure souls to paradise and assemble the impure souls and thrust them into hell.