Tafseer of Jonas · Yunus · 10:16
Say, "If Allah had willed, I would not have recited it to you, nor would He have made it known to you, for I had remained among you a lifetime before it. Then will you not reason?"
Important: The Arabic source text is always authoritative. This translation is a study aid and has not been verified by scholars — do not use it as a basis for religious proof or for deriving rulings (ahkam). When in doubt, always consult the Arabic text and a qualified scholar.
The explanation of the words of Allah, the Exalted: قُلْ لَوْ شَاءَ اللَّهُ مَا تَلَوْتُهُ عَلَيْكُمْ وَلا أَدْرَاكُمْ بِهِ فَقَدْ لَبِثْتُ فِيكُمْ عُمُرًا مِنْ قَبْلِهِ أَفَلا تَعْقِلُونَ (16) ("Say: Had Allah willed, I would not have recited it to you, nor would He have made it known to you. I had indeed spent a whole lifetime among you before it. Do you not then understand?")
Abū Jaʿfar says: Allah the Exalted addresses His Prophet, in order to make clear to him the proof-argument against those polytheists (mushrikīn) who said to him: "Bring a Qurʾān other than this, or change it." He says: "Say" to them, O Muḥammad: لَوْ شَاءَ اللَّهُ مَا تَلَوْتُهُ عَلَيْكُمْ — that is to say: Had Allah willed, I would not have recited this Qurʾān to you, O people, in that He would not have sent it down upon me nor commanded me to recite it to you. وَلا أَدْرَاكُمْ بِهِ — He says: nor would He have given you knowledge of it. فَقَدْ لَبِثْتُ فِيكُمْ عُمُرًا مِنْ قَبْلِهِ — He says: I had indeed spent forty years among you before I recited it to you, and before my Lord revealed it to me. أَفَلا تَعْقِلُونَ — Do you not then understand that, had I appropriated to myself words that are not mine, I would have done so in my youth and the time of my unguardedness, before the moment at which I recited it to you? For had it not been revealed to me and had I not been commanded to recite it to you, I would have had the opportunity to avoid being hostile to you, and I would have had ample room in the state I had among you before it was revealed to me and I was commanded to recite it to you.
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In accordance with what we have said about this, the people of interpretation (ahl al-taʾwīl) have also spoken.
* Mention of who said this:
17581 — Al-Muthanná related to me, saying: ʿAbdullāh related to us, saying: Muʿāwiya related to me, on the authority of ʿAlī, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, concerning his words: وَلا أَدْرَاكُمْ بِهِ — "nor would He have given you knowledge of it."
17582 — Muḥammad ibn Saʿd related to me, saying: my father related to me, saying: my uncle related to me, saying: my father related to me, on the authority of his father, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, concerning his words: لَوْ شَاءَ اللَّهُ مَا تَلَوْتُهُ عَلَيْكُمْ وَلا أَدْرَاكُمْ بِهِ — he said: "Had Allah willed, He would not have given you knowledge of it."
17583 — Al-Qāsim related to us, saying: al-Ḥusayn related to us, saying: Ḥajjāj related to me, on the authority of Ibn Jurayj, who said: Ibn ʿAbbās said: لَوْ شَاءَ اللَّهُ مَا تَلَوْتُهُ عَلَيْكُمْ وَلا أَدْرَاكُمْ بِهِ — he said: "nor would I have warned you of it."
17584 — Bishr related to us, saying: Yazīd related to us, saying: Saʿīd related to us, on the authority of Qatāda, concerning his words: وَإِذَا تُتْلَى عَلَيْهِمْ آيَاتُنَا بَيِّنَاتٍ قَالَ الَّذِينَ لا يَرْجُونَ لِقَاءَنَا ائْتِ بِقُرْآنٍ غَيْرِ هَذَا أَوْ بَدِّلْهُ — these are the words of the polytheists of the people of Mecca (mushrikī ahl Makka) to the Prophet ﷺ. Then Allah spoke to His Prophet ﷺ: قُلْ لَوْ شَاءَ اللَّهُ مَا تَلَوْتُهُ عَلَيْكُمْ وَلا أَدْرَاكُمْ بِهِ فَقَدْ لَبِثْتُ فِيكُمْ عُمُرًا مِنْ قَبْلِهِ أَفَلا تَعْقِلُونَ — he had remained forty years.
17585 — Yūnus related to me, saying: Ibn Wahb informed us, saying: Ibn Zayd said concerning his words: قُلْ لَوْ شَاءَ اللَّهُ مَا تَلَوْتُهُ عَلَيْكُمْ وَلا أَدْرَاكُمْ بِهِ — "nor would I have given you knowledge of it."
17586 — Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Aʿlā related to me, saying: Muḥammad ibn Thawr related to us, on the authority of Maʿmar, on the authority of al-Ḥasan, that he used to read: وَلا أَدْرَأْتُكُمْ بِهِ — he said: "nor would I have given you knowledge of it."
17587 — It was related to me on the authority of al-Ḥusayn ibn al-Faraj, who said: I heard Abū Muʿādh say: ʿUbayd informed us, saying: I heard al-Ḍaḥḥāk say concerning his words: وَلا أَدْرَاكُمْ بِهِ — he said: "nor would Allah have given you knowledge of it."
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Abū Jaʿfar says: This reading transmitted on the authority of al-Ḥasan is, according to the philologists, a mistake.
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Al-Farrāʾ used to say concerning this: It has been mentioned that al-Ḥasan said: وَلا أَدْرَأْتُكُمْ بِهِ. He said: If there is a dialectal form alongside "daraytu" and "adraytu," then perhaps al-Ḥasan intended that. But as a derivation from "daraytu" or "adraytu" it is not valid, for when the yāʾ and the wāw are preceded by an open vowel and are themselves vowelless, they remain unchanged and are not converted into an alif — as in "qaḍaytu" and "daʿawtu." Perhaps al-Ḥasan followed his own nature and eloquence and hamzated the letter, because it resembles "daraʾtu l-ḥadd" and similar forms. The Arabs sometimes err in a word when it resembles another with a hamza, and so they hamzate what has no hamza. I heard a woman of the Ṭayy say: "rathaʾtu zawjī bi-abyāt" — and one says: "labbaʾtu bi-l-ḥajj" and "ḥalaʾtu l-sawīq," in which one errs, for "ḥalaʾtu" one says when driving away thirsty camels, and "labaʾtu" is derived from "al-labaʾ" — the first milk of a ewe — and "rathaʾtu zawjī" is derived from "rathaʾtu l-laban," when one milks fresh milk over curdled milk, which is called "al-rathītha."
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Some of the Baṣrī scholars said: There is no ground for the reading of al-Ḥasan, for it is derived from "adraytu" like "aʿṭaytu" — unless there is a dialectal form among Banū ʿUqayl: "aʿṭaʾtu," with the meaning of "aʿṭaytu," in which the yāʾ is converted into an alif. The poet said:
لَقَدْ آذَنَتْ أَهْلُ الْيَمَامَةِ طَيِّئٌ — بِحَرْبٍ كَنَاصَاةِ الأَغَرِّ الْمُشَهَّرِ
("Indeed, Ṭayy has warned the people of al-Yamāma of a war like the forelock of the famous blazed [stallion].")
— he means "ka-nāṣiyatin," as transmitted by al-Mufaḍḍal. And Zayd al-Khayl said:
لَعَمْرُكَ مَا أَخْشَى التَّصَعْلُكَ مَا بَقَا — عَلَى الأَرْضِ قَيْسِيٌّ يَسُوقُ الأَبَاعِرَا
("By your life, I do not fear poverty as long as there is on the earth a man of Qays driving his camels.")
— and he said "baqā," and the poet said:
لَزَجَرْتُ قَلْبًا لا يَرِيعُ لِزَاجِرٍ — إِنَّ الغَوِيَّ إِذَا نُهَا لَمْ يَعْتِبِ
("I would have restrained a heart that does not heed an admonisher — verily, the misguided one does not turn back when he is admonished.")
— he means "nuhiya." He said: all of this belongs to the category of the reading of al-Ḥasan, but that reading is to be rejected. He said: Ṭayy makes every yāʾ preceded by a broken vowel into an alif; they say: "hādhihi jārāh" (for "jāriya"), and for "al-tarquwwa" they say "tarqāh," and for "al-ʿarquwwa" they say "ʿarqāh." He said: some of the people of Ṭayy say "qad laqat Fazāra" — in which the yāʾ is dropped from "laqiyat," because it was not possible for them to convert it into an alif on account of the quiescent tāʾ, which would bring two vowelless letters together. He said: Yūnus claimed that "nasā" and "raḍā" are well-known dialectal forms. The poet said:
وَأُبْنِيتُ بِالأَعْرَاضِ ذَا الْبَطْنِ خَالِدًا — نَسَا أَوْ تَنَاسَى أَنْ يَعُدَّ الْمَوَالِيَا
("And I was made known in the outskirts as he-of-the-belly, Khālid — who forgot, or pretended to forget, to count his freedmen.")
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From Ibn ʿAbbās another transmission has also been recorded concerning the reading of this verse, namely:
17588 — Al-Muthanná related this to us, saying: al-Muʿallā ibn Asad related to us, saying: Khālid ibn Ḥanẓala related to us on the authority of Shahr ibn Ḥawshab, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās: that he used to read: قُلْ لَوْ شَاءَ اللَّهُ مَا تَلَوْتُهُ عَلَيْكُمْ وَلا أَنْذَرْتُكُمْ بِهِ.
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Abū Jaʿfar says: The reading which we do not consider it permissible to depart from is the reading which the Qurʾān reciters of the great cities employ: قُلْ لَوْ شَاءَ اللَّهُ مَا تَلَوْتُهُ عَلَيْكُمْ وَلا أَدْرَاكُمْ بِهِ — with the meaning: "nor would I have given you knowledge of it," "nor would I have given you awareness of it."
