Can a Repentant Wrongdoer Receive God’s Covenant?

Qur’an 2:124 · Al-Baqarah · With other exegetes

وَإِذِ ٱبْتَلَىٰٓ إِبْرَٰهِيمَ رَبُّهُۥ بِكَلِمَٰتٍۢ فَأَتَمَّهُنَّ ۖ قَالَ إِنِّى جَاعِلُكَ لِلنَّاسِ إِمَامًا ۖ قَالَ وَمِن ذُرِّيَّتِى ۖ قَالَ لَا يَنَالُ عَهْدِى ٱلظَّٰلِمِينَ

And when his Lord tested Abraham with certain words, and he fulfilled them, He said, “I am making you the Imam of mankind.” He said, “And from among my descendants?” He said, “My covenant does not extend to the unjust.” (2:124)

The question

Does My covenant does not extend to the wrongdoers bar only those doing wrong at the time, or everyone who has ever done wrong, even after repenting? The answer decides whether the Imam must be infallible all his life.

Views answered: those who deny that the Imam must be infallible, the author of Kashf al-Asrār, al-Ālūsī · With: ʿAllāmah Ṭabāṭabāʾī

Jawādī Āmulī’s argument

Āyatullāh Jawādī Āmulī first sets out the view that a repentant wrongdoer is truly “just” and so may receive the covenant. He answers it with two proofs. Reason: the wise do not entrust grave spiritual and moral responsibilities to those with a record of wrongdoing, and forgiveness is not fitness to lead. The wording: the verse is unqualified, so the covenant reaches no one who has ever been a wrongdoer, as al-Ṭabrisī also held. He then examines al-Ālūsī’s reply to the argument from Abraham’s request, calls it confused, and adopts the refined form of that argument which ʿAllāmah Ṭabāṭabāʾī reports from one of his teachers: Abraham never asked for the wicked, so God’s refusal concerns those who repented after wrongdoing, and only those just and infallible all their lives receive imāmah.

Views compared

Each view is given as al-Tasnim reports it. Each point opens al-Tasnim at that place.

Who counts as a “wrongdoer” Read →

Those who deny the Imam must be infallible

A word like “wrongdoer” truly applies only to someone doing wrong now; once he repents he is truly “just”, so God’s covenant can reach him.

Jawādī Āmulī

The verse is unqualified: the covenant never reaches a wrongdoer, whether he goes on in wrongdoing or repents of it. Al-Ṭabrisī read it so: whoever was ever a wrongdoer is never eligible.

Repentance wipes out the past Read →

The author of Kashf al-Asrār

“Islam wipes out what came before it” (and 8:38): a repentant idolater is forgiven, so nothing bars him.

Jawādī Āmulī

Forgiveness of past sins is not fitness for leadership. The wise do not entrust grave responsibilities to those with bad records; at most such a person is treated like other Muslims.

The four kinds of descendant Read →

al-Ālūsī

Answering the argument from Abraham’s request, he grants that one who repented completely and became wholly just may receive imāmah, and counts “the two sheikhs and ʿUthmān” among them.

Jawādī Āmulī

This was “confusedly categorized and answered incorrectly”. Abraham would never ask imāmah for those wicked all their life or who turned wicked; the refusal therefore concerns those once wrongdoers who later repented, and only those just and infallible all their life remain.

The argument from the question and the answer Read →

ʿAllāmah Ṭabāṭabāʾī, from one of his teachers

People fall into four kinds; Abraham was too great to ask for the wrongdoers among them, so God’s refusal excludes those who did wrong at any time and leaves only the always just. In al-Mizan ↗

Jawādī Āmulī

Agrees: he presents it as the correct, refined form of the argument, a deduction from how the answer matches the question.

Reading guide

Each step opens al-Tasnim at that point.

1. The view that the covenant can reach a repentant wrongdoer
2. The first proof: what reason expects of the wise
3. Repentance and the author of Kashf al-Asrār
4. The second proof: the wording of the verse, with al-Ṭabrisī
5. Al-Ālūsī’s critique
6. The argument refined: Abraham’s request and God’s answer
7. Conclusion: only the always just and infallible

The whole commentary on 2:124 → · ʿAllāmah Ṭabāṭabāʾī on 2:124 in al-Mizan ↗