Tafseer of Mary · Maryam · 19:25
And shake toward you the trunk of the palm tree; it will drop upon you ripe, fresh dates.
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.
As Yūnus related to me, saying: Ibn Wahb informed us, saying: Ibn Zayd said, concerning His statement وَهُزِّي إِلَيْكِ بِجِذْعِ النَّخْلَةِ : he said: Shake it.
* The report of those who said this:
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 وَهُزِّي إِلَيْكِ بِجِذْعِ النَّخْلَةِ : he said: It was a dry trunk, and it was said to her: shake it تُسَاقِطْ عَلَيْكِ رُطَبًا جَنِيًّا .
Ibn Ḥumayd related to us, saying: Yaḥyā ibn Wāḍiḥ related to us, saying: ʿAbd al-Muʾmin related to us — he said: I heard Abū Nayhik say: It was a dry palm tree.
Muḥammad ibn Sahl ibn ʿAskar related to me, saying: Ismāʿīl ibn ʿAbd al-Karīm related to us, saying: ʿAbd al-Ṣamad ibn Maʿqil related to me — he said: I heard Wahb ibn Munabbih say concerning وَهُزِّي إِلَيْكِ بِجِذْعِ النَّخْلَةِ : the dates fell down upon her, and that was in the winter.
Mūsā ibn Hārūn related to us, saying: ʿAmr related to us, saying: Asbāṭ related to us, on the authority of al-Suddī — concerning وَهُزِّي إِلَيْكِ بِجِذْعِ النَّخْلَةِ : it was a trunk cut off from her; she shook it, and behold: it was a palm tree; and there was made to flow for her in the sanctuary a river, and the palm let fresh dates fall. Then it was said to her: فَكُلِي وَاشْرَبِي وَقَرِّي عَيْنًا .
Others said: The meaning is: shake the palm tree toward you.
* The report of those who said this:
Ibn Bashshār related to us, saying: ʿAbd al-Raḥmān related to us, saying: Sufyān related to us — he said: Mujāhid said — concerning وَهُزِّي إِلَيْكِ بِجِذْعِ النَّخْلَةِ : he said: The palm tree.
Ibn Bashshār related to us, saying: Abū Aḥmad related to us, saying: Sufyān related to us, on the authority of ʿĪsā ibn Maymūn, on the authority of Mujāhid — concerning وَهُزِّي إِلَيْكِ بِجِذْعِ النَّخْلَةِ : he said: The ʿajwa date.
Yaʿqūb related to me, saying: Hushaym related to us, saying: Ḥuṣayn informed us, on the authority of ʿAmr ibn Maymūn — that he recited this verse: وَهُزِّي إِلَيْكِ بِجِذْعِ النَّخْلَةِ تُسَاقِطْ عَلَيْكِ رُطَبًا جَنِيًّا — and ʿAmr said: There is nothing better for a woman after childbirth than dates and ripe dates. The bāʾ was introduced in وَهُزِّي إِلَيْكِ بِجِذْعِ النَّخْلَةِ just as one says: "zawwajtuka fulāna" and "zawwajtuka bi-fulāna" (I gave her to you in marriage / I married you to her), and as in تَنْبُتُ بِالدُّهْنِ (in the sense of: it makes oil grow).
The Arabs do this because verbs are indicated by the bāʾ; when, in "ḍarabtu ʿAmran" (I struck ʿAmr), one indicates the action by a pronoun, one says: "faʿaltu bihi" (I did it with him). So it is with every verb, and through this the bāʾ enters with verbs and exits from them, such that its presence or absence has the same meaning. The meaning is therefore: shake the trunk of the palm tree toward you. Had the exegetes also interpreted it as: shake the dates from the trunk toward you — with "bi-jidhʿ al-nakhla" in the sense of "upon the trunk" — that too would have been a sound position; but I have not heard that as an interpretation from anyone.
The reciters differed concerning the reading of تَسَّاقَطْ . Most reciters of Medina, Basra, and Kūfa read تَسَّاقَطُ with a tāʾ and a doubled sīn, in the sense: the palm lets ripe dates fall down upon you — where the two tāʾs are merged so that the sīn sounds doubled. Those who read it thus seemed to see the meaning as: shake the trunk of the palm tree so that the palm lets ripe dates fall down upon you. Some Kūfan reciters read تَسَاقَطُ with a tāʾ and a single sīn, with the same import but a different spelling. From al-Barāʾ ibn ʿĀzib it is related that he read it as يُسَاقِطُ with a yāʾ.
Aḥmad ibn Yūsuf related this to me, saying: al-Qāsim related to us, saying: Yazīd related to us, on the authority of Jarīr ibn Ḥāzim, on the authority of Abū Isḥāq — he said: I heard al-Barāʾ ibn ʿĀzib read it thus; and it is as though he let the meaning bear upon: shake the trunk so that the trunk lets ripe dates fall down upon you.
From Abū Nayhik it is related that he read it as تُسْقِطُ with a ḍamma on the tāʾ and without an alif.
Ibn Ḥumayd related this to us, saying: Yaḥyā ibn Wāḍiḥ related to us, saying: ʿAbd al-Muʾmin related to us — he said: I heard Abū Nayhik read it thus; and it is as though he let the meaning bear upon: the palm lets ripe dates fall down upon you.
Abū Jaʿfar (Imam al-Ṭabarī) said: The correct view, in my opinion, is that the three readings — تَسَّاقَطُ with tāʾ and doubled sīn, تَسَاقَطُ with tāʾ and single sīn, and يَسَّاقَطُ with yāʾ and doubled sīn — are close to one another in meaning; all three have been read by reciters who know the Qurʾān, and whoever reads any of these readings is correct. For if the trunk lets dates fall while it stands and is not cut off, then the palm lets dates fall; and if the palm lets dates fall, the whole palm lets them fall — the trunk and what belongs to it — for as long as the palm stands upon its root, it consists of trunk, palm fronds, and frond stalks; if it is cut off, it becomes a trunk. The trunk which Maryam was commanded to shake has not been described by anyone we know of as a cut-off trunk, except by al-Suddī — who claimed that through her shaking it became a palm again. His interpretation and that of those who said they were ripe dates from a single palm thus amount to the same thing; and by this the soundness of our interpretation is established.
His statement جَنِيًّا means: plucked (majniyyan); its original form is a passive participle transformed into "faʿīl." The plucked is that which is taken fresh from the tree; everything taken fresh from a fruit or moved from its place is called "mujtanā." Hence the saying: "fulān yajtanī al-kamʾa" (so-and-so gathers truffles). From this comes the verse of the cousin of Jadhīma:
"This is my harvest and the best of it is in it; for every plucker lays his hand to his mouth."