Tabari (1 passage)

1. Full Dutch translation of Tabari's text

   The Statement Concerning the Interpretation of the Saying of Allah, the Exalted: يَا أَيُّهَا النَّاسُ اعْبُدُوا رَبَّكُمُ الَّذِي خَلَقَكُمْ وَالَّذِينَ مِنْ قَبْلِكُمْ

   (O mankind, worship your Lord, Who created you and those before you)

   Abū Jaʿfar said: Thus did He, exalted be His praise, command the two groups — the group concerning whom Allah has reported that it is the same for them whether they are warned or not warned, that they will not believe, because of His sealing of their hearts and their hearing; and the other group, concerning whom He has reported that they seek to deceive Allah and those who believe by what they utter with their tongues in their saying, "We believe in Allah and in the Last Day," while inwardly they conceal the contrary thereof, and their hearts are sick, and they doubt the truth of what they display thereof — and, in addition to them, also all the rest among His creatures who are charged with religious duties — He commanded them to submission, and to humbling themselves before Him through obedience, and to ascribing the Lordship and the worship exclusively to Him, apart from the idols, the false gods, and the deities. For He, exalted be His mention, is their Creator and the Creator of those who were before them among their fathers and forefathers, and the Creator of their idols, their false gods, and their deities. So He said to them, exalted be His mention: He Who created you and created your fathers and your forefathers and all the rest of creation besides you, and Who has the power to harm you and to benefit you — He has more right to be obeyed than he who can neither benefit you nor harm you.

   And Ibn ʿAbbās said — according to what has been transmitted to us concerning him — herein the like of what we have said concerning this, except that it is reported of him that, concerning the meaning of "worship your Lord," he used to say: acknowledge your Lord as the One. And we have already — in what has passed of this book of ours — demonstrated that the meaning of worship (ʿibāda) is: submission to Allah through obedience, and abasing oneself before Him through humility. And what Ibn ʿAbbās meant — if Allah wills — by his saying in the interpretation of His word "worship your Lord," namely "acknowledge Him as the One," is: ascribe the obedience and the worship exclusively to your Lord, apart from the rest of His creatures.

   472 – Muḥammad ibn Ḥumayd related to us, saying: Salama related to us, on the authority of Ibn Isḥāq, on the authority of Muḥammad ibn Abī Muḥammad, on the authority of ʿIkrima, or on the authority of Saʿīd ibn Jubayr, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, who said: Allah said, "O mankind, worship your Lord," to both groups together — the unbelievers and the hypocrites — that is to say: acknowledge as the One your Lord, Who created you and those before you.

   473 – And Mūsā ibn Hārūn related to me, saying: ʿAmr ibn Ḥammād related to us, on the authority of Asbāṭ, on the authority of al-Suddī in a report which he mentioned, on the authority of Abū Mālik, and on the authority of Abū Ṣāliḥ, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās — and on the authority of Murra, on the authority of Ibn Masʿūd, and on the authority of a number of people among the companions of the Prophet ﷺ: "O mankind, worship your Lord, Who created you and those before you" — he says: He created you and created those who were before you.

   Abū Jaʿfar said: And this verse is among the most conclusive proofs of the falsity of the saying of him who claims: that the imposing of that which can be accomplished only with the help of Allah is not permissible, except after Allah has granted to the person charged with the duty the help toward that which He has imposed upon him. That is because Allah commanded those whom we have described to worship Him and to repent of their unbelief, after His reporting concerning them that they will not believe, and that they will not turn back from their error.

   The Statement Concerning the Interpretation of His Saying: لَعَلَّكُمْ تَتَّقُونَ

   (that you may become God-fearing) (21)

   Abū Jaʿfar said: And the interpretation thereof is: that you may become God-fearing through your worship of your Lord, Who created you, and through your obedience to Him in what He has commanded you and what He has forbidden you, and through your ascribing the worship exclusively to Him, that you may guard yourselves against His displeasure and His wrath, lest it descend upon you, and that you may be among the God-fearing with whom their Lord is pleased.

   And Mujāhid used to say, in the interpretation of His saying "that you may become God-fearing": that you may obey.

   474 – Ibn Wakīʿ related to us, saying: my father related to me, on the authority of Sufyān, on the authority of Ibn Abī Najīḥ, on the authority of Mujāhid, concerning His saying: "that you may become God-fearing," he said: that you may obey.

   Abū Jaʿfar said: And what I suppose is that Mujāhid meant by this saying of his: that you may fear your Lord through your obedience to Him, and through your desisting from your error.

   Abū Jaʿfar said: If a speaker were to say to us: How then is it that He, exalted be His praise, said "that you may become God-fearing"? Was He then not acquainted with that to which their affair would lead if they were to worship and obey Him, such that He said to them: perhaps, when you do that, you will become God-fearing — thereby issuing the report concerning the outcome of their worship of Him in the form of doubt?

   Then he is answered: That is not according to the meaning which you have imagined, but rather the meaning thereof is only: worship your Lord, Who created you and those before you, that you may fear Him through obedience to Him, and through acknowledging Him as the One, and through ascribing the Lordship and the worship exclusively to Him — as the poet has said:

   And you said to us: cease the wars, that we might cease them! And you gave us every solemn pledge.

   Yet when we ceased the war, your covenants proved like the glimmer of a mirage in the wasteland, glistening.

   He means thereby: you said to us "cease," that we might cease. And that is because "laʿalla" (that / perhaps), in this place, were it a doubt, then they would not have given them every solemn pledge.

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   Footnotes:

   (113) In the manuscript it reads: "whether you warn them or do not warn them," and both are equal in meaning.

   (114) In the printed edition it reads: "...and their hearing and their eyes," but the correct reading is the omission of "and their eyes," because they do not belong to the meaning of the sealing, as has passed in the interpretation of the verse.

   (115) In the manuscript it reads: "to harm or benefit," and both are equal.

   (116) Has passed in the interpretation of His saying, the Exalted: "You alone we worship," p. 160.

   (117) In the manuscript it reads: "acknowledge Him as the One for Him, ascribe...," and that has no meaning.

   (118) The report 472 – is in al-Durr al-Manthūr 1:33, and Ibn Kathīr 1:105, and al-Shawkānī 1:38. In al-Durr and al-Shawkānī it reads: "among the unbelievers and the believers," and Ibn Kathīr agrees with the source texts of al-Ṭabarī.

   (119) The report 473 – is in al-Durr al-Manthūr 1:33, but its issuing is not attributed to Ibn Jarīr. In the manuscript it reads: "He created you and those who...".

   (120) In the printed edition it reads: "to Him through the worship," and that is an error.

   (121) The narration 474 – is in al-Durr al-Manthūr 1:34.

   (122) Al-Ṭabarī means that the Arabs use "laʿalla," stripped of doubt, in the meaning of the "lām of purpose" (lām kay), as Ibn al-Shajarī said in his Amālī 1:51.

   (123) I do not know the poet of the two verses, and Ibn al-Shajarī transmitted them, derived from al-Ṭabarī as I suppose, in his Amālī 1:51.

   (124) The transmission of Ibn al-Shajarī is "fī al-malā" (in the plain). And "al-falā" is the plural of "falāt": that is the level land upon which there is nothing, and the wide desert. And "al-malā" is the desert and the expanse of the land — both are thus equal in meaning.

   Show original Arabic

   القول في تأويل قول الله تعالى: يَا أَيُّهَا النَّاسُ اعْبُدُوا رَبَّكُمُ الَّذِي خَلَقَكُمْ وَالَّذِينَ مِنْ قَبْلِكُمْ قال أبو جعفر: فأمرَ جل ثناؤه الفريقين - اللذين أخبرَ الله عن أحدهما أنه سواءٌ عليهم أأنذروا أم لم يُنذروا أنهم لا يؤمنون (113) ، لطبْعِه على قلوبهم وعلى سمعهم (114) ، وعن الآخرِ أنه يُخادع اللهَ والذين آمنوا بما يبدي بلسانه من قيله: آمنّا بالله وباليوم الآخر, مع استبطانه خلافَ ذلك, ومرض قلبه, وشكّه في حقيقة ما يُبدي من ذلك; وغيرهم من سائر خلقه المكلَّفين - بالاستكانة، والخضوع له بالطاعة, وإفراد الربوبية له والعبادة دون الأوثان والأصنام والآلهة. لأنه جلّ ذكره هو خالقهم وخالقُ مَنْ قبلهم من آبائهم وأجدادهم, وخالقُ أصنامهم وأوثانهم وآلهتهم. فقال لهم جل ذكره: فالذي خلقكم وخلق آباءكم وأجدادَكم وسائرَ الخلق غيرَكم، وهو يقدرُ على ضرّكم ونَفعكم - أولى بالطاعة ممن لا يقدر لكم على نَفع ولا ضرّ (115) . وكان ابن عباس: فيما رُوي لنا عنه، يقول في ذلك نظيرَ ما قلنا فيه, غير أنه ذُكر عنه أنه كان يقول في معنى " اعبُدوا ربكم ": وحِّدوا ربكم. وقد دللنا -فيما مضى من كتابنا هذا- على أن معنى العبادة: الخضوعُ لله بالطاعة، &; 1-363 &; والتذلل له بالاستكانة (116) . والذي أراد ابن عباس -إن شاء الله- بقوله في تأويل قوله: " اعبدوا ربكم " وحِّدوه، أي أفردُوا الطاعة والعبادة لربكم دون سائر خلقه (117) . 472- حدثنا محمد بن حميد, قال: حدثنا سلمة, عن ابن إسحاق, عن محمد بن أبي محمد, عن عكرمة, أو عن سعيد بن جبير, عن ابن عباس, قال: قال الله: " يا أيها الناسُ اعبدُوا رَبكم "، للفريقين جميعًا من الكفار والمنافقين, أي وَحِّدوا ربكم الذي خلقكم والذين من قبلكم (118) . 473- وحدثني موسى بن هارون, قال: حدثنا عمرو بن حماد, عن أسباط, عن السُّدّيّ في خبر ذكره, عن أبي مالك, وعن أبي صالح, عن ابن عباس - وعن مُرَّة, عن ابن مسعود, وعن ناس من أصحاب النبي صلى الله عليه وسلم: " يا أيها الناس اعبدُوا ربّكم الذي خَلقكم والذين منْ قبلكم " يقول: خَلقكم وخَلق الذين من قبلكم (119) . قال أبو جعفر: وهذه الآيةُ من أدلّ دليل على فساد قول من زعم: أنّ تكليف ما لا يطاق إلا بمعونة الله غيرُ جائز، إلا بَعد إعطاء الله المكلف المعُونةَ على ما كلَّفه. وذلك أنّ الله أمرَ من وَصفنا، بعبادته والتوبة من كفره, بعد إخباره عنهم أنهم لا يؤمنون، وأنهم عن ضَلالتهم لا يَرْجعون. القول في تأويل قوله : لَعَلَّكُمْ تَتَّقُونَ (21) قال أبو جعفر: وتأويل ذلك: لعلكم تتقون بعبادتكم ربَّكم الذي خلقكم, وطاعتِكم إياه فيما أمركم به ونهاكم عنه, وإفرادكُم له العبادة (120) لتتقوا سَخَطه وغضَبه أن يَحلّ عليكم, وتكونُوا من المتقين الذين رضي عنهم ربهم. وكان مجاهدٌ يقولُ في تأويل قوله: " لعلكم تتقون ": تُطيعون. 474- حدثنا ابن وكيع, قال: حدثني أبي، عن سفيان, عن ابن أبي نَجيح، عن مجاهد، في قوله: " لعلكم تتقون "، قال: لعلكم تطيعون (121) . قال أبو جعفر: والذي أظن أنّ مجاهدًا أراد بقوله هذا: لعلكم أنْ تَتقوا رَبَّكم بطاعتكم إياه، وإقلاعِكم عن ضَلالتكم. قال أبو جعفر: فإن قال لنا قائل: فكيف قال جل ثناؤه: " لعلكم تتقون "؟ أو لم يكن عالمًا بما يصيرُ إليه أمرُهم إذا هم عبدوه وأطاعُوه, حتى قال لهم: لعلكم إذا فعلتم ذلك أن تتقوا, فأخرج الخبر عن عاقبة عبادتهم إياه مخرج الشكّ؟ قيل له: ذلك على غير المعنى الذي توهَّمتَ, وإنما معنى ذلك: اعبدُوا ربكم الذي خلقكم والذين من قبلكم, لتتقوه بطاعته وتوحيده وإفراده بالربوبية والعبادة (122) ، كما قال الشاعر: وَقُلْتُــمْ لَنَـا كُفُّـوا الْحُـرُوبَ, لَعَلَّنَـا نَكُــفُّ! وَوَثَّقْتُـمْ لَنَـا كُـلَّ مَـوْثِقِ (123) فَلَمَّـا كَفَفْنَـا الْحَـرْبَ كَـانَتْ عُهُودُكُمْ كَــلَمْحِ سَـرَابٍ فِـي الْفَـلا مُتَـأَلِّقِ (124) يريد بذلك: قلتم لنا كُفُّوا لنكفّ. وذلك أن " لعل " في هذا الموضع لو كان شَكًّا، لم يكونوا وثقوا لهم كل مَوْثق. ------------------ الهوامش : (113) في المخطوطة : "أأنذرتهم أم لم تنذرهم" ، وهما سواء في المعنى . (114) في المطبوعة : " . . وعلى سمعهم وأبصارهم" ، والصواب حذف"وأبصارهم" ، لأنها غير داخلة في معنى الطبع ، كما مضى في تفسير الآية . (115) في المخطوطة : "على ضرر ولا نفع" ، وهما سواء . (116) مضى في تفسير قوله تعالى"إياك نعبد" ص : 160 . (117) في المخطوطة"وحدوه له أفردوا . . " ، وليس لها معنى . (118) الخبر 472- في الدر المنثور 1 : 33 ، وابن كثير 1 : 105 ، والشوكاني 1 : 38 . وفي الدر والشوكاني : "من الكفار والمؤمنين" ، ووافق ابن كثير أصول الطبري . (119) الخبر 473- في الدر المنثور 1 : 33 ، ولم ينسب إخراجه لابن جرير . وفي المخطوطة : "خلقكم والذين . . " . (120) في المطبوعة : "له بالعبادة" وهو خطأ . (121) الأثر 474- في الدر المنثور 1 : 34 . (122) يريد الطبري أن العرب تستعمل"لعل" مجردة من الشك ، بمعنى لام كي ، كما قال ابن الشجري في أماليه 1 : 51 . (123) لم أعرف قائلهما ، ورواهما ابن الشجري نقلا عن الطبري ، فيما أرجح ، في أماليه 1 : 51 . (124) رواية ابن الشجري"في الملا" . والفلا جمع فلاة : وهي الأرض المستوية ليس فيها شيء والصحراء الواسعة . والملا : الصحراء والمتسع من الأرض - فهما سواء في المعنى .