Tafseer of Jonas · Yunus · 10:78
They said, "Have you come to us to turn us away from that upon which we found our fathers and so that you two may have grandeur in the land? And we are not believers in you."
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: قَالُوا أَجِئْتَنَا لِتَلْفِتَنَا عَمَّا وَجَدْنَا عَلَيْهِ آبَاءَنَا وَتَكُونَ لَكُمَا الْكِبْرِيَاءُ فِي الأَرْضِ وَمَا نَحْنُ لَكُمَا بِمُؤْمِنِينَ (78)
(They said: "Have you come to us to turn us away from what we found our fathers practicing, and that greatness in the land may be for the two of you? We will not believe in the two of you.")
Abū Jaʿfar says: Allah the Exalted says: Pharaoh and his eminent courtiers said to Mūsā: أَجِئْتَنَا لِتَلْفِتَنَا — that is: to turn us away and to make us turn aside — عَمَّا وَجَدْنَا عَلَيْهِ آبَاءَنَا — before your coming, concerning the religion.
It is said of this: "Laffata fulān ʿunuqa fulān" — when he twists his neck, as Ruʾba said:
*Laften wa-tahzīʿan sawāʾa l-lafti* (37)
"Al-tahzīʿ" means crushing, and "al-laft" means twisting, as in:
17765 — Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Aʿlā related to us, saying: Muḥammad ibn Thawr related to us, on the authority of Maʿmar, on the authority of Qatāda: لِتَلْفِتَنَا — he said: "to make us deviate from what we found our fathers practicing."
And His word: وَتَكُونَ لَكُمَا الْكِبْرِيَاءُ فِي الأَرْضِ — that is: greatness (al-kibr); it is the "fiʿliyāʾ" noun of "al-kibr." From this is the verse of Ibn al-Riqāʿ:
*Suʾdadan ghayra fāḥishin lā yudānīhi tajabbāratun wa-lā kibriyāʾ* (38)
(An exalted standing that is not unseemly, which is approached by neither arrogance nor greatness.)
17766 — Ibn Wakīʿ related to us, saying: Ibn Numayr related to us, on the authority of Warqāʾ, on the authority of Ibn Abī Najīḥ, on the authority of Mujāhid: وَتَكُونَ لَكُمَا الْكِبْرِيَاءُ فِي الأَرْضِ — he said: "the kingship."
17767 — ... he said: Abū Muʿāwiya related to us, on the authority of al-Aʿmash, on the authority of Mujāhid: وَتَكُونَ لَكُمَا الْكِبْرِيَاءُ فِي الأَرْضِ — he said: "the authority in the land."
17768 — ... he said: Muḥammad ibn Bakr related to us, on the authority of Ibn Jurayj, who said: it reached me, on the authority of Mujāhid, who said: "the kingship in the land."
17769 — ... he said: al-Muḥāribī related to us, on the authority of Juwaybir, on the authority of al-Ḍaḥḥāk: وَتَكُونَ لَكُمَا الْكِبْرِيَاءُ فِي الأَرْضِ — he said: "the obedience."
17770 — Al-Muthanná related to me, saying: Abū Ḥudhayfa related to us, saying: Shibl related to us, on the authority of Ibn Abī Najīḥ, on the authority of Mujāhid: وَتَكُونَ لَكُمَا الْكِبْرِيَاءُ فِي الأَرْضِ — he said: "the kingship."
17771 — ... he said: Isḥāq related to us, saying: ʿAbd Allāh related to us, on the authority of Warqāʾ, on the authority of Ibn Abī Najīḥ, on the authority of Mujāhid — the same.
17772 — Al-Qāsim related to us, saying: al-Ḥusayn related to us, saying: Ḥajjāj related to me, on the authority of Ibn Jurayj, on the authority of Mujāhid — the same.
17773 — Al-Ḥārith related to me, saying: ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz related to us, saying: Sufyān related to us, on the authority of al-Aʿmash, on the authority of Mujāhid — he said: "the authority in the land."
Abū Jaʿfar says: All these statements are close to one another in meaning, for kingship is authority, and obedience is kingship. The meaning of "al-kibriyāʾ," however, is what is established in the usage of the Arabs, and that may then signify greatness through kingship and authority and otherwise.
And His word: وَمَا نَحْنُ لَكُمَا بِمُؤْمِنِينَ — that is: "We" — O Mūsā and Hārūn — "will not believe in the two of you," that is: we do not acknowledge that the two of you are messengers sent to us.
Footnotes:
(36) In the manuscript and the printed edition it read: "as Dhū al-Rumma said" — this is unmistakably incorrect; the correct reading is as we have established, as is clear from Majāz al-Qurʾān of Abū ʿUbayda 1: 280. I am inclined to think that this stems from the copyist, not from Abū Jaʿfar, because he took it from Abū ʿUbayda. See a comparable case on p. 150, note 1, above — we have placed the correct reading between brackets.
(37) His dīwān p. 24; Majāz al-Qurʾān of Abū ʿUbayda 1: 280; Lisān al-ʿArab (h-z-ʿ). From a rajaz poem in which he describes himself, comparing himself to a lion, and before this verse he says: Fa-in taraynī aḥtamī bi-l-sakti / fa-qad aqumu bi-l-maqāmi l-thabti / ashjaʿa min dhī libadin bi-khubti / yadquṣṣulbāti l-ʿiẓāmi raftī. "Al-raft" means crushing and breaking. And his word "sawāʾa l-lafti" — that is "siwā l-lafti"; "sawāʾun" (with fatḥa on the sīn) and "siwā" (with kasra on the sīn) have the same meaning: "other than."
(38) I have not found the verse anywhere else. In the printed edition it read "tajbārah" and likewise in the manuscript. As for the vocalization, this has occupied me, because in the sources the linguists mention for "al-jabarūt" only "al-tajbār" (with fatḥa then sukūn), with the meaning of arrogance. It then seems as if whoever reads it reads it as in the printed edition and the manuscript: "tajbārah" (with fatḥa then sukūn), with the hāʾ appended. My opinion is that the vocalization I have chosen is better, even though the books of linguistics that are available to us do not mention it. The base pattern "tifiʿʿāl" (with kasra on the tāʾ and the fāʾ and a tashdīd on the ʿayn) is the regular form of the verbal noun of "tafaʿʿala," but such forms are only transmitted by hearing — they are not derived by analogy (al-Shāfiya 1: 166) — like "timillāq." The addition of a tāʾ in such nouns is permissible in Arabic. With the vocalization I have chosen, the meter of the verse comes out correctly, and I fear that this base word occurs upon this measure but has been omitted by the books of linguistics.
