Tabari (1 passage)

1. Full Dutch translation of Tabari's text

   The explanation of the tafsīr of the word of Allah the Exalted: فَلَمَّا أَلْقَوْا قَالَ مُوسَى مَا جِئْتُمْ بِهِ السِّحْرُ إِنَّ اللَّهَ سَيُبْطِلُهُ إِنَّ اللَّهَ لا يُصْلِحُ عَمَلَ الْمُفْسِدِينَ (81)

   (So when they had thrown [everything] down, Mūsā said: What you have brought is sorcery. Indeed, Allah will bring it to nought. Indeed, Allah does not set right the work of the corrupters.)

   Abū Jaʿfar says: Allah, exalted is His remembrance, says: When they had thrown down what they cast, Mūsā said to them: What you have brought is sorcery.

   * * *

   The reciters of the Qurʾān differed in the reading of this passage.

   The majority of the reciters of the Ḥijāz and Iraq read مَا جِئْتُمْ بِهِ السِّحْرُ as a statement of Mūsā concerning that which the sorcerers of Pharaoh had brought — namely, that it is sorcery. The meaning of the sentence, according to their interpretation, is: Mūsā said: What you have brought, O sorcerers, that is the sorcery.

   * * *

   Mujāhid and some of the reciters of Medina and Baṣra read it as: مَا جِئْتُمْ بِهِ آلسِّحْرُ — as a question of Mūsā to the sorcerers about what they had brought: is it sorcery or something else?

   * * *

   Abū Jaʿfar says: The reading which, in my judgement, is the more correct of the two, is the reading of those who read it as a statement, not as a question. For Mūsā — may the blessings and peace of Allah be upon him — did not doubt that what the sorcerers had brought was sorcery without any reality, such that he would need to ask the sorcerers what it was.

   Moreover, he — may the blessings of Allah be upon him — knew about the sorcerers; Pharaoh had only gathered them to overcome him with respect to what he had brought them of the Truth which Allah had given him. Thus it did not escape him that they would not believe him when he informed them about what they had brought him of falsehood — such that he would ask them whether he might interrogate them about it. Rather, he — may the blessings of Allah be upon him — made known to them that he knew of the nullity of what they had brought, by means of the Truth that had been given to him, and that he would bring their cunning to nought by his strength.

   This is more fitting to the station of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ than the other.

   * * *

   If someone says: What then is the reason for the use of the article "al-" in "al-siḥr" if the matter is as you have described — while you know that Arabic usage in a comparable case is that one says: "What ʿAmr has brought me is a dirham" and "What your brother has given me is a dīnār," without one being accustomed to say: "What your brother has given me the dirham" or "What ʿAmr has brought me the dīnār"?

   Then it is said to him: On the contrary — the Arabic usage is the use of "alif and lām" in the predicate after "mā" and "alladhī" when the predicate concerns something known that both the speaker and the addressee know. Indeed, when that is so, it is not even permissible otherwise than with "alif and lām." For the predicate then concerns something specific that is known to both parties. It comes without "alif and lām" when the predicate concerns something unknown that is not identified and is not directed at anything specific — then "alif and lām" does not occur in the predicate.

   Now Mūsā's statement concerned something that was known both to him and to the sorcerers. That is to say: they had labelled that which Mūsā had brought them of signs — which Allah had set as proof for him of his truthfulness and his prophethood — as sorcery. So Mūsā said to them: The sorcery by which you have labelled that with which I have come to you of the signs, O sorcerers — that is what you yourselves have brought, not what I have brought you. He then informed them that Allah would bring it to nought. He said: إِنَّ اللَّهَ سَيُبْطِلُهُ — that is to say: He will remove it. And Allah, exalted is His remembrance, removed it, by causing the staff of Mūsā to prevail over them — after He had changed it into a great serpent that devoured everything — until nothing of it remained. إِنَّ اللَّهَ لا يُصْلِحُ عَمَلَ الْمُفْسِدِينَ — that is to say: He does not set right the work of those who strive for corruption upon the earth of Allah with what He detests, and who act therein in disobedience to Him.

   * * *

   It has been mentioned that in the reading of Ubayy ibn Kaʿb this reads: مَا أَتَيْتُمْ بِهِ سِحْرٌ .

   And in the reading of Ibn Masʿūd: مَا جِئْتُمْ بِهِ سِحْرٌ — and this confirms the reading of those who read in the manner that we have preferred.

   * * *

   Footnotes:

   See Maʿānī al-Qurʾān of al-Farrāʾ, vol. 1, p. 475 — with useful further elaboration.

   In the manuscript it reads: "what they had brought him of that Truth which had been given to him" — and I consider it likely that the copyist of the manuscript omitted something; but what is in the printed edition conveys its meaning by the addition of the bāʾ in "bi-l-ḥaqq," even though I consider the sentence therein weak.

   In the printed edition it reads "bi-jaddihi" with jīm; the correct form is with ḥāʾ. And "al-ḥadd" means sharpness, strength, and overpowering.

   Thus in the manuscript: "lā yakādūna an yaqūlū"; after "yaqūlū" stands the letter "ṭ" as an indication of an error — but it is not an error. Ibn Hishām, in Shawāhid al-Tawḍīḥ, pp. 98–102, devoted a good chapter to the use of "kāda" with "an" attached to it, and he adduced for it proofs from the ḥadīth and poetry, with the best possible argumentation.

   In the printed edition and the manuscript "wa-l-lām" has dropped out.

   See Maʿānī al-Qurʾān of al-Farrāʾ, vol. 1, p. 475.

   See the explanation of "al-ifsād" in the previously mentioned linguistic registers under (fasada).

   See these two readings in Maʿānī al-Qurʾān of al-Farrāʾ, vol. 1, p. 475.

   Show original Arabic

   القول في تأويل قوله تعالى : فَلَمَّا أَلْقَوْا قَالَ مُوسَى مَا جِئْتُمْ بِهِ السِّحْرُ إِنَّ اللَّهَ سَيُبْطِلُهُ إِنَّ اللَّهَ لا يُصْلِحُ عَمَلَ الْمُفْسِدِينَ (81) قال أبو جعفر: يقول تعالى ذكره: فلما ألقوا ما هم ملقوه ، قال لهم موسى: ما جئتم به السحر. * * * واختلفت القرأة في قراءة ذلك. فقرأته عامة قرأة الحجاز والعراق ( مَا جِئْتُمْ بِهِ السِّحْرُ ) على وجه الخبر من موسى عن الذي جاءت به سحرة فرعون ، أنه سحرٌ. كأن معنى الكلام على تأويلهم: قال موسى: الذي جئتم به أيّها السحرة ، هو السحر. * * * وقرأ ذلك مجاهد وبعض المدنيين والبصريين: (مَا جِئْتُمْ بِهِ آلسِّحْرُ) على وجه الاستفهام من موسى إلى السحرة عما جاؤوا به، أسحر هو أم غيره؟ (2) * * * قال أبو جعفر: وأولى القراءتين في ذلك عندي بالصواب ، قراءة من قرأه على وجه الخبر لا على الاستفهام، لأن موسى صلوات الله وسلامه عليه ، لم يكن شاكا فيما جاءت به السحرة أنه سحر لا حقيقة له ، فيحتاج إلى استخبار السحرة عنه ، أي شيء هو؟ وأخرى أنه صلوات الله عليه قد كان على علم من السحرة، إنما جاء بهم فرعون ليغالبوه على ما كان جاءهم به من الحق الذي كان الله آتاه، فلم يكن يذهب عليه أنهم لم يكونوا يصدِّقونه في الخبر عمّا جاءوه به من الباطل، فيستخبرهم أو يستجيز استخبارهم عنه، ولكنه صلوات الله عليه أعلمهم أنه عالم ببطول ما جاؤوا به من ذلك بالحق الذي أتاه ، (3) ومبطلٌ كيدهم بحَدِّه . (4) وهذه أولى بصفة رسول الله صلى الله عليه وسلم من الأخرى. * * * فإن قال قائل: فما وجه دخول الألف واللام في " السحر " إن كان الأمر على ما وصفت ، وأنت تعلم أن كلام العرب في نظير هذا أن يقولوا: " ما جاءني به عمرو درهمٌ ، والذي أعطاني أخوك دينار " ، ولا يكادون أن يقولوا (5) : الذي أعطاني أخوك الدرهم ، وما جاءني به عمرو الدينار؟ قيل له: بلى، كلام العرب إدخال " الألف واللام " في خبر " ما " و " الذي" إذا كان الخبر عن معهود قد عرفه المخاطَب والمخاطِب، بل لا يجوز إذا كان ذلك كذلك إلا بالألف واللام، لأنّ الخبر حينئذ خبرٌ عن شيء بعينه معروف عند الفريقين، وإنما يأتي ذلك بغير " الألف واللام " ، (6) إذا كان الخبر عن مجهول غير معهود ولا مقصود قصدَ شيء بعينه، فحينئذ لا تدخل الألف واللام في الخبر. (7) وخبرُ موسى كان خبرًا عن معروف عنده وعند السحرة، وذلك أنها كانت نسبت ما جاءهم به موسى من الآيات التي جعلها الله عَلَمًا له على صدقه ونبوته ، إلى أنه سحرٌ، فقال لهم موسى: السحرُ الذي وصفتم به ما جئتكم به من الآيات أيها السحرة، هو الذي جئتم به أنتم ، لا ما جئتكم به أنا. ثم أخبرهم أن الله سيبطله. فقال: (إن الله سيبطله) ، يقول: سيذهب به، فذهب به تعالى ذكره ، بأن سلط عليه عصا موسى قد حوّلها ثعبانًا يتلقَّفه ، حتى لم يبق منه شيء ، (إن الله لا يصلح عمل المفسدين) ، يعني: أنه لا يصلح عمل من سعى في أرض الله بما يكرهه ، وعمل فيها بمعاصيه. (8) * * * وقد ذكر أن ذلك في قراءة أبي بن كعب: (مَا أَتَيْتُمْ بِهِ سِحْرٌ). * * * وفي قراءة ابن مسعود: (مَا جِئْتُمْ بِهِ سِحْرٌ) ، (9) وذلك مما يؤيد قراءة من قرأ بنحو الذي اخترنا من القراءة فيه. ----------------------- الهوامش : (2) انظر معاني القرآن للفراء 1 : 475 ، وفيه تفصيل مفيد . (3) في المخطوطة : " ما جاؤوا به من ذلك الحق الذي أتاه " ، وأرجح أن ناسخ المخطوطة قد أسقط شيئًا من الكلام ، ولكن ما في المطبوعة يؤدي عن معناه ، وذلك بزيادة الباء في " بالحق " ، وإن كانت الجملة عندي ضعيفة . (4) في المطبوعة : " بجده " بالجيم ، والصواب بالحاء . و " الحد " الشدة والبأس والسطوة . (5) هكذا في المخطوطة " لا يكادون أن يقولوا " ، وبعد " يقولوا " حرف " ط " دلالة على الخطأ ، وليس خطأ . وقد عقد ابن هشام في شواهد التوضيح لمشكلات الجامع الصحيح : 98 - 102 ، فصلا جيدًا في وقوع خبر " كاد " مقرونا به " أن " ، وذكر شواهده في الحديث وفي الشعر ، واحتج لذلك أحسن الاحتجاج . (6) في المطبوعة والمخطوطة أسقط " واللام " . (7) انظر معاني القرآن للفراء 1 : 475 . (8) انظر تفسير " الإفساد " فيما سلف من فهارس اللغة ( فسد ) . (9) انظر هاتين القراءتين في معاني القرآن للفراء 1 : 475 .