Appearance
Why “Go Down” Twice?
قُلْنَا اهْبِطُوا مِنْهَا جَمِيعًا ۖ فَإِمَّا يَأْتِيَنَّكُم مِّنِّي هُدًى فَمَن تَبِعَ هُدَايَ فَلَا خَوْفٌ عَلَيْهِمْ وَلَا هُمْ يَحْزَنُونَ
We said, “Get down from it, all of you. And when guidance comes to you from Me, whoever follows My guidance—there will be no fear concerning them, nor will they grieve.” (2:38)
The question
Go down is said in 2:36 and again in 2:38. Are these two different descents, or is one command repeated, and if so, why?
Views answered: al-Jubbāʾī (reported by Shaykh al-Ṭūsī and Fakhr al-Rāzī), Fakhr al-Rāzī, Ṣadr al-Mutaʾallihīn, al-Ālūsī
Jawādī Āmulī’s argument
Āyatullāh Jawādī Āmulī holds that both verses describe the same descent, from Paradise to the earth, so the second is a repetition. The view that the first descent was from Paradise to the lowest heaven and the second from there to the earth, reported from al-Jubbāʾī, does not fit the verses; Fakhr al-Rāzī objected to it, and Ṣadr al-Mutaʾallihīn’s defence of it, and his reading of the descents as to the body and to the world, are hard to draw from the verse. Nor do the two commands have different addressees, for the sharīʿah binds the jinn too. The repetition emphasises the descent; shows that repentance did not cancel it; picks up the thread after the story of repentance; and separates the descent’s creative effect, life on earth, from its legislative effect, the need for guidance.
Views compared
Each view is given as al-Tasnim reports it. Each point opens al-Tasnim at that place.
Two descents Read →
al-Jubbāʾī, reported by Shaykh al-Ṭūsī and Fakhr al-Rāzī
The first from Paradise to the lowest heaven, the second from there to the earth.Jawādī Āmulī
Both verses begin in Paradise and end on the earth; the view is incomplete.A defence of it Read →
Ṣadr al-Mutaʾallihīn
He answered al-Rāzī’s objections from narrations, and suggested the descents were to the body and to the world.Jawādī Āmulī
His justification is not without weakness, and drawing this from the verse is very hard.Different addressees Read →
A reading
The first command was to Adam, Eve and Iblīs; the second, followed by the law, to Adam, Eve and their offspring.Jawādī Āmulī
The law binds the jinn as well; and nothing ties the two commands to different groups.The descent ascribed to God alone Read →
al-Ālūsī
The second time the descent is ascribed to God’s command alone, as in you threw not when you threw (8:17).Jawādī Āmulī
An act may be ascribed directly to God only where His will predominates, not where human error and Iblīs’s expulsion are the main causes.Why the command is repeated Read →
Jawādī Āmulī’s own view
It is a repetition.Jawādī Āmulī
For emphasis; to show the descent stood despite repentance; to resume after the story of repentance; and to set the creative effect of the descent apart from its legislative one.Reading guide
Each step opens al-Tasnim at that point.