Tabari (1 passage)

1. Full Dutch translation of Tabari's text

   The explanation of the saying of the Exalted: أُولَئِكَ الَّذِينَ اشْتَرَوُا الْحَيَاةَ الدُّنْيَا بِالآخِرَةِ فَلا يُخَفَّفُ عَنْهُمُ الْعَذَابُ وَلا هُمْ يُنْصَرُونَ (86)

   (Those are the ones who have purchased the worldly life at the expense of the Hereafter; the punishment will not be lightened for them, nor will they be helped.) (86)

   Abū Jaʿfar said: By His saying — exalted is His praise — He means those of whom He has informed that they believe in a part of the Book — so that they ransom their captives from the Jews — and disbelieve in another part — so that they kill those whom Allah had forbidden them to kill, namely members of their own religious community, and so that they expel from their dwelling those whom Allah had forbidden them to expel from his dwelling, in violation of the covenant of Allah and His agreement which He had made with them in the Torah. Thus He informed — exalted is His praise — that these are the ones who have purchased the dominion of the worldly life over the weak and over the people of ignorance and folly from their own religious community, (45) and who have exchanged the contemptible, base sustenance therein for faith (īmān) — the faith by which, had they brought it in place of disbelief, the eternal abode in the gardens in the Hereafter would have come to them. Allah — exalted is His praise — described them as having purchased the worldly life at the expense of the Hereafter only because, through their disbelief in Allah, they were content therein with the worldly life as a substitute for the felicity of the Hereafter which Allah has prepared for the believers. Thus He made their share in the felicity of the Hereafter, on account of their disbelief in Allah, the price for that which they exchanged for it of the contemptible things of the world, (46) as in:

   1482 — Bishr related to us, saying: Yazīd related to us, saying: Yazīd related to us, saying: Saʿīd related to us, on the authority of Qatāda, concerning His saying: (Those are the ones who have purchased the worldly life at the expense of the Hereafter), [that is:] they preferred the little of the worldly life over the much of the Hereafter. (47)

   * * *

   Abū Jaʿfar said: Then Allah informed — exalted is His praise — that they, since they have sold their share in the felicity of the Hereafter — by forsaking His obedience and by their preference for disbelief in Him and for the contemptible things of the world over Him — have no share in the felicity of the Hereafter, and that what comes to them in the Hereafter is the punishment (ʿadhāb), without the punishment therein being lightened for them. For the one for whom the punishment therein is lightened is the one who has a share in its felicity, and these have no share, on account of their purchase — with that which was in the worldly life — of their worldly life at the expense of their Hereafter. (48)

   * * *

   As for His saying: (nor will they be helped) — by it He informed concerning them that no one will help them in the Hereafter, so that by his help he would avert from them the punishment of Allah — neither by his power, nor by his intercession, nor by anything else.

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   Footnotes:

   (45) What is between brackets is an addition; without it the sentence does not run properly.

   (46) See what has gone before, 1:312–315, on the meaning of "purchasing" (al-ishtirāʾ).

   (47) The narration 1482 — in the printed edition it read: "Yazīd related to us…", omitting: "Bishr related to us, saying". This isnād to Qatāda occurs frequently, and the nearest example of it is what has gone before under number 1475.

   (48) In the printed edition it read: "on account of their purchase of that which was in the worldly life and their worldly life at the expense of their Hereafter", which is a defective formulation; presumably the correct reading is what is given above.

   Show original Arabic

   القول في تأويل قوله تعالى : أُولَئِكَ الَّذِينَ اشْتَرَوُا الْحَيَاةَ الدُّنْيَا بِالآخِرَةِ فَلا يُخَفَّفُ عَنْهُمُ الْعَذَابُ وَلا هُمْ يُنْصَرُونَ (86) قال أبو جعفر: يعني بقوله جل ثناؤه أولئك الذين أخبر عنهم أنهم يؤمنون ببعض الكتاب، فيفادون أسراهم من اليهود, ويكفرون ببعض, فيقتلون من حرم الله عليهم قتله من أهل ملتهم, ويخرجون من داره من حرم الله عليهم إخراجه من داره, نقضا لعهد الله وميثاقه في التوراة إليهم. فأخبر جل ثناؤه أن هؤلاء [هم] الذين اشتروا رياسة الحياة الدنيا على الضعفاء وأهل الجهل والغباء من أهل ملتهم, (45) وابتاعوا المآكل الخسيسة الرديئة فيها بالإيمان، الذي كان يكون لهم به في الآخرة - لو كانوا أتوا به مكان الكفر - الخلود في الجنان. وإنما وصفهم الله جل ثناؤه &; 2-317 &; بأنهم اشتروا الحياة الدنيا بالآخرة، لأنهم رضوا بالدنيا بكفرهم بالله فيها، عوضا من نعيم الآخرة الذي أعده الله للمؤمنين. فجعل حظوظهم من نعيم الآخرة بكفرهم بالله، ثمنا لما ابتاعوه به من خسيس الدنيا، (46) كما:- 1482 - حدثنا بشر، حدثنا يزيد قال، حدثنا يزيد قال، حدثنا سعيد, عن قتادة قوله: (أولئك الذين اشتروا الحياة الدنيا بالآخرة)، استحبوا قليل الدنيا على كثير الآخرة. (47) * * * قال أبو جعفر: ثم أخبر الله جل ثناؤه أنهم إذْ باعوا حظوظهم من نعيم الآخرة - بتركهم طاعته, وإيثارهم الكفر به والخسيس من الدنيا عليه - لا حظ لهم في نعيم الآخرة, وأن الذي لهم في الآخرة العذاب، غير مخفف عنهم فيها العذاب. لأن الذي يخفف عنه فيها من العذاب، هو الذي له حظ في نعيمها, ولا حظ لهؤلاء، لاشترائهم - بالذي كان في الدنيا - دنياهم بآخرتهم. (48) * * * وأما قوله: (ولا هم ينصرون) فإنه أخبر عنهم أنه لا ينصرهم في الآخرة أحد، فيدفع عنهم بنصرته عذاب الله - لا بقوته ولا بشفاعته ولا غيرهما. -------------- الهوامش: (45) ما بين القوسين زيادة ، لا يستقيم الكلام بطرحها . (46) انظر ما مضى 1 : 312 : - 315 في معنى"الاشتراء" . (47) الأثر : 1482 - كان في المطبوعة : "حدثنا يزيد . . " بإسقاط : "حدثنا بشر قال" ، وهذا إسناده إلى قتادة ، كثير الدوران ، وأقربه فيما مضى رقم : 1475 . (48) في المطبوعة : "لاشترائهم الذي كان في الدنيا ودنياهم بآخرتهم" ، وهو كلام سقيم ، ولعل الصواب ما أثبت .