قُلْ مَنْ حَرَّمَ زِينَةَ ٱللَّهِ ٱلَّتِىٓ أَخْرَجَ لِعِبَادِهِۦ وَٱلطَّيِّبَٰتِ مِنَ ٱلرِّزْقِ قُلْ هِىَ لِلَّذِينَ ءَامَنُوا۟ فِى ٱلْحَيَوٰةِ ٱلدُّنْيَا خَالِصَةً يَوْمَ ٱلْقِيَٰمَةِ كَذَٰلِكَ نُفَصِّلُ ٱلْءَايَٰتِ لِقَوْمٍ يَعْلَمُونَ
Qul man ḥarrama zīnata'llāhi'llatī akhraja li-ʿibādihī wa'ṭ-ṭayyibāti mina'r-rizq, qul hiya lilladhīna āmanū fi'l-ḥayāti'd-dunyā khāliṣatan yawma'l-qiyāma, kadhālika nufaṣṣilu'l-āyāti li-qawmin yaʿlamūn
"Say: Who has forbidden the adornment God has brought forth for His servants, and the good things of provision? Say: These are for those who believe, in the life of this world; on the Day of Resurrection they will be theirs alone. Thus do We set out the signs in detail for a people who know."
A point of word order must be recorded: the sentence is a question opening with a command (qul), and the question is built with man (who).
In Arabic this pattern — man ḥarrama… — is a rhetorical question of denial (istifhām inkārī): no answer is expected, the question is itself a rejection. "Who has forbidden it?" = "No one has forbidden it."
And the verse contains two quls: one for the question, one for the answer. That is, it makes the messenger utter both the question and the answer.
I record this as an observation: in the twenty-eighth verse the other side ascribed something to God (wa'llāhu amaranā bihā); here the other side ascribes a prohibition to God. The two verses show the same error in two directions: presenting something as God's command, and presenting something as God's prohibition.
| Verse | What is ascribed | Answer |
|---|---|---|
| 7/28 | A command — to indecency | Inna'llāha lā yaʾmuru bi'l-faḥshāʾ |
| 7/32 | A prohibition — of adornment and good provision | Man ḥarrama… |
| 7/33 | — | Innamā ḥarrama rabbiya… — the real list |
The sense of the root: to be pleasant, clean, good. Ṭayyib is used in the sense "both agreeable to the senses and harmless". The root was treated at 2/168 in al-Baqara (kulū mimmā fi'l-arḍi ḥalālan ṭayyibā); I rely on that treatment.
| Verse | Expression |
|---|---|
| 7/32 | Wa'ṭ-ṭayyibāti mina'r-rizq |
| 7/58 | Wa'l-baladu'ṭ-ṭayyib — the good land |
| 7/157 | Wa yuḥillu lahumu'ṭ-ṭayyibāti wa yuḥarrimu ʿalayhimu'l-khabāʾith |
Three occurrences: provision, land, what is made lawful. And in the hundred and fifty-seventh verse the word comes together with its opposite (khabāʾith — foul things), just as ṭayyib meets khabutha in verse 58.
The answering sentence (qul hiya lilladhīna āmanū fi'l-ḥayāti'd-dunyā khāliṣatan yawma'l-qiyāma) has been read differently among the lexicographers. The disagreement is given in a table; I do not impose a preference.
| Reading | The division of the sentence | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Hiya lilladhīna āmanū fi'l-ḥayāti'd-dunyā · khāliṣatan yawma'l-qiyāma | "These are for those who believe in the life of this world (others share in them too), and on the Day of Resurrection theirs alone" |
| 2 | Hiya lilladhīna āmanū · fi'l-ḥayāti'd-dunyā khāliṣatan yawma'l-qiyāma | "These are for those who believe: in this world (shared), and in the hereafter unmixed" |
Both readings are transmitted and both come close to the same result: in this world the bounty is shared, in the hereafter it is not. I do not impose a preference.
| Reading | Spelling | Case |
|---|---|---|
| khāliṣatan | خَالِصَةً | Accusative — circumstantial |
| khāliṣatun | خَالِصَةٌ | Nominative — predicate |
The root خ-ل-ص had occurred in the twenty-ninth verse as mukhliṣīna lahu'd-dīn. The same root two verses apart: one the servant's making the religion unmixed, the other the bounty's being unmixed. This is a repetition that can be verified within the sūra.
The verse says that to hold a thing forbidden is also a claim. The twenty-eighth verse asked for the ground of saying "God commanded this"; the thirty-second asks for the ground of saying "God forbade this".
No legal ruling is issued in this commentary (Method). All I record is the verse's own construction: the question asks for the source of the prohibition.