Tabari (1 passage)

1. Full Dutch translation of Tabari's text

   The discourse on the explanation of His saying: وَقَاتِلُوا فِي سَبِيلِ اللَّهِ وَاعْلَمُوا أَنَّ اللَّهَ سَمِيعٌ عَلِيمٌ (244)

   (And fight in the way of Allah, and know that Allah is All-Hearing, All-Knowing.) (244)

   Abū Jaʿfar said: The Exalted — magnified be His mention — means thereby: "And fight" (qātilū), O believers, "in the way of Allah" (fī sabīl Allāh), that is to say: in His religion to which He has guided you, and not in obedience to Satan — fight the enemies of your religion, who turn people away from the way of your Lord. Do not refrain from fighting (qitāl) against them when you meet them, and do not be cowardly in the war against them, for in My hand lies your life and your death. Let none of you allow the dread of death or the fear of his own end through fighting against them to hold him back from encountering them and fighting against them, such that this would lead him to take flight before them and flee away from them, whereby you would humiliate yourselves and the death you feared would yet reach you in the refuge to which you fled — just as death came to those who departed from their dwellings fleeing from death, those whose history I have related to you. Their flight from it did not save them from its descent upon them, when My command came to them and My decree concerning them was carried out. And it did not harm those who remained behind that they had not guarded themselves against it, when I turned their appointed ends away from them and averted them from their souls. So fight in the way of Allah against those whom I have commanded you to fight of My enemies and the enemies of My religion, for whoever of you remains alive, it is I who keep him alive, and whoever of you is killed, his death occurs by My decree.

   Then the Exalted — magnified be His mention — says to them: And know, O believers, that your Lord is "All-Hearing" (samīʿ) concerning the saying of whoever among your hypocrites (munāfiqūn) says about those of you who have been killed in My way: "Had they obeyed us and remained sitting in their houses, they would not have been killed." And He is "All-Knowing" (ʿalīm) concerning what their breasts conceal of hypocrisy (nifāq) and unbelief (kufr), and of their lack of gratitude for My favours to them and My benefactions toward them with respect to themselves and their kinsfolk, and concerning the rest of their affairs and the affairs of My servants.

   The Exalted — magnified be His mention — says to His believing servants: Be then grateful toward Me by obeying Me in what I have commanded you of the struggle (jihād) against your enemy in My way, and in the rest of what I command and forbid, since these have denied My favours. And know that Allah is All-Hearing concerning their saying, and All-Knowing concerning them and concerning others, and concerning the belief (īmān) and unbelief (kufr), the obedience and disobedience in which they persist, encompassing all of that, until I recompense each one according to his deed: if it be good, then with good, and if it be evil, then with evil.

   * * *

   Abū Jaʿfar said: There is no ground for the saying of whoever claims that His word: "And fight in the way of Allah," is a command from Allah to those who departed from their dwellings — while they were in their thousands — to fight, after He had revived them again. For His word: "And fight in the way of Allah," can — if the matter is as they have interpreted it — be nothing other than one of three possibilities:

   = Either it is a conjunction (ʿaṭf) upon His word: فَقَالَ لَهُمُ اللَّهُ مُوتُوا (Then Allah said to them: Die), and it is impossible that He should cause them to die and command them, while they are dead, to fight in His way.

   = Or it is a conjunction upon His word: ثُمَّ أَحْيَاهُمْ (Then He revived them), and that too has no meaning. For His word: "And fight in the way of Allah," is a command from Allah to fight, while His word: ثُمَّ أَحْيَاهُمْ (Then He revived them) is a report about an action that has already passed. And it is not eloquent to conjoin a future report upon a report in the past — were they both reports — because of the difference between the meanings of the two. How then could a command be conjoined upon a report in the past?

   = Or its meaning is: Then He revived them and said to them: Fight in the way of Allah, the verb "to say" (al-qawl) being thereafter omitted, just as the Exalted — magnified be His mention — has said: إِذِ الْمُجْرِمُونَ نَاكِسُو رُءُوسِهِمْ عِنْدَ رَبِّهِمْ رَبَّنَا أَبْصَرْنَا وَسَمِعْنَا [Surah As-Sajdah: 12] (When the criminals bow their heads before their Lord: Our Lord, we have seen and heard), in the meaning of: they say: Our Lord, we have seen and heard. Yet that too is permissible only in the place where the outward wording of the text indicates the necessity of it, and where the hearer understands that the word is intended thereby, even though it is not mentioned. But in the places where there is no indication of the necessity of that word in the text, there is no ground for the claim of whoever claims that it is intended there.

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   Footnotes:

   (214) See what has been said earlier in the explanation of "the way of Allah" 3: 583, 592, and the references therein.

   (215) "the enemies of…" is the direct object of "fight," and the construction reads: "Fight, O believers, … against the enemies of your religion."

   (216) In the manuscript it reads: "wa-lā taḥmū ʿan qitālihi ʿinda liqāʾihim, wa-lā taḥbū ʿan ḥarbihim," unpointed, with the singular pronoun "qitālihi." The editors of the printed edition altered this, since they could not properly grasp the reading, and made of it: "wa-lā tajbunū ʿan liqāʾihim, wa-lā taqʿudū ʿan ḥarbihim" — they changed, replaced, omitted, and did as they pleased!! And his saying "wa-lā taḥtamū ʿan qitālihim" derives from their expression "iḥtamaytu min kadhā" and "taḥāmaytuhu": when one guards himself against it and refrains from it. And "min" and "ʿan" are equivalent in this place.

   (217) In the printed edition it reads: "fa-yadʿūhu dhālika ilā al-tafrīd," and that is incorrect, and some who annotated the tafsīr compounded the error by explaining this objectionable word. Al-taʿrīd means: flight and swift withdrawal in defeat. One says: "ʿarrada al-rajul ʿan qawlihi," when he shrinks back from it, abandons it, and flees.

   (218) "Waʾala ilā al-makān, yaʾilu, wa-uwūlan wa-waʾīlan wa-waʾlan": he sought refuge there and strove for deliverance. And "al-mawʾil": the place of refuge.

   (219) Al-ḥawbāʾ: the soul, or the blood of the heart.

   (220) In the printed edition it reads: "fa-anā uḥayyiḥuhu," and I have adopted what is in the manuscript.

   (221) In the printed edition it reads: "bimā tukhfīhi ṣudūruhum," and I have adopted what is in the manuscript. And "ajanna al-shayʾ": he covered it, concealed it, and kept it hidden.

   Show original Arabic

   القول في تأويل قوله : وَقَاتِلُوا فِي سَبِيلِ اللَّهِ وَاعْلَمُوا أَنَّ اللَّهَ سَمِيعٌ عَلِيمٌ (244) قال أبو جعفر: يعني تعالى ذكره بذلك: " وقاتلوا "، أيها المؤمنون=" في سبيل الله "، يعني: في دينه الذي هداكم له, (214) لا في طاعة الشيطان= أعداء دينكم, (215) الصادين عن سبيل ربكم, ولا تحتموا عن قتالهم عند لقائهم, ولا تجبنوا عن حربهم، (216) فإن بيدي حياتكم وموتكم. ولا يمنعن أحدكم من لقائهم وقتالهم حذر الموت وخوف المنية على نفسه بقتالهم, فيدعوه ذلك إلى التعريد عنهم والفرار منهم, (217) فتذلوا, ويأتيكم الموت الذي خفتموه في مأمنكم الذي وألتم إليه, (218) كما أتى الذين خرجوا من ديارهم فرارا من الموت, الذين قصصت عليكم قصتهم, فلم ينجهم فرارهم منه من نـزوله بهم حين جاءهم أمري، وحل بهم قضائي, ولا ضر المتخلفين وراءهم ما كانوا لم يحذروه، إذ دافعت عنهم مناياهم , وصرفتها عن حوبائهم, (219) فقاتلوا في سبيل الله من أمرتكم بقتاله من أعدائي وأعداء ديني, فإن من حيي منكم فأنا أحييه, (220) ومن قتل منكم فبقضائي كان قتله. &; 5-281 &; ثم قال تعالى ذكره لهم: واعلموا، أيها المؤمنون، أن ربكم " سميع " لقول من يقول من منافقيكم لمن قتل منكم في سبيلي: لو أطاعونا فجلسوا في منازلهم ما قتلوا=" عليم " بما تجنه صدورهم من النفاق والكفر وقلة الشكر لنعمتي عليهم، (221) وآلائي لديهم في أنفسهم وأهليهم، ولغير ذلك من أمورهم وأمور عبادي. يقول تعالى ذكره لعباده المؤمنين: فاشكروني أنتم بطاعتي فيما أمرتكم من جهاد عدوكم في سبيلي, وغير ذلك من أمري ونهيي, إذ كفر هؤلاء نعمي. واعلموا أن الله سميع لقولهم، وعليم بهم وبغيرهم وبما هم عليه مقيمون من الإيمان والكفر، والطاعة والمعصية، محيط بذلك كله, حتى أجازي كلا بعمله, إن خيرا فخيرا، وإن شرا فشرا. * * * قال أبو جعفر: ولا وجه لقول من زعم أن قوله: " وقاتلوا في سبيل الله "، أمر من الله الذين خرجوا من ديارهم وهم ألوف بالقتال، بعد ما أحياهم. لأن قوله: " وقاتلوا في سبيل الله "، لا يخلو- إن كان الأمر على ما تأولوه- من أحد أمور ثلاثة: = إما أن يكون عطفا على قوله: فَقَالَ لَهُمُ اللَّهُ مُوتُوا ، وذلك من المحال أن يميتهم، ويأمرهم وهم موتى بالقتال في سبيله. = أو يكون عطفا على قوله: ثُمَّ أَحْيَاهُمْ ، وذلك أيضا مما لا معنى له. لأن قوله: " وقاتلوا في سبيل الله "، أمر من الله بالقتال, وقوله: ثُمَّ أَحْيَاهُمْ ، خبر عن فعل قد مضى. وغير فصيح العطف بخبر مستقبل على خبر ماض، لو كانا جميعا خبرين، لاختلاف معنييهما. فكيف عطف الأمر على خبر ماض؟ = أو يكون معناه: ثم أحياهم وقال لهم: قاتلوا في سبيل الله, ثم أسقط" القول ", &; 5-282 &; كما قال تعالى ذكره: إِذِ الْمُجْرِمُونَ نَاكِسُو رُءُوسِهِمْ عِنْدَ رَبِّهِمْ رَبَّنَا أَبْصَرْنَا وَسَمِعْنَا [سورة السجدة: 12]، بمعنى يقولون: ربنا أبصرنا وسمعنا. وذلك أيضا إنما يجوز في الموضع الذي يدل ظاهر الكلام على حاجته إليه، ويفهم السامع أنه مراد به الكلام وإن لم يذكر. فأما في الأماكن التي لا دلالة على حاجة الكلام إليه, فلا وجه لدعوى مدع أنه مراد فيها. ----------------- الهوامش : (214) انظر ما سلف في تفسير : "سبيل الله" 3 : 583 ، 592 ، والمراجع هناك . (215) "أعداء . . . " مفعول"قاتلوا" ، والسياق : "قاتلوا أيها المؤمنون . . . أعداء دينكم" . (216) في المخطوطة"ولا تحموا عن قتاله عند لقائهم ، ولا تحبوا عن حربهم" غير منقوطة ، بإفراد ضمير"قتاله" ، فغيرها مصححوا المطبوعة ، إذ لم يحسنوا قراءتها فجعلوها : "ولا تجبنوا عن لقائهم ، ولا تقعدوا عن حربهم" غيروا وبدلوا واسقطوا وفعلوا ما شاءوا!! . وقوله : "ولا تحتموا عن قتالهم" من قولهم : احتميت من كذا وتحاميته : إذا اتقيته وامتنعت منه . و"من" و"عن" في هذا الموضع سواء . (217) في المطبوعة : "فيدعوه ذلك إلى التفريد" ، وهو خطأ ، وزاده خطأ بعض من علق على التفسير ، بشرح هذا اللفظ المنكر . والتعريد : الفرار وسرعة الذهاب في الهزيمة . يقال : "عرد الرجل عن قوله" ، إذا أحجم عنه ونكل وفر . (218) وأل إلى المكان يئل ، وؤولا ووئيلا ووألا : لجأ إليه طلب النجاة . والموئل : الملجأ . (219) الحوباء : النفس ، أو ورع القلب . (220) في المطبوعة : "فأنا أحيحه" ، وأثبت ما في المخطوطة . (221) في المطبوعة : "بما تخفيه صدورهم" ، وأثبت ما في المخطوطة . وأجن الشيء : ستره وكتمه وأخفاه .