لَّقَدْ سَمِعَ ٱللَّهُ قَوْلَ ٱلَّذِينَ قَالُوٓا۟ إِنَّ ٱللَّهَ فَقِيرٌۭ وَنَحْنُ أَغْنِيَآءُ ۘ سَنَكْتُبُ مَا قَالُوا۟ وَقَتْلَهُمُ ٱلْأَنۢبِيَآءَ بِغَيْرِ حَقٍّۢ وَنَقُولُ ذُوقُوا۟ عَذَابَ ٱلْحَرِيقِ
Allah has certainly heard the statement of those [Jews] who said, "Indeed, Allah is poor, while we are rich." We will record what they said and their killing of the prophets without right and will say, "Taste the punishment of the Burning Fire.
Introduction
This is āyah 181 of Sūrat Aal-i-Imraan (Family of Imran), the 89th sūrah in the traditional order of revelation. It was revealed in the Medinan period and sits within Juzʾ 4. Medinan verses often address community life, law, and the building of society.
This introduction is a starting point — the community and Bilal will enrich it over time.
Revelation & occasion
- Period
- Medinan
- Order revealed
- 89 of 114
- Surah
- Aal-i-Imraan (3)
(Verily Allah heard the saying of those who said�) [3:181]. �Ikrimah, al-Suddi and Muqatil ibn Ishaq related that, one day, Abu Bakr al-Siddiq entered a Jewish place of study and found a group of Jewish people gathered around one of them called Finhas ibn �Azura, who was one of their doctors. Abu Bakr said to Finhas: �Fear Allah and embrace Islam, for by Allah you know well that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah who has brought the truth to you from Allah. He is mentioned in your Torah; so believe and accept the truth and grant Allah a goodly offering and He will make you enter the Garden and multiply your reward�. Finhas responded: �O Abu Bakr, you claim that our Lord is asking us to lend Him our wealth. Yet, it is only the poor who borrow from the rich. And if what you say is true, it follows that Allah is poor and we are rich, for if He were rich He would not ask us to lend Him our wealth�. Abu Bakr al-Siddiq, may Allah be well pleased with him, became very angry and struck the face of Finhas with a mighty blow. He then said to him: �By Him in whose Hand is my soul, if it were not for the treaty between us, O enemy of Allah, I would have killed you�. Finhas went to the Messenger of Allah, Allah bless him and give him peace, and said: �O Muhammad! Look at what your companion has done to me�. The Messenger of Allah, Allah bless him and give him peace, asked Abu Bakr: �What has driven you to do what you have done?� He said: �O Messenger of Allah, this enemy of Allah has said something very serious. He claimed that Allah is poor and they are rich. I therefore got angry for the sake of Allah and hit his face�. But Finhas denied that he ever uttered those words, and so Allah, exalted is He, revealed this verse (Verily Allah heard the saying of those who said�) to give the lie to Finhas and to confirm that Abu Bakr al-Siddiq said the truth. �Abd al-Qahir ibn Tahir informed us> Abu �Amr ibn Matar> Ja�far ibn al-Layth al-Ziyadi> Hudhayfah Musa ibn Mas�ud> Shibl> Ibn Abi Najih> Mujahid who said: �This verse was revealed about the Jews; Abu Bakr, may Allah be well pleased with him, had struck the face of one of their men who said �Allah is poor and we are rich� �. Shibl commented: �I was informed that this man was Finhas the Jew, and it is also this man who said: (Allah�s hand is fettered) [5:64]�.
Tafsir
Hafiz Ibn Kathir
Chains of transmission
Oral — isnād
- ~610–632 CERevelation & memorisation
Received by the Prophet ﷺ and preserved by the ḥuffāẓ (memorisers) among the Companions.
- 1st century AHMutawātir transmissionawaiting curation
Carried by mass-transmission through the generations of qurrāʾ.
- TodayLiving chainsawaiting curation
Continuous ijāzah chains link reciters today back to the Prophet ﷺ.
Verified isnād chains for this āyah will be added by curators.
Written — the manuscript record
- ~650 CEʿUthmānic codicesawaiting curation
The standardised muṣḥaf sent to the great cities (e.g. the Topkapı and Samarqand codices).
- 8th–10th c.Early Ḥijāzī & Kūfic foliosawaiting curation
Surviving leaves in Birmingham, Sanaa, Paris (BnF) and beyond.
- Modern printModern printawaiting curation
The 1924 Cairo edition → today: the standard printed muṣḥaf used worldwide.
A curated chain of manuscript images for this exact āyah — roughly one per century — is coming. Help us source and verify them.
And now — what do you think?
The text, its history and the classical commentary are laid out above. Share your own understanding, ask a question, or reason with others.
Community resources
No community resources for this verse yet.