Tafseer of The Cow · Al-Baqara · 2:246
Have you not considered the assembly of the Children of Israel after [the time of] Moses when they said to a prophet of theirs, "Send to us a king, and we will fight in the way of Allah "? He said, "Would you perhaps refrain from fighting if fighting was prescribed for you?" They said, "And why should we not fight in the cause of Allah when we have been driven out from our homes and from our children?" But when fighting was prescribed for them, they turned away, except for a few of them. And Allah is Knowing of the wrongdoers.
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 saying of Allah: أَلَمْ تَرَ إِلَى الْمَلإِ مِنْ بَنِي إِسْرَائِيلَ مِنْ بَعْدِ مُوسَى إِذْ قَالُوا لِنَبِيٍّ لَهُمُ ابْعَثْ لَنَا مَلِكًا نُقَاتِلْ فِي سَبِيلِ اللَّهِ
(Have you not seen the notables of the Children of Israel after Moses, when they said to a prophet of theirs: "Send us a king, then we will fight in the way of Allah.")
Abū Jaʿfar said: The Exalted means by His word "Have you not seen" — have you not seen, O Muḥammad, with your heart, (1) and do you not know through what I inform you, O Muḥammad — "the notables (al-malaʾ)", that is: the eminent ones of the Children of Israel, their nobles and their leaders — "after Moses", He says: after Moses was taken away and died — "when they said to a prophet of theirs: Send us a king, then we will fight in the way of Allah." It has been related to me that the prophet who said that to them was Shamwīl (2) ibn Bālī (3) ibn ʿAlqama (4) ibn Yarḥām (5) ibn Ilīhū (6) ibn Tahū ibn Ṣūf (7) ibn ʿAlqama ibn Māḥith (8) ibn ʿAmūṣā (9) ibn ʿAzryā ibn Ṣafniyya (10) ibn ʿAlqama ibn Abī Yāsaf (11) ibn Qārūn (12) ibn Yaṣhar (13) ibn Qāhith (14) ibn Lāwī ibn Yaʿqūb ibn Isḥāq ibn Ibrāhīm.
5626 – Ibn Ḥumayd related that to us, saying: Salama related to us, on the authority of Ibn Isḥāq, (15) on the authority of Wahb ibn Munabbih.
5627 – And also al-Muthannā ibn Ibrāhīm related to me, saying: Isḥāq related to us, saying: Ismāʿīl ibn ʿAbd al-Karīm related to us, saying: ʿAbd al-Ṣamad ibn Maʿqil related to me: that he heard Wahb ibn Munabbih say: he is Shamwīl, he is Shamwīl — but he did not give his genealogy as Ibn Isḥāq gave it. (16)
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Al-Suddī said: No, his name was Shamʿūn. And he said: He was only called "Shamʿūn" because his mother called upon Allah to grant her a boy, and Allah answered her prayer and granted her one, and she bore a boy and named him "Shamʿūn", saying: Allah, the Exalted, has heard (samiʿa) my prayer.
5628 – Mūsā related [that] to me, saying: ʿAmr related to us, saying: Asbāṭ related to us, on the authority of al-Suddī. (17)
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It is as though "Shamʿūn" according to al-Suddī is a form "faʿlūn", derived from her saying: that Allah heard (samiʿa) her prayer. (18)
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5629 – 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, concerning His word: "Have you not seen the notables of the Children of Israel after Moses, when they said to a prophet of theirs", he said: Shamʾūl. (19)
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And others said: No, the one whose people from the Children of Israel asked him to appoint over them a king with whom they would fight in the way of Allah was Yūshaʿ (20) ibn Nūn ibn Afrāthīm (21) ibn Yūsuf ibn Yaʿqūb ibn Isḥāq ibn Ibrāhīm.
5630 – Al-Ḥasan ibn Yaḥyā related that to me, saying: ʿAbd al-Razzāq informed us, saying: Maʿmar informed us, on the authority of Qatāda, concerning His word: وَقَالَ لَهُمْ نَبِيُّهُمْ (And their prophet said to them), he said: their prophet after Moses was Yūshaʿ ibn Nūn. He said: and he is one of the two men to whom Allah showed favor. (22)
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As for His word: "Send us a king, then we will fight in the way of Allah" — the exegetes differed concerning the occasion for which the notables of the Children of Israel asked that of their prophet.
Some said: The occasion of their request to him was the following: —
5631 – Muḥammad ibn Ḥumayd related that to us, saying: Salama ibn al-Faḍl related to us, saying: Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq related to me, on the authority of Wahb ibn Munabbih, he said: After Moses, among the Children of Israel Yūshaʿ ibn Nūn succeeded him, who upheld among them the Torah and the command of Allah until Allah took him away. Then Kālib ibn Yūfannā (23) succeeded among them, who upheld among them the Torah and the command of Allah until Allah, the Exalted, took him away. Then Ḥizqīl (24) ibn Būzī succeeded among them — he is the son of the old woman. Then Allah took Ḥizqīl away, and the misdeeds increased among the Children of Israel, and they forgot what the covenant of Allah with them was, until they erected idols and worshipped them instead of Allah. Then Allah sent to them Ilyās (25) ibn Nasā (26) ibn Finḥāṣ (27) ibn al-ʿAyzār (28) ibn Hārūn ibn ʿImrān as a prophet. For the prophets among the Children of Israel after Moses were only sent to them to renew what they had forgotten of the Torah. Ilyās was with one of the kings of the Children of Israel, who was called Aḥāb (29), and who listened to him and held him to be truthful. Thus Ilyās upheld his affair. The rest of the Children of Israel, however, had taken an idol which they worshipped instead of Allah, and Ilyās began to invite them to Allah, but they began to accept nothing from him, except that one king. The kings were spread out over Syria (al-Shām), each king having a region of it which he consumed (i.e. over which he ruled and from which he took the yield). (30) Then that king — with whom Ilyās was and whose affair he upheld, and whom he considered among his companions to be as if rightly guided — said one day: O Ilyās, by Allah, I see nothing but falsehood in that to which you call the people! By Allah, I see such and such — and he named a number of kings of the Children of Israel (31) — who have worshipped idols instead of Allah, in a state equal to that in which we are: they eat, drink, and enjoy themselves as rulers. What has [that affair of yours, which you claim is falsehood] (33) diminished of their worldly goods? And we see no advantage for us over them. And it is claimed — Allah knows best — that Ilyās uttered "Innā lillāh" (the istirjāʿ) and that the hair of his head and his skin stood on end, and that he then rejected him and departed from him. Then that king did what his companions did: he worshipped the idols and did what they did. (35) Then after him al-Yasaʿ (36) succeeded among them, and there happened among them what Allah willed to happen, and then Allah took him to Himself. And the successors followed one another among them, and the sins increased among them, while they possessed the Ark (al-tābūt), which they inherited from generation to generation, in which was the sakīna and a remnant of what the family of Moses and the family of Hārūn had left behind. Whenever an enemy confronted them, they would bring forward the Ark and advance with it, (37) and then Allah would defeat that enemy. (38) Then a king succeeded among them who was called Īlāʾ (39), and Allah had blessed them upon their mountain, from Īliyā (Jerusalem), so that no enemy entered upon them and they needed nothing else thereby. One of them would gather — so it is related — soil upon the rock, then scatter seed in it, and Allah would bring forth for him what he and his household would eat that year. And one of them had an olive tree, from which he would press out for himself and his household as much as he ate that year. But when their misdeeds became great and they abandoned the covenant of Allah with them, an enemy descended upon them, and they went out to him and took the Ark with them as they were accustomed to take it, and advanced with it, and they were fought until it was plundered from their hands. Then someone came to their king Īlāʾ and informed him that the Ark had been taken and plundered, and his neck snapped and he died of grief over that. Then their affair fell into confusion, and their enemy trampled them, until some of their sons and their women were taken. (41) Among them was a prophet whom Allah had sent to them, but they accepted nothing from him; he was called "Shamwīl" (42), and he is the one whom Allah mentioned to His prophet Muḥammad: "Have you not seen the notables of the Children of Israel after Moses, when they said to a prophet of theirs: Send us a king, then we will fight in the way of Allah," up to His word: وَقَدْ أُخْرِجْنَا مِنْ دِيَارِنَا وَأَبْنَائِنَا (while we have indeed been driven out of our dwellings and from our sons), Allah says: فَلَمَّا كُتِبَ عَلَيْهِمُ الْقِتَالُ تَوَلَّوْا إِلا قَلِيلا مِنْهُمْ (but when fighting was prescribed for them, they turned away, except for a few of them), up to His word: إِنَّ فِي ذَلِكَ لآيَةً لَكُمْ إِنْ كُنْتُمْ مُؤْمِنِينَ (Verily, in that is a sign for you, if you are believers).
— Ibn Isḥāq said: Among their story was, according to what some of the people of knowledge related to me on the authority of Wahb ibn Munabbih: that when the affliction descended upon them and their land was trampled, they addressed their prophet Shamwīl ibn Bālī and said: "Send us a king, then we will fight in the way of Allah." For the existence of the Children of Israel rested upon uniting around the kings, and upon the obedience of the kings to their prophets. The king was the one who led the armies, and the prophet upheld his affair and brought him the message of his Lord. When they did that, their affair was in order, but when their kings misbehaved and abandoned the command of their prophets, their affair became corrupt. When the community followed the kings in error, they abandoned the command of the messengers: a part of them they denied and accepted nothing from him, and a part of them they killed. That affliction continued to persist among them until they said to him: "Send us a king, then we will fight in the way of Allah." He said to them: There is in you no fidelity, no sincerity, and no desire for jihād. They said: We avoided jihād and had no need of it, because we were protected in our land and no one trampled it and no enemy prevailed over it; but now that it has come to this, jihād is unavoidable, so we will obey our Lord in the jihād against our enemy, and we will protect our sons, our women, and our children.
5632 – It was related to me on the authority of ʿAmmār ibn al-Ḥasan, saying: Ibn Abī Jaʿfar related to us, on the authority of his father, on the authority of al-Rabīʿ, concerning His word: "Have you not seen the notables of the Children of Israel" up to: وَاللَّهُ عَلِيمٌ بِالظَّالِمِينَ (and Allah is all-knowing of the wrongdoers). Al-Rabīʿ said: It has been related to me — and Allah knows best — that when death drew near to Moses, he appointed his young man Yūshaʿ ibn Nūn as his successor over the Children of Israel, and that Yūshaʿ ibn Nūn acted among them according to the Book of Allah, the Torah, and the sunna of his prophet Moses. Then Yūshaʿ ibn Nūn passed away and appointed another as successor over them, who acted among them according to the Book of Allah and the sunna of his prophet Moses ﷺ. Then he appointed another as successor, who acted among them according to the way of life of his two predecessors. Then he appointed another as successor, and they acknowledged some things and denied others. Then he appointed another as successor, and they denied the greater part of his affair. Then he appointed another as successor, and they denied his entire affair. Then the Children of Israel came to one of their prophets, after harm had been done to them in their persons and their possessions, (43) and said to him: Ask your Lord to prescribe fighting for us! Then that prophet said to them: هَلْ عَسَيْتُمْ إِنْ كُتِبَ عَلَيْكُمُ الْقِتَالُ أَلا تُقَاتِلُوا (Might it be that, if fighting is prescribed for you, you will not fight?), up to His word: وَاللَّهُ يُؤْتِي مُلْكَهُ مَنْ يَشَاءُ وَاللَّهُ وَاسِعٌ عَلِيمٌ (and Allah gives His kingship to whom He wills, and Allah is all-encompassing, all-knowing).
5633 – Al-Qāsim related to us, saying: al-Ḥusayn related to us, saying: Ḥajjāj related to me, on the authority of Ibn Jurayj, concerning His word: "Have you not seen the notables of the Children of Israel after Moses, when they said to a prophet of theirs: Send us a king", he said: Ibn ʿAbbās said: This was when the Torah was lifted up and the people of faith were taken out of it, and the tyrants had driven them out of their dwellings and from their sons. (44)
5634 – It was related to me on the authority of al-Ḥusayn ibn al-Faraj, saying: I heard Abū Muʿādh say: ʿUbayd ibn Sulaymān informed us, saying: I heard al-Ḍaḥḥāk say concerning His word: "when they said to a prophet of theirs: Send us a king", he said: This was when the Torah was lifted up and the people of faith were taken out of it.
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And others said: The occasion of their request to their prophet was the following: —
5635 – Mūsā ibn Hārūn related that to me, saying: ʿAmr related to us, saying: Asbāṭ related to us, on the authority of al-Suddī: "Have you not seen the notables of the Children of Israel after Moses, when they said to a prophet of theirs: Send us a king, then we will fight in the way of Allah", he said: The Children of Israel used to fight the Amalekites, and the king of the Amalekites was Jālūt (Goliath), (45) and they overcame the Children of Israel, imposed the jizyah upon them, and took their Torah. The Children of Israel used to ask Allah to send them a prophet with whom they would fight. But the lineage of prophethood had perished, so that none of them remained except a pregnant woman. They took her and shut her up in a house, out of fear that she would bear a girl and then exchange it for a boy, because of the desire she saw among the Children of Israel for her child. The woman began to call upon Allah to grant her a boy, and she bore a boy and named him Shamʿūn. (46) The boy grew up, and she sent him to learn the Torah in Bayt al-Maqdis (Jerusalem), (47) and an old man from among their scholars took charge of him and adopted him. When the boy reached the age at which Allah would send him as a prophet, Jibrīl came to him while the boy was sleeping beside the old man — and he trusted no one other than him (48) — and he called him, imitating the voice of the old man: "O Shamāwīl!" (49) The boy got up startled and went to the old man and said: O father, did you call me? The old man found it disagreeable to say "no", lest the boy be frightened, and said: O my son, go back and sleep! And he went back and slept. Then he called him a second time, and the boy came to him again and said: Did you call me? He said: Go back and sleep, but if I call you a third time, do not answer me! When it was the third time, Jibrīl appeared to him and said: Go to your people and convey to them the message of your Lord, for Allah has sent you among them as a prophet. But when he came to them, they denied him and said: You have hastened with the prophethood, which does not yet belong to you! (50) And they said: If you are truthful, then send us a king, and we will fight in the way of Allah, as a sign of your prophethood! Then Shamʿūn said to them: It might be that you, if fighting is prescribed for you, will not fight. (51)
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Abū Jaʿfar said: It is not permissible in the word of Allah, the Exalted: "nuqātil fī sabīli llāh" (then we will fight in the way of Allah) — when it is read with the "nūn" — to read it in anything other than the jussive form (jazm), in the sense of recompense and of the condition linked to the command. If someone holds that the nominative (rafʿ) is permissible therein, and it is read with the "nūn", in the sense of: "[the king] with whom we fight in the way of Allah", (52) then that is not permissible, for the Arabs do not suppress two particles (do not imply two omitted words). (53) But if it were read with the "yāʾ", then the nominative therein would be permissible, for it would then, if read thus, be a qualifier (ṣila) of "the king", and the explanation of the words would then become: "Send us one who fights in the way of Allah", as the Exalted says: وَابْعَثْ فِيهِمْ رَسُولا مِنْهُمْ يَتْلُو عَلَيْهِمْ آيَاتِكَ [Surah Al-Baqarah: 129] (And send among them a messenger from themselves who recites to them Your signs), for His word "yatlū" (who recites) belongs to the qualifier of the messenger. (54)
The explanation of the saying of Allah: قَالَ هَلْ عَسَيْتُمْ إِنْ كُتِبَ عَلَيْكُمُ الْقِتَالُ أَلا تُقَاتِلُوا قَالُوا وَمَا لَنَا أَلا نُقَاتِلَ فِي سَبِيلِ اللَّهِ وَقَدْ أُخْرِجْنَا مِنْ دِيَارِنَا وَأَبْنَائِنَا فَلَمَّا كُتِبَ عَلَيْهِمُ الْقِتَالُ تَوَلَّوْا إِلا قَلِيلا مِنْهُمْ وَاللَّهُ عَلِيمٌ بِالظَّالِمِينَ (246)
(He said: Might it be that, if fighting is prescribed for you, you will not fight? They said: And why should we not fight in the way of Allah, while we have indeed been driven out of our dwellings and from our sons? But when fighting was prescribed for them, they turned away, except for a few of them. And Allah is all-knowing of the wrongdoers.) (246)
Abū Jaʿfar said: The Exalted means thereby: the prophet whom they asked to appoint over them a king with whom they would fight in the way of Allah, said: "Might it be that you" — do you perhaps promise (55) — "if fighting is prescribed", that is: if fighting is imposed upon you (56) — "that you will not fight", that is: that you will not fulfill what you promise Allah of yourselves, namely jihād in His way, for you are people of breaking your word, of treachery, and of lack of fidelity to what you promise? — "They said: And why should we not fight in the way of Allah", that is: the notables of the Children of Israel said to their prophet: And what would prevent us from fighting in the way of Allah against our enemy and the enemy of Allah — "while we have indeed been driven out of our dwellings and from our sons", by coercion and overpowering?
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If someone asks us: What is the reason that "an" is added in His word "wa-mā lanā allā nuqātila fī sabīli llāh" (and why should we not fight in the way of Allah), while it is omitted from His word: وَمَا لَكُمْ لا تُؤْمِنُونَ بِاللَّهِ وَالرَّسُولُ يَدْعُوكُمْ [Surah Al-Ḥadīd: 8] (And what is the matter with you that you do not believe in Allah, while the Messenger calls you)?
The answer is: They are two eloquent linguistic usages of the Arabs. Sometimes one omits "an" in their expression "mā laka" (what is the matter with you), and one says: "mā laka lā tafʿalu kadhā" (what is the matter with you that you do not do such-and-such), in the sense of: "what is the matter with you, not being a doer of it", as the poet said: (58)
* "What is the matter with you that you bellow, while the pregnant she-camel does not bellow?" *
And that is a usage in which the speaker has no need of a testimony confirming its correctness, because of its wide currency on the tongues of the Arabs.
— And sometimes one adds "an" therein, directing their expression "mā laka" toward its meaning, since the meaning is: "what has prevented you?", as the Exalted said: مَا مَنَعَكَ أَلا تَسْجُدَ إِذْ أَمَرْتُكَ [Surah Al-Aʿrāf: 12] (What prevented you from prostrating when I commanded you?), and then He said in another surah, in a comparable case: مَا لَكَ أَلا تَكُونَ مَعَ السَّاجِدِينَ [Surah Al-Ḥijr: 32] (What is the matter with you that you are not among those who prostrate?), and so "mā manaʿaka" (what prevented you) was placed in the position of "mā laka" (what is the matter with you), and "mā laka" in the position of "mā manaʿaka", because of the agreement of their two meanings, even though their wordings differed — as the Arabs do in comparable cases whose meanings agree and whose wordings differ, as the poet said: (59)
He says, when he climbs upon her, restless, while she keeps herself calm and still: "Ah, is there perhaps a companion of a pleasant life that is lasting?" (60)
Thus he added the "bāʾ" into "dāʾim" (lasting) together with "hal" (is there perhaps), even though that is an interrogative particle. For it is added to the predicate of "mā" which has the meaning of negation, because of the nearness of the meaning of the question and the negation. (61)
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And some of the grammarians said: (62) "an" is added in "allā tuqātilū" (that you will not fight) because it has the meaning of the saying of one who says: "mā laka fī allā tuqātila" (what is the matter with you regarding not fighting). If that were permissible, it would be permissible to say: "mā laka an qumta" (what is the matter with you that you stood up) — "wa-mā laka annaka qāʾim" (and what is the matter with you that you are standing), but that is not permissible. For the preventing concerns only the future of actions, as one says: "manaʿtuka an taqūma" (I prevented you from standing up), and one does not say: "manaʿtuka an qumta" (I prevented you that you stood up); therefore one says with "mā laka": "mā laka allā taqūma" (what is the matter with you that you do not stand up), and one does not say: "mā laka an qumta".
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And others of them said: (63) "an" here is redundant, after "mā lanā", as it is redundantly added after "lammā" and "law", (64) and it is added abundantly in this sense. He said: and its meaning is: "wa-mā lanā lā nuqātilu fī sabīli llāh" (and why should we not fight in the way of Allah). Thus he made "an" operative (grammatically governing), while it is redundant. And al-Farazdaq said:
Were it not that Ghaṭafān were [a tribe] without any merit, then the people of her nobility would blame ʿAmr. (65)
And the meaning is: were it not that Ghaṭafān were a tribe that had merits — where "lā" is redundant, and yet he made it operative. (66)
— And others rejected what this speaker said in his statement which we have transmitted from him. They said: It is not permissible to make "an" redundant in a statement that is correct in meaning and which the sentence needs. They said: and the meaning is: "what holds us back from not fighting" — so there is no ground for the claim of one who claims that "an" is redundant, [while there is] a comprehensible, correct meaning. They said: And as for his saying:
* "Were it not that Ghaṭafān were [a tribe] without any merit" *
— "lā" therein is not redundant in this position, for it is a negation, and the negation, when it is negated, becomes an affirmation. They said: thus his saying: "were it not that Ghaṭafān were [a tribe] without any merit" is an affirmation of merits for her, as one says: "mā akhūka laysa yaqūmu" (your brother is not such that he does not stand up), in the sense of: he does stand up.
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And others said: The meaning of His word: "mā lanā allā nuqātila" (why should we not fight) is: "mā lanā wa-li-an lā nuqātila" (what is the matter with us and with not fighting), after which the "wāw" was omitted and left out, as one says in speech: "mā laka wa-li-an tadhhaba ilā fulān" (what is the matter with you and with going to so-and-so), where the "wāw" was discarded from it, because "an" is a particle that is not firmly anchored among the nouns. And they said: We permit one to say: "mā laka an taqūma" (what is the matter with you regarding standing up), but we do not permit: "mā laka al-qiyāma" (what is the matter with you regarding the standing), for "al-qiyām" is a proper noun and "an" is not a proper noun. And they said: The Arabs do say: "iyyāka an tatakallama" (beware of speaking), in the sense of: "iyyāka wa-an tatakallama" (beware and [avoid] speaking).
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And others rejected that from their statement and said: If it were permissible to say that according to the interpretation which the one whose statement we have transmitted gave to it, then it would necessarily be permissible to say: "ḍarabtuka bi-l-jāriya wa-anta kafīl" (I struck you with the slave-girl, while you are guarantor), in the sense of: "and you are guarantor for the slave-girl" — and to say: "raʾaytuka iyyānā wa-turīdu" (I saw you, us, and you want), in the sense of: "raʾaytuka wa-iyyānā turīdu" (I saw you, while you want us). (67) For the Arabs say: "iyyāka bi-l-bāṭili tanṭiqu" (beware of speaking with falsehood). They said: if, then, the "wāw" were implicit in "an", then everything we have mentioned would be permissible, but that is not permissible, for it is not permissible that the actions which come after the "wāw" relate to that which stands before it. (68) And they took as evidence for the untenability of the statement of the one who claimed that the "wāw" is implicit in "an", the word of the poet:
Disclose then the secrets to their [rightful] possessors, but beware of disclosing them to others than them. (69)
— And [they said] that, if there were an implicit "wāw" in "an tabūḥā" (that you disclose), it would not be permissible to place "fī ghayrihim" (to others than them) before it. (70)
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As for the explanation of His word, the Exalted: "wa-qad ukhrijnā min diyārinā wa-abnāʾinā" (while we have indeed been driven out of our dwellings and from our sons), He means: while those of our men and our women who were overcome were driven out of their dwellings and from their children, and those who were taken as captives. This statement has an outward generality but an inward specificity, for those who said to their prophet: "Send us a king, then we will fight in the way of Allah", were [still] in their dwellings and their homelands, and only those of them who were taken captive and subjugated were driven out of their house and from their child.
* * *
As for His word: "fa-lammā kutiba ʿalayhimu l-qitālu tawallaw illā qalīlan minhum" (but when fighting was prescribed for them, they turned away, except for a few of them), He says: but when fighting against their enemy and jihād in His way was imposed upon them — "they turned away, except for a few of them", He says: they turned about and turned away from fighting, and they neglected the obligation of jihād which they had asked their prophet for.
And the few whom Allah excepted from them are those who crossed the river with Ṭālūt (Saul). And we will mention the occasion for which those who turned away turned away, and for which those who crossed the river crossed it, later, if Allah wills, when we come to it.
* * *
Allah, the Exalted, says: "wa-llāhu ʿalīmun bi-l-ẓālimīn" (and Allah is all-knowing of the wrongdoers), that is: and Allah is possessor of knowledge of which of them wronged himself by breaking what he had promised Allah of himself and by contradicting the command of his Lord in that which he initially asked Him to impose upon him.
* * *
And this is, from Allah, the Exalted, a rebuke to the Jews who were in the midst of the place of the hijra of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, for their denial of our prophet Muḥammad ﷺ and their contradiction of the command of their Lord. Allah, the Exalted, says to them: Verily, you, O community of Jews, have disobeyed Allah and contradicted His command in that which your [forefathers] asked Him initially to impose upon them, without your Lord having begun with them by the obligation of that in which they disobeyed Him; so you are — because of your disobedience in that with which He began you, namely the imposition of His obligation — all the more inclined toward it.
* * *
And in this statement there is something omitted, where, through the mention of what is mentioned, sufficiency was attained without what was omitted of it. That is because the meaning of the statement is: "They said: And why should we not fight in the way of Allah, while we have indeed been driven out of our dwellings and from our sons" — and then their prophet asked their Lord to appoint over them a king with whom they would fight in the way of Allah, and He appointed for them a king and prescribed fighting for them — "but when fighting was prescribed for them, they turned away, except for a few of them, and Allah is all-knowing of the wrongdoers."
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Footnotes:
(1) See the meaning of "alam tara" (have you not seen) and "al-ruʾya" (seeing) in what precedes: p. 266, and the references in the note.
(2) I will mention in the following notes what occurs of names in this genealogy, according to their spelling in the book of the [relevant] people that we have before us, from the reports of the earliest times, in the sixth chapter. "Shamwīl" there is "Ṣamūʾīl" (Samuel).
(3) "Bālī" is not mentioned in the genealogy of "Shamwīl" in the book of the [relevant] people; with them it is rather "Ṣamūʾīl ibn al-Qāna" (Elkanah).
(4) (Elkanah).
(5) (Yarūḥām / Jeroham). In the printed edition it has "Barḥām", which is incorrect; in the manuscript it is unpointed, but in the Tārīkh of al-Ṭabarī (1:242) it has the pointed ḥāʾ.
(6) (Ilīʾīl / Eliel). It appears that this is "Ilīhū" (Elihu).
(7) (Tūḥ). In the printed edition it has "Yahū Ṣūq", which is incorrect, and in the manuscript "Bahū Ṣūf" unpointed; both have omitted the "ibn" between the two words. The correct reading is from the Tārīkh of al-Ṭabarī. "Tūḥ" is mentioned in the book of the [relevant] people, in the first book of Samuel, the first chapter, with the spelling "Tūḥū" (Tohu).
(8) (Māḥith / Mahath).
(9) (ʿAmā Sāy / Amasai). The genealogy in the book of the [relevant] people continues thereafter as: "ʿAmā Sāy ibn al-Qāna ibn Yūthīl ibn ʿAzryā ibn Ṣafniyā ibn Taḥath ibn Asīr ibn Abyāsāf"; a part of it is not mentioned in the genealogy which al-Ṭabarī transmitted, and in what he transmitted thereafter there is inversion [of order], as you see.
(10) (Ṣafniyā / Zephaniah). In the printed edition and the manuscript it has "Ṣafiyya".
(11) (Abyāsāf / Abiasaph). In the printed edition it has "Abī Yāsaq", and in the manuscript "Abī Yāsaf".
(12) (Qūraḥ / Korah).
(13) (Yiṣhār / Izhar).
(14) (Qahāt / Kohath).
(15) In the printed edition and the manuscript it has "on the authority of Abī Isḥāq", which is incorrect; it is an isnād that circulates in al-Ṭabarī, on the authority of "Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq", the author of the Sīra.
(16) In the manuscript and the printed edition it has "as Isḥāq gave it", which is an evident error; see the preceding note.
(17) What is between brackets is an addition that the context requires, as in the isnād of the preceding narration.
(18) In the printed edition it has "min qawlihā samiʿa", with "annahu" omitted; I have adopted what is in the manuscript.
(19) In the printed edition it has "Shamʿūn", which is undoubtedly incorrect; the correct reading is what is in the manuscript and in al-Durr al-Manthūr (1:315).
(20) (Yashūʿ / Joshua).
(21) (Afrāyim / Ephraim). In the printed edition (Afrāthīm), and the correct reading is what I have adopted from the Tārīkh (1:225); in the manuscript it is unpointed.
(22) That is: the two mentioned in the saying of the Exalted in [Surah Al-Māʾida: 23]: قَالَ رَجُلَانِ مِنَ الَّذِينَ يَخَافُونَ أَنْعَمَ اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِمَا (Two men from among those who feared [Allah], to whom Allah had shown favor, said), the verses.
(23) (Yufanna / Jephunneh). In the printed edition "Yūqannā", and the correct reading is from the manuscript and the Tārīkh (1:238).
(24) (Ḥizqiyāl / Ezekiel) in the book of the [relevant] people.
(25) (Īliyā / Elijah); he is "Īliyā al-Tishbī" (Elijah the Tishbite), mentioned in "the first book of Kings", chapter 17.
(26) I have not found the genealogy of "Īliyā", and his saying "Nasā" I have not found. In the manuscript it appears as "Sā", unpointed and unclear, and in the Tārīkh of al-Ṭabarī (1:239) it has "Ilyās ibn Yāsīn".
(27) (Fīnḥās / Phinehas).
(28) (al-ʿĀzār / Eleazar).
(29) (Akhāb / Ahab) in "the first book of Kings", chapters 16, 17. In the printed edition, the Tārīkh, and the manuscript it appears as "Aḥāb", with the unpointed ḥāʾ.
(30) "yaʾkuluhā" (he consumes it): that is, he rules over it and it becomes his possession, with its yield and tax. In the ḥadīth of ʿAmr ibn ʿAnbasa: "and the devoured of Ḥimyar belongs to its devourers". Al-maʾkūl (the devoured): the subjects, and al-ākilūn (the devourers): the kings. And one calls the rulers of the tribes who took the quarter [of the spoils] and the like "al-ākkāl". And in the ḥadīth: "I was commanded a city that devours the [other] cities", that is Medina, that is: its inhabitants overcome through Islam the rest of the cities.
(31) In the printed edition it has "yuʿaddidu mulūkan…", but I have adopted what is in the manuscript; in the Tārīkh of al-Ṭabarī it has "yaʿuddu".
(32) In the printed edition it has "mālikīn", in the manuscript "mulkīn", and I have adopted what is in the Tārīkh of al-Ṭabarī.
(33) The addition between brackets is from the Tārīkh of al-Ṭabarī, and the statement only runs correctly with it.
(34) In the printed edition it has "wa-yazʿumūn", and I have adopted what is in the manuscript and the Tārīkh.
(35) Up to this place al-Ṭabarī transmitted it with this isnād in his Tārīkh (1:239). What follows is in 1:240; between them other narrations separated it.
(36) (Alīshaʿ / Elisha) in the book of the [relevant] people.
(37) In the printed edition and the manuscript it has "wa-kānū…", and I have adopted what is in the Tārīkh, for that is better.
(38) After this the Tārīkh has the following text: "And the sakīna — according to what Ibn Isḥāq mentioned on the authority of Wahb ibn Munabbih, on the authority of some of the Israelites — was the head of a dead cat; and when it cried out in the Ark with the cry of a cat, they were assured of victory and triumph came to them."
(39) (ʿĀlī / Eli) in the book of the [relevant] people, and in the Tārīkh of al-Ṭabarī "Īlāf". It is probable that what is in the printed edition and the manuscript is correct, because of its nearness to the word "ʿĀlī", even though al-Ṭabarī in his Tārīkh (1:243) mentioned "ʿAylā". ʿĀlī (Eli) was one of the great priests of the Children of Israel and he judged over them for forty years. The report of the death of Eli at the plundering of the Ark is mentioned in the book of the [relevant] people, "the first book of Samuel", the fourth chapter.
(40) In the Tārīkh of al-Ṭabarī it has "fa-maraja amruhum baynahum" (their affair fell into confusion among them). "Maraja al-amr": it became mixed, confused, and disturbed in the affliction.
(41) Up to this place ends what al-Ṭabarī transmitted in the Tārīkh (1:240-241).
(42) (Ṣamūʾīl / Samuel) in the book of the [relevant] people.
(43) In the printed edition it has "fī nufūsihim", and I have adopted what is in the manuscript.
(44) "ustukhrija" (in the passive form): he was compelled to leave his land. This is an expression that the authors of the dictionaries did not mention, but it is seasoned Arabic.
(45) (Jalyāt / Goliath) in the book of the [relevant] people.
(46) In the Tārīkh of al-Ṭabarī it has, after his saying "Shamʿūn": "she says: Allah has heard my prayer". See the preceding narration no. 5628 and what comes before and after it.
(47) In the printed edition it has "fa-arsalathu yataʿallamu", and I have adopted what is in the manuscript and the Tārīkh.
(48) In the printed edition it has "lā yaʾtaman", and in the Tārīkh of al-Ṭabarī (Egyptian edition) "lā yaʾtaminu"; in the European [edition] and the manuscript "lā yatamannu". And "amanahu", "ammanahu", "iʾtamanahu", and "ittamanahu" (with shaddah'd tāʾ) are equivalent; see the note of the author of the Lisān on the saying of him who says that the last is rare.
(49) Al-laḥn: the language and the dialect. In the Tārīkh it has "Shamwīl", and the outward form of this report indicates that "Shamʿūn" is the same as "Shamwīl" and that they are two linguistic variants with the same meaning. See the preceding narrations 5626-5629 and the notes on them.
(50) In the printed edition it has "wa-lam tanal laka", which is a scribal error. In the Tārīkh of al-Ṭabarī it has "wa-lam tubālak", from al-mubālāt (caring), which is nothing [sensible]. In al-Durr al-Manthūr it has "wa-lam yaʾni laka", and in the manuscript "wa-lam tanal laka", and it is clear that it is "taʾini", from "āna yaʾīnu aynan", that is: it has become time. Like "anā laka yaʾnī", with the same meaning, that is: the time for you to become a prophet has not yet come.
(51) The narration 5635 is in the Tārīkh of al-Ṭabarī (1:242) and al-Durr al-Manthūr (1:315). In the printed edition the narration was concluded with the saying "wa-llāhu aʿlam" (and Allah knows best), which is an addition of a copyist that has no meaning here and is not in the manuscript.
(52) In the manuscript and the printed edition it has "alladhī nuqātilu", with omission of "bihi", which is an error demonstrated by the context, and by what is in the Maʿānī al-Qurʾān of al-Farrāʾ (1:157).
(53) That is: "alladhī" and "bihi".
(54) See the Maʿānī al-Qurʾān of al-Farrāʾ (1:157-162), for he has fully treated the exposition of this recitation and of this chapter of Arabic. "Al-ṣila": the following [qualifier], such as the adjective (naʿt) and the circumstantial qualifier (ḥāl); here it means the adjective of the indefinite noun.
(55) See this interpretation in the Majāz al-Qurʾān of Abū ʿUbayda (1:77).
(56) See the meaning of "kutiba" (prescribed) in what precedes, 3:357, 364-365, 409 / 4:297.
(57) In the printed edition and the manuscript it has "maʿa qawlinā", and the following context requires what I have adopted.
(58) I do not know the poet of it, although I recall that I read it together with other verses of the rajaz meter. It is in the Maʿānī al-Qurʾān of al-Farrāʾ (1:163) and the Lisān (entry khalafa). Al-khalifa (with fatḥa on the khāʾ and kasra on the lām): the pregnant she-camel, with the plural "khilf", which is rare, and this verse is the testimony for it; the common plural is that one says for pregnant she-camels "makhāḍ", as one says: "imraʾa, wa-niswa" (woman, and women). This rajaz poet says to his she-camel: Why do you bellow, while the pregnant she-camels do not bellow? That is: she bellows only out of longing for his land and her land, where he is separated from the one he loved, as al-Shamāṭīṭ al-Ghaṭafānī said to his she-camel:
May Allah cause the marrow in your bones to waste away, for whom do you long with that moaning?! For I am just like you in the grief that I find, but I keep it secret, while you show it! And in me is the same as what is in you, except that I am too lofty to be shackled, while you are shackled!
This while in the printed edition it had "malik tarʿīna wa-lā tarʿū al-khilf", which in the manuscript is correctly given, but unpointed, as is the habit of its copyist in many places.
(59) He is al-Farazdaq.
(60) His Dīwān: 863, and al-Naqāʾiḍ: 753, and the Maʿānī al-Qurʾān of al-Farrāʾ (1:164), and the Lisān (entries qarada, qalā, halla). He lampoons Jarīr and alludes to the sexual act. Before it, where he alludes that the people of Jarīr — namely Kulayb ibn Yarbūʿ — committed indecency with wild she-asses:
And no Kulaybite is, when his night falls and he does not find the scent of the she-ass, a sleeper; he says — when he climbs up . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
In the printed edition it has "taqūlu". Ibn Barrī interpreted it according to this transmission in a most erroneous manner in [the entry] "qarada", and Ibn al-Aʿrābī likewise interpreted it in [the entry] "qalā" according to this transmission, which was likewise a most erroneous interpretation, because he supposed that he meant a woman with whom fornication (zinā) was committed. The correct reading is that he meant what I have mentioned about committing indecency with she-asses, not with human women!! And his saying "iqlawlā": that is, he climbed upon her back, restless, anxious, not coming to rest; and al-Farazdaq's choice of this word is a wonder among wonders in imagining what he meant. And "aqrada al-rajulu wa-ghayruhu": he kept still and stone-quiet. He means that the she-ass had become content and yielded and kept herself still for him. And when he had attained that from himself and from her, he said: "Ah, is there perhaps a companion of a pleasant life that is lasting?", whereby he discloses the intensity of his love and his passion for it, and that he grieves and laments that it is a matter that passes away and does not last. And it has been claimed that "hal" here has the meaning of negation, that is: there is no companion of a pleasant life that is lasting. (Lisān: entry halla).
(61) See the Maʿānī al-Qurʾān of al-Farrāʾ (1:163-164), and he has fully treated the exposition of what al-Ṭabarī has opened.
(62) He is al-Kisāʾī, as al-Farrāʾ expressly mentions in the Maʿānī al-Qurʾān (1:165).
(63) He is Abū al-Ḥasan al-Akhfash, as appears from the tafsīr of Abū Ḥayyān, al-Qurṭubī, and al-Mughnī.
(64) In the printed edition it has "redundant after fa-lammā and lammā and law", which is confusion. In the manuscript it has "baʿda malīmā…" with disturbed script; the correct reading, in my view, is that it should be "mā lanā", and when the copyist erred in writing and reading, he omitted "kamā tuzādu"; this is the correct meaning, and praise be to Allah.
(65) His Dīwān: 283, and it will come later in the tafsīr 9:165, and al-Khizāna (2:87), and al-ʿAynī (al-Khizāna) (2:322). He lampoons ʿUmar ibn Hubayra al-Fazārī, who was one of the emirs and governors of Sulaymān ibn ʿAbd al-Malik, and his people: Fazāra ibn Dhubyān, from the descendants of Ghaṭafān ibn Saʿd ibn Qays ʿAylān ibn Muḍar. It is good poetry of its kind, and before the verse are verses, among them:
O Qays ʿAylān, verily I had said to you, O Qays ʿAylān: be not quick in your rancor! Verily, when I lampoon a people, I leave them no hearing left when they hear my voice, nor face.
Then he said after some verses:
Were it not that Ghaṭafān were [a tribe] . . . . . . .
This is the gathering-point of those whom I have seen who suppose that "al-dhunūb" is the plural of "dhanb" (sin), but that is, in my view, nothing [sensible]; they have only fallen into the track of al-Akhfash, when he cited the verse as testimony for making the redundant "lā" operative. And the correct reading of the verse, in my view, is "lā dhanūba lahā" (having no share), and then there is in the verse no testimony. It appears that al-Akhfash erred in citing it as testimony. And "al-dhanūb" (with fatḥa on the dhāl): the share and the lot, and its original meaning is the filled bucket. And it is in this meaning in the saying of the Exalted: فَإِنَّ لِلَّذِينَ ظَلَمُوا ذَنُوبًا مِثْلَ ذَنُوبِ أَصْحَابِهِمْ (Verily, for those who do wrong there is a share like the share of their companions), that is: a portion of the punishment. Al-Farrāʾ said: "al-dhanūb is the great bucket, but the Arabs bring it to [the meaning of] the share and the portion." And al-Zamakhsharī said: "wa-lahum dhanūbun min kadhā", that is: a share; ʿAmr ibn Shaʾs said:
And in every tribe I have descended with a benefaction, so it is just that Shaʾs should have a share of your generosity.
I say: Al-Farazdaq says: were it not that Ghaṭafān were contemptible, without any share of honor, descent, and manliness — "then the people of her nobility would blame ʿAmr". And thereby the verse is free of flatness and of the artificiality of the grammarians. See also the lampoons of al-Farazdaq against ʿUmar ibn Hubayra in the Ṭabaqāt fuḥūl al-shuʿarāʾ (287-288), and his saying:
The age has become corrupt and its signs have changed, until Umayya withdraws to Fazāra.
He says: the world has changed, until Umayya seeks protection with Fazāra and conforms to her opinion. He marvels at that because of the contemptibleness of Fazāra in his eyes.
(66) He cited this as testimony for making the redundant [particle] operative, namely "lā", as "an" was made operative in the verse.
(67) In the printed edition it has "raʾaytuka abānā wa-yazīdu, bi-maʿnā: raʾaytuka wa-abānā yazīdu", which is an unsound, lost statement. The correct reading is from the manuscript, even though the letters are unpointed, and from the Maʿānī al-Qurʾān of al-Farrāʾ (1:165).
(68) "al-afāʿīl": the actions (al-afʿāl). And that they relate to what precedes is either through grammatical governance over it, or through being coupled to it.
(69) I do not know the poet of it, and it is in the Maʿānī al-Qurʾān of al-Farrāʾ (1:165). "al-sarāʾir" is the plural of "sarīra", and "al-sarīra" here means: the secret.
(70) In the manuscript and the printed edition it has "taqdīm ghayrihim", with omission of "fī", and the correct reading is from the Maʿānī al-Qurʾān of al-Farrāʾ (1:166), and he has fully treated the exposition thereof, and it appears that what is here is taken verbatim from him.
