Tafseer of The Cow · Al-Baqara · 2:78
And among them are unlettered ones who do not know the Scripture except in wishful thinking, but they are only assuming.
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 the Exalted: وَمِنْهُمْ أُمِّيُّونَ ("And among them are unlettered ones")
Abū Jaʿfar said: By His saying — exalted be His praise —: "and among them are unlettered ones (ummiyyūn)" He means: and among these — the Jews whose histories Allah has related in these verses, and concerning whom He took away from the Companions of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ the hope of their belief, when He said to them: أَفَتَطْمَعُونَ أَنْ يُؤْمِنُوا لَكُمْ وَقَدْ كَانَ فَرِيقٌ مِنْهُمْ يَسْمَعُونَ كَلامَ اللَّهِ ثُمَّ يُحَرِّفُونَهُ مِنْ بَعْدِ مَا عَقَلُوهُ ("Do you then long for them to believe you, while a group of them used to hear the Word of Allah and then distort it after they had understood it") — and they say, when they meet you: "We believe", as in:
1352 — Al-Muthannā related to me, he said: Ādam related to us, he said: Abū Jaʿfar related to us, on the authority of al-Rabīʿ, on the authority of Abū al-ʿĀliya: "and among them are unlettered ones", that is to say: among the Jews.
1353 — And it was related to me, on the authority of ʿAmmār, he said: Ibn Abī Jaʿfar related to us, on the authority of his father, on the authority of al-Rabīʿ, something similar.
1354 — Al-Qāsim related to us, he said: Al-Ḥusayn related to us, he said: Ḥajjāj related to me, on the authority of Ibn Jurayj, on the authority of Mujāhid: "and among them are unlettered ones", he said: people among the Jews.
* * *
Abū Jaʿfar said: By "the unlettered ones (al-ummiyyīn)" He means those who neither write nor read.
Of this is the saying of the Prophet ﷺ: "We are an unlettered nation (umma ummiyya), we do not write and we do not reckon." It is said in this regard: "an unlettered man (rajul ummī), manifestly unlettered (bayyin al-ummiyya)." As in:
1356 — Al-Muthannā related to me, he said: Suwayd ibn Naṣr related to me, he said: Ibn al-Mubārak informed us, on the authority of Sufyān, on the authority of Manṣūr, on the authority of Ibrāhīm: "and among them are unlettered ones who do not know the Book", he said: among them is he who cannot write well.
1357 — Yūnus related to me, he said: Ibn Wahb informed us, he said: Ibn Zayd said concerning His saying: "and among them are unlettered ones", he said: unlettered ones among the Jews, who do not read the Book.
* * *
And from Ibn ʿAbbās a saying has been transmitted that diverges from this saying, and that is what:
1358 — Abū Kurayb related to us, he said: ʿUthmān ibn Saʿīd related to us, on the authority of Bishr ibn ʿUmāra, on the authority of Abū Rawq, on the authority of al-Ḍaḥḥāk, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās: "and among them are unlettered ones", he said: The unlettered ones are a people who did not believe in any messenger sent by Allah, nor in any book that Allah sent down; they wrote a book with their own hands and then said to a base, ignorant people: "This is from Allah." And he said: He informed that they write with their own hands, and then He named them "unlettered ones" on account of their denial of the books of Allah and His messengers.
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Abū Jaʿfar said: This explanation is an explanation that goes against what is known from the widespread language of the Arabs among them. For "the unlettered one (al-ummī)" is, with the Arabs: he who does not write.
* * *
Abū Jaʿfar said: And I am of the opinion that the unlettered one was called "ummī" by him, on account of the fact that he does not write, relating him to "his mother (ummihi)" — because writing was customary among the men and not among the women. So among the men who do not write and do not trace letters, he was, in his ignorance of writing, related to his mother and not to his father — as we mentioned from the Prophet ﷺ in his saying: "We are an unlettered nation, we do not write and we do not reckon" — and as He said: هُوَ الَّذِي بَعَثَ فِي الأُمِّيِّينَ رَسُولا مِنْهُمْ يَتْلُو عَلَيْهِمْ آيَاتِهِ وَيُزَكِّيهِمْ وَيُعَلِّمُهُمُ الْكِتَابَ وَالْحِكْمَةَ [al-Jumuʿa: 2] ("He it is Who has raised among the unlettered ones a messenger from among themselves, who recites to them His signs, purifies them, and teaches them the Book and wisdom"). Since, then, the meaning of "the unlettered one" in the language of the Arabs is what we have described, that is what is most fitting for the explanation of the verse, namely what al-Nakhaʿī said, that is, that the meaning of His saying "and among them are unlettered ones" is: and among them is he who cannot write well.
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The explanation of the saying of the Exalted: لا يَعْلَمُونَ الْكِتَابَ إِلا أَمَانِيَّ ("They do not know the Book, except [as] delusions")
Abū Jaʿfar said: By His saying "they do not know the Book" He means: they do not know what is in the Book that Allah has sent down, and they have no perception of what Allah has laid down therein of limits (ḥudūd), rulings, and obligations, like the form of cattle. As in:
1359 — Al-Ḥasan ibn Yaḥyā related to me, he said: ʿAbd al-Razzāq informed us, he said: Maʿmar informed us, on the authority of Qatāda concerning His saying "and among them are unlettered ones who do not know the Book, except [as] delusions": They are only like cattle, they know nothing.
1360 — Bishr ibn Muʿādh related to us, he said: Yazīd related to us, he said: Saʿīd related to us, on the authority of Qatāda concerning His saying: "they do not know the Book", he says: they do not know the Book and they do not know what is in it.
1361 — Al-Muthannā related to me, he said: Ādam related to us, he said: Abū Jaʿfar related to us, on the authority of al-Rabīʿ, on the authority of Abū al-ʿĀliya: "they do not know the Book", they do not know what is in it.
1362 — Ibn Ḥumayd related to us, he said: 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: "they do not know the Book", he said: they do not know what is in it.
1363 — Yūnus related to us, he said: Ibn Wahb informed us, he said: Ibn Zayd said: "they do not know the Book", they know nothing, they do not read the Torah. It is not recited from memory, it is only read thus [from the writing]. So whoever among them does not write, can also not read.
1364 — Abū Kurayb related to us, he said: ʿUthmān ibn Saʿīd related to us, on the authority of Bishr ibn ʿUmāra, on the authority of Abū Rawq, on the authority of al-Ḍaḥḥāk, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās concerning His saying "they do not know the Book", he said: they do not know the Book that Allah sent down.
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Abū Jaʿfar said: By "the Book" only the Torah is meant. That is why the definite article "alif-lām" has been placed in it, because thereby a specific, well-known Book was meant.
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And its meaning is: and among them is a group that does not write and does not know what is in the Book that you have come to know — which is in their possession, which they ascribe to themselves and which they claim to acknowledge — of the rulings of Allah and His obligations, and of the limits (ḥudūd) that He has set forth therein.
[The people of exegesis differed concerning the explanation of His saying] "except [as] delusions (amāniyy)". Some of them said what:
1365 — Abū Kurayb related it to us, he said: ʿUthmān ibn Saʿīd related to us, on the authority of Bishr ibn ʿUmāra, on the authority of Abū Rawq, on the authority of al-Ḍaḥḥāk, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās: "except [as] delusions", he says: except a saying that they utter with their mouths as a lie.
1366 — Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr related to me, he said: Abū ʿĀṣim related to us, he said: ʿĪsā related to us, on the authority of Ibn Abī Najīḥ, on the authority of Mujāhid: "they do not know the Book, except [as] delusions": except a lie.
1367 — Al-Muthannā related to me, he said: Abū Ḥudhayfa related to us, he said: Shibl related to us, on the authority of Ibn Abī Najīḥ, on the authority of Mujāhid, something similar.
* * *
And others said what:
1368 — Bishr ibn Muʿādh related to us, he said: Yazīd ibn Zurayʿ related to us, he said: Saʿīd related to us, on the authority of Qatāda: "except [as] delusions", he says: they harbor toward Allah vain wishes about what does not belong to them.
1369 — Al-Ḥasan ibn Yaḥyā related to us, he said: ʿAbd al-Razzāq informed us, he said: Maʿmar informed us, on the authority of Qatāda: "except [as] delusions", he says: they harbor toward Allah false wishes and what does not belong to them.
1370 — Al-Muthannā related to me, he said: Abū Ṣāliḥ related to us, [on the authority of Muʿāwiya ibn Ṣāliḥ,] on the authority of ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭalḥa, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās concerning His saying: "they do not know the Book, except [as] delusions", he says: except tales.
1371 — Al-Qāsim related to us, he said: Al-Ḥusayn related to us, he said: Ḥajjāj related to me, on the authority of Ibn Jurayj, on the authority of Mujāhid: "and among them are unlettered ones who do not know the Book, except [as] delusions", he said: people among the Jews who knew nothing of the Book, and who spoke on the basis of conjecture, with something other than what is in the Book of Allah, and said: "It is from the Book." They are delusions that they harbor.
1372 — Al-Muthannā related to us, he said: Ādam related to us, he said: Abū Jaʿfar related to us, on the authority of al-Rabīʿ, on the authority of Abū al-ʿĀliya: "except [as] delusions", they harbor toward Allah vain wishes about what does not belong to them.
1373 — Yūnus related to me, he said: Ibn Wahb informed us, he said: Ibn Zayd said concerning His saying: "except [as] delusions", he said: they harbored a vain wish and said: "We belong to the People of the Book", while they do not belong to them.
* * *
Abū Jaʿfar said: The most in accord with the truth of what we have transmitted in the explanation of His saying "except [as] delusions", and the most resembling the correct view, is what Ibn ʿAbbās said — that which al-Ḍaḥḥāk transmitted from him — as well as the saying of Mujāhid: that "the unlettered ones", whom Allah described in this verse with what He described them, understand nothing of the Book that Allah sent down to Mūsā, but that they invent the lie and fabricate vanities as falsehood and untruth.
* * *
And "the wishing (al-tamannī)" means in this place: the inventing of a lie, the contriving and fabricating of it. It is said in this regard: "I wished (tamannaytu) such-and-such", when one invented and contrived it. Of this is the report transmitted from ʿUthmān ibn ʿAffān — may Allah be pleased with him —: "I have neither chanted a fabrication, nor wished [a lie] (mā taghannaytu wa-lā tamannaytu)" — he means by his saying "nor have I wished": I did not invent falsehood, nor did I fabricate lie and deceit.
* * *
And what indicates the correctness of what we have said concerning this — and that this is more fitting for the explanation of His saying "except [as] delusions" than other sayings — is the saying of Allah, exalted be His praise: وَإِنْ هُمْ إِلا يَظُنُّونَ ("and they do nothing but conjecture"). For He — exalted be His praise — has informed about them that they wish what they wish of lies, out of conjecture on their part, not out of certainty. And if the meaning of that were that they "recite it (yatlūnahu)", then they would not be conjecturers; and likewise if the meaning were "they desire it (yashtahūnahu)". For he who recites knows it when he reflects upon it. And it is not appropriate that of him who recites a book that he has read — even if he has not reflected upon it by failing to reflect — it be said: he is a conjecturer of what he recites; unless he himself doubts that which he recites and does not know whether it is true or false. But the people who recited the Torah in the time of our Prophet Muḥammad ﷺ among the Jews did not doubt — so far as has reached us — the Torah that it is from Allah. And likewise, of "the wisher (al-mutamannī)" who has the meaning of "the desirer (al-mushtahī)" it is not permissible to say: he is a conjecturer in his wishing. For the wishing of the wisher is, when he wishes something, [directed] at that whose existence he has already found. It is then not permissible to say: he is a doubter in that of which he has knowledge. For knowledge and doubt are two meanings that exclude each other; it is not permissible that they unite in one and the same domain. And the wisher is, at the moment of his wishing, [in a state in which] his wishing exists, so it is not permissible to say: he conjectures his wishing.
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It has only been said "they do not know the Book, except [as] delusions", while the delusions are not of the nature of "the Book", as our Lord — exalted be His praise — said: مَا لَهُمْ بِهِ مِنْ عِلْمٍ إِلا اتِّبَاعَ الظَّنِّ [al-Nisāʾ: 157] ("they have no knowledge thereof, only the following of conjecture") — and "conjecture" is far from "knowledge". And as He said: وَمَا لأَحَدٍ عِنْدَهُ مِنْ نِعْمَةٍ تُجْزَى * إِلا ابْتِغَاءَ وَجْهِ رَبِّهِ الأَعْلَى [al-Layl: 19-20] ("and no one has with him a favor to be requited, except the seeking of the face of his Lord, the Most High"). And as the poet said:
There is between me and Qays no reproach except the piercing of the kidneys and the striking of the necks.
And as Nābigha of Banū Dhubyān said:
I swore an oath without reservation, and without knowledge but only a good opinion of a companion.
In yet more examples like what we have mentioned, the enumeration of which would make this book too long.
And with "illā" (except) what comes after it is excepted from the meaning of what comes before it and from its description, even if each of the two is of a different nature and of a different kind than the other. Some grammarians call this a "disjoined exception (istithnāʾ munqaṭiʿ)", on account of the disjoining of the expression that comes after "illā" from the meaning of what stands before it. And this is the case everywhere where it is appropriate to place in the stead of "illā" the word "lākin (but)"; then one knows that the meaning of the second is disjoined from the meaning of the first. Do you not see that, when you say "and among them are unlettered ones who do not know the Book, except [as] delusions", and you then wish to put "lākin" in the place of "illā" and to omit "illā", you find the expression as correct in meaning as it is correct with "illā" in it? And that is when you say: and among them are unlettered ones who do not know the Book, but (lākin) delusions — that is to say: but they harbor vain wishes. And likewise His saying "they have no knowledge thereof, only the following of conjecture", [to be read as] "but the following of conjecture", in the meaning of: but they follow conjecture. And so is this entire type of expression in accordance with what we have described.
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And it has been mentioned of some of the reciters that he read: "illā amāniya" (delusions) with a lightened (unstressed) yāʾ. And whoever lightens that, directs it toward the manner of their plural of "al-miftāḥ" (the key) as "mafātiḥ", and "al-qurqūr" (a large ship) as "qarāqir", and that the plural-yāʾ, when it was omitted, the original yāʾ — I mean that of "al-amānī" — was lightened, as they make "al-uthfiyya" (the support-stone under the cooking pot) into "athāfī", lightened, as Zuhayr ibn Abī Sulmā said:
Soot-black support-stones at the resting-place of a cooking cauldron, and an earthen mound, like the rim of a watering-trough, not collapsed.
And as for whoever heavies "amāniyy" and stresses its yāʾ: he directs that toward the manner of their plural of "al-miftāḥ" as "mafātīḥ", and "al-qurqūr" as "qarāqīr", and "al-zunbūr" (the hornet) as "zanābīr"; then the yāʾ of the pattern "faʿālīl" and its lām came together — both being a yāʾ — and the one was assimilated into the other (idghām), so that they became one stressed yāʾ.
* * *
As for the recitation that, in my judgment, may not be otherwise for any reciter in this: it is the stressing of the yāʾ of "al-amāniyy", on account of the consensus (ijmāʿ) of the reciters that this is the recitation with which the predecessors (al-salaf) proceeded to recite it — widespread among them, with undisputed correctness — and on account of the anomaly (shudhūdh) of the reciter who lightens it relative to that on which the proof is unanimous. And as proof of the error of the reciter who lightens it, the consensus on judging it an error suffices.
* * *
The explanation of the saying of the Exalted: وَإِنْ هُمْ إِلا يَظُنُّونَ (78) ("and they do nothing but conjecture")
Abū Jaʿfar said: By His saying — exalted be His praise — "and they do nothing but conjecture (wa-in hum illā yaẓunnūn)" He means: and they are not [otherwise], as He — exalted be His praise — said: قَالَتْ لَهُمْ رُسُلُهُمْ إِنْ نَحْنُ إِلا بَشَرٌ مِثْلُكُمْ [Ibrāhīm: 11] ("their messengers said to them: we are nothing but humans like you") — by which He means: we are nothing but humans like you.
* * *
And the meaning of His saying "except that they conjecture (illā yaẓunnūn)" is: except that they doubt, and do not know the reality and correctness thereof. And "the conjecture (al-ẓann)" means in this place: the doubt.
The meaning of the verse is thus: and among them is he who does not write, does not trace letters, does not know the Book of Allah and does not know what is in it, except [through] invention and the uttering of falsehood against Allah, out of conjecture on his part that he is in the right with his invention and his uttering of falsehood.
* * *
And Allah — exalted be His remembrance — described them as being, in their invention, in the conjecture that they are in the right while they are in the wrong, only because they had heard from their leaders and their rabbis matters that they took for [part of] the Book of Allah, while those were not of the Book of Allah. So He — exalted be His praise — described them as being that they leave off the confirmation of that of which they know with certainty that it is from Allah, of what Muḥammad ﷺ brought, and instead follow what they doubt and in whose reality they have doubt, of what their great ones, their leaders and their rabbis informed them — out of obstinacy on their part toward Allah and His messenger, and out of contradiction on their part against the command of Allah, and out of being blinded by the respite that Allah granted them. And in accordance with what we have said about the explanation of His saying "and they do nothing but conjecture", the exegetes among the predecessors (al-salaf) spoke about it:
1374 — Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr related to me, he said: Abū ʿĀṣim related to us, he said: ʿĪsā related to us, on the authority of Ibn Abī Najīḥ, on the authority of Mujāhid: "and they do nothing but conjecture", except that they lie.
1375 — Al-Muthannā related to me, he said: Abū Ḥudhayfa related to us, he said: Shibl related to us, on the authority of Ibn Abī Najīḥ, on the authority of Mujāhid, something similar.
1376 — Al-Qāsim related to us, he said: Ḥajjāj related to us, on the authority of Ibn Jurayj, on the authority of Mujāhid, something similar.
1377 — Ibn Ḥumayd related to us, he said: Salama related to us, on the authority of Ibn Isḥāq, he said: Muḥammad ibn Abī Muḥammad related to me, on the authority of ʿIkrima or on the authority of Saʿīd ibn Jubayr, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās: "they do not know the Book, except [as] delusions, and they do nothing but conjecture", that is to say: they do not know it and they do not know what is in it, and they deny your prophethood out of conjecture.
1378 — Bishr related to us, he said: Yazīd related to us, he said: Saʿīd related to us, on the authority of Qatāda: "and they do nothing but conjecture", he said: they harbor conjectures that do not accord with the truth.
1379 — Al-Muthannā related to me, he said: Ādam related to us, he said: Abū Jaʿfar related to us, on the authority of al-Rabīʿ, on the authority of Abū al-ʿĀliya, he said: they harbor conjectures that do not accord with the truth.
1380 — It was related to me, on the authority of ʿAmmār, he said: Ibn Abī Jaʿfar related to us, on the authority of his father, on the authority of al-Rabīʿ, something similar.
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Footnotes:
(1) The transmission 1355 is an authentic (ṣaḥīḥ) transmission. Al-Bukhārī transmitted it (4: 108-109, of al-Fatḥ), and Muslim, Abū Dāwūd and al-Nasāʾī also transmitted it, as in al-Jāmiʿ al-ṣaghīr of al-Suyūṭī, no. 2521.
(2) In the printed edition it had: "ay bayna al-ummiyya"; "ay" has been struck out, for such a thing is not said.
(3) His saying "cannot write well (lā yuḥsinu an yaktub)" is a negation of the knowledge of writing, not of the proficiency of that knowledge, as one might at first think. Long ago there arose one of our teachers who claimed that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ knew writing, but did not master it well, on the basis of a report with which he argued — or in which he followed the non-Arab orientalists who argued with it. That is what is transmitted in the Taʾrīkh of al-Ṭabarī (3: 80) in the explanation accompanying the account of al-Ḥudaybiya, when Suhayl ibn ʿAmr came for the drawing up of the peace treaty. Al-Ṭabarī transmitted on the authority of al-Barāʾ ibn ʿĀzib, who said: "... When the document was written, he wrote: 'This is what Muḥammad, the Messenger of Allah, has agreed upon.' They said: 'If we knew that you were the Messenger of Allah, we would not have held you back; but you are Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh.' He said: 'I am the Messenger of Allah, and I am Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh.' He said to ʿAlī: 'Erase "the Messenger of Allah".' He said: 'No, by Allah, I will never erase you.' Then the Messenger of Allah took it, and he could not write well, and he wrote in place of "the Messenger of Allah" "Muḥammad", and so he wrote: 'This is what Muḥammad has agreed upon.'" So he first thought that the personal subject pronoun in his saying "and he wrote in place of 'the Messenger of Allah' — Muḥammad" referred back to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ. But it is not so; rather it is ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib, the writer. And in the text there is an abridgment: when he commanded ʿAlī to erase the document and the latter refused, the Messenger of Allah took it, and he could not write well, and erased it. The clarification of this comes in the transmission of al-Bukhārī, likewise on the authority of al-Barāʾ ibn ʿĀzib (3: 184): "He said to ʿAlī: 'Erase it.' ʿAlī said: 'I am not the one who erases it.' Then the Messenger of Allah ﷺ erased it with his own hand." And secondly, he erred in the meaning of "yuḥsinu", for it here has the meaning of "yaʿlamu" (he knows); and that is a fine courtesy in the expression, so that knowledge would not be denied to him. And in the tafsīr of al-Ṭabarī (21: 6), in the explanation of His saying "He Who made excellent (aḥsana) all the things that He created", it stands literally: "The meaning of that is: He made known (aʿlama) all the things that He created. It is as if they directed the explanation of the saying toward the thought that He inspired all His creation with what they needed, and that His saying 'aḥsana' derives only from the speaker's saying 'fulān yuḥsinu kadhā' (so-and-so knows this-and-that well), when he knows it." This; and the Arabs conduct themselves courteously with something of this sort, so that they place one word in the place of another and annul a part of its meaning, so that it be a purification of the tongue, or a mark of honor to him about whom they report. The meaning of his saying "he cannot write well (laysa yuḥsinu yaktub)" is thus: he does not know how to write. Al-Suhaylī spoke at length in al-Rawḍ al-unuf (1: 230) with words that are of no use in the explanation of this word.
(4) Ibn Kathīr said in his tafsīr (1: 215), after he had cited the report and the words of al-Ṭabarī: "I say: the correctness of this on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās — with this isnād — is to be doubted, and Allah knows best."
(5) In the printed edition they confined themselves to His saying "a messenger from among themselves"; I have completed the verse, because it is argued with that he came to teach the unlettered ones "the Book".
(6) The report 1363: in the printed edition it had "Bishr related to us, he said: Ibn Wahb informed us...", and that is an error of the copyist; this isnād occurs frequently in the tafsīr, the nearest is no. 1357.
(7) What stands between the brackets is a supplement required by the text. It is as if the copyist erred and neglected it.
(8) In the printed edition it had "wa-annahum lā yafqahūn" with the addition of the wāw, and that is an error that is not correct; the correct reading is what I have adopted from Ibn Kathīr (1: 216).
(9) In al-Fāʾiq (1: 163) on the authority of ʿUthmān — may Allah be pleased with him —: "I have, by Allah, concealed certain qualities: I am the fourth [to convert] to Islam, the Messenger of Allah ﷺ married me to his daughter and afterward to his [other] daughter, I gave the pledge of allegiance to him with this right hand of mine and have not touched my private parts with it, and I have never chanted a fabrication nor wished [a lie], and I have not drunk wine in the time of ignorance nor in Islam." And al-Ṭabarī transmitted in his Taʾrīkh in the report about his murder (5: 130) that the man who was chosen to kill him entered upon him and said to him: "Lay it [the power] down and we will leave you be." He said: "Woe to you! I have never uncovered a woman in the time of ignorance nor in Islam, I have never chanted a fabrication nor wished [a lie], and I have not laid my right hand upon my private parts since I gave the pledge of allegiance to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, and I will not take off a shirt that Allah, mighty and exalted, has clothed me with."
(10) In the printed edition it had "ghayr jāʾiz"; the correct reading is the addition of the fāʾ.
(11) He is ʿAmr ibn al-Ayham al-Taghlibī, the Christian; it is also said that his name was ʿUmayr, and it is also said that he is Aʿshā Taghlib. It is transmitted from al-Akhṭal that he was asked while he was dying: "To whom do you leave your people?" He said: "To the two ʿUmayrs", by which he meant al-Quṭāmī ʿUmayr ibn Ashyam and ʿUmayr ibn al-Ahtam.
(12) Sībawayh (1: 365), al-Waḥshiyyāt no. 55, Muʿjam al-shuʿarāʾ (242), Ḥamāsat al-Buḥturī (32); see also the redaction of al-Rājkūtī in Simṭ al-laʾālī (184). The poem he says in censure of Qays ʿAylān; in it he says:
May Allah kill all of Qays ʿAylān; they have against treachery no shield.
Then Sībawayh recited the verse with "ghayr" in the nominative, as an appositive (badal) to "ʿitāb", by way of extension and figurative usage.
(13) His dīwān (42), Sībawayh (1: 365), and others; their reading is everywhere "bi-ṣāḥib", while in the printed original it had "bi-ghāʾib". I suspect that what was in al-Ṭabarī is an error of the copyists, because it does not accord with the poem. For Nābigha praises with these verses ʿAmr ibn al-Ḥārith al-Aʿraj al-Ghassānī, and he says before it:
Upon me, regarding ʿAmr, there rests favor after favor, for his father, not without scorpions' stings [i.e. unsullied by evil].
I swore an oath ... ... ... ...
If for the two graves — a grave in Jillaq and a grave in Ṣaydāʾ, which lies near Ḥārib —
and for al-Ḥārith al-Jafnī, the lord of his people, [there is one], then he will seek out with the army the house of the warriors.
And his saying "mathnawiyya" means: a reservation (istithnāʾ). So he says to ʿAmr: I swore an oath that, if there be among the descendants of these kings among his forefathers — whose graves and grand deeds he enumerated — [one], then he will march against whoever fights him, in his own abode, and will defeat him; and I did not say this out of knowledge, except [on the basis of] what I harbor of good opinion about my companion. The reading of al-Ṭabarī is therefore not correct, if it is authentically from him.
(14) See Sībawayh (1: 363-366): "This is the chapter in which the accusative is preferred, because the last is not of the nature of the first." And then the chapter that follows it: "This is the chapter of what can only stand in the meaning of 'but (lākin)'."
(15) In the printed edition it had "baʿḍ al-qurrāʾ" and "li-ijmāʿ al-qurrāʾ"; I have brought it back to what al-Ṭabarī just employed.
(16) See Maʿānī al-Qurʾān of al-Farrāʾ (1: 49).
(17) His dīwān (7). Al-mirjal: a cauldron in which one cooks. Muʿarras al-mirjal: the place where it is set down, from al-taʿrīs, which is the dismounting and lodging. Sufʿ is the plural of asfaʿ, and al-sufʿa is a blackness mingled with red, from the trace of the fire and its smoke. Al-nuʾy: what is erected of stones around the tent so that the rainwater does not penetrate into it. Jidhm al-ḥawḍ: the rim and the base of it. He means: the earthen mound has lost its upper part and its base has remained, not crumbled, like the remains of a watering-trough. He says: I recognized the abode by these traces; before it stands: "with difficulty I recognized the abode after uncertainty"; and "athāfī" stands in the accusative by his saying "tawahham".
(18) The purport of the expression is: on account of the consensus of the reciters that this is the recitation... and on account of the anomaly of the reciter who lightens it — by way of coordination.
(19) In the printed edition it had "wa-kafā khaṭaʾan ʿalā qāriʾ dhālik", and that is not a correct expression; the correct reading is what I have adopted, on the basis of derivation from the expression of al-Ṭabarī in what passed earlier of similar cases.
