Tafseer of Taa-Haa · Taa-Haa · 20:12
Indeed, I am your Lord, so remove your sandals. Indeed, you are in the sacred valley of Tuwa.
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 readers (al-qurrāʾ) differed over the reading of His word إِنِّي أَنَا رَبُّكَ ("Verily, I am your Lord"). Some readers of Medina and Baṣra read it as (nūdiya yā Mūsā annī) — with a fatḥa on the alif of "annī" — so that "anna" in their reading is in the nominative through His word: nūdiya ("a call was made"). According to them its meaning was then: this statement was called out. Some of the common readers of Medina and Kūfa read it with kasra: nūdiya yā Mūsā innī — as a fresh beginning, and the meaning of that is: it was said: O Mūsā, verily I.
Abū Jaʿfar says: The kasra reading is, in our view, the more correct of the two readings, because the nidāʾ (the call) intervenes between the verb and its taking effect upon "anna," namely His word "yā Mūsā"; and the share of His word "nūdiya" is that it would take effect upon "anna" if it had been placed before His word "yā Mūsā" — that is to say, one would say: nūdiya anna yā Mūsā innī ana rabbuka. And the "inna" that comes after Mūsā has no share in that.
As for His word إِنَّكَ بِالْوَادِ الْمُقَدَّسِ طُوًى — He says: verily you are in the purified, blessed valley.
As ʿAlī related to me, saying: ʿAbd Allāh related to us, saying: Muʿāwiya related to me, on the authority of ʿAlī, from Ibn ʿAbbās, His word إِنَّكَ بِالْوَادِ الْمُقَدَّسِ طُوًى : he says: the blessed one.
Al-Qāsim related to us, saying: al-Ḥusayn related to us, saying: Ḥajjāj related to me, on the authority of Ibn Jurayj: he said: Mujāhid said, His word إِنَّكَ بِالْوَادِ الْمُقَدَّسِ طُوًى : he said: it was sanctified, blessed twice over.
Yūnus related to me, saying: Ibn Wahb informed us, saying: Ibn Zayd said, His word إِنَّكَ بِالْوَادِ الْمُقَدَّسِ طُوًى : he said: the blessed valley.
The exegetes differed over the interpretation of His word (Ṭuwā). Some of them said: its meaning is: verily you are in the holy valley which you traversed (ṭawaytuhu); and according to that reading, ṭuwā according to them is a maṣdar (verbal noun) deriving from a verb other than the verb that governs it — as though He said: you traversed the holy valley, the traversing.
Mention of those who said this:
Muḥammad ibn Saʿd related to me, saying: my father related to me, saying: my uncle related to me, saying: my father related to me on the authority of his father, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, His word إِنَّكَ بِالْوَادِ الْمُقَدَّسِ طُوًى : he means the holy land; and that is because he passed by night through its valley and traversed it. One says: I traversed the valley of such-and-such in the night with the traversing (ṭawy), and he climbed up to the upper part of the valley — and that was the Prophet of Allah Mūsā ﷺ.
Others said: rather its meaning is: twice; and they said: his Lord called him twice. And according to the word of these people, ṭuwā is likewise a maṣdar of another verb. That is because its meaning according to them is: he was called, O Mūsā, twice — two calls. Some of them cited as proof for their position that ṭuwā has the meaning of twice, the verse of ʿAdī ibn Zayd al-ʿIbādī:
"O reproacher! Verily, reproach in the wrong place is upon me a ṭawā (repetition) of your reiterated folly."
And others transmit this as: "ʿalay-ya thanan" — that is to say: time after time; and they said: ṭawā and thanā have the same meaning.
Mention of those who said this:
Bishr related to us, saying: Yazīd related to us, saying: Saʿīd related to us, on the authority of Qatāda: فَاخْلَعْ نَعْلَيْكَ إِنَّكَ بِالْوَادِ الْمُقَدَّسِ طُوًى — we were told that it was a valley that had been sanctified twice and that its name was Ṭuwā.
Others said: rather its meaning is: verily it was sanctified twice as holy (quddisa ṭuwā marratayn).
Mention of those who said this:
Al-Qāsim related to us, saying: al-Ḥusayn related to us, saying: Ḥajjāj related to me: he said: Ibn Jurayj said: al-Ḥasan said: it was sanctified twice.
Others said: Ṭuwā is the name of the valley.
Mention of those who said this:
ʿAlī ibn Dāwūd related to me, saying: ʿAbd Allāh related to us, saying: Muʿāwiya related to me, on the authority of ʿAlī, from Ibn ʿAbbās, His word (Ṭuwā): a name for the valley.
Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr related to me, saying: Abū ʿĀṣim related to us, saying: ʿĪsā related to us; and al-Ḥārith related to me, saying: al-Ḥasan related to us, saying: Warqāʾ related to us — all on the authority of Ibn Abī Najīḥ, on the authority of Mujāhid: Ṭuwā — he said: the name of the valley.
Yūnus related to me, saying: Ibn Wahb informed us, saying: Ibn Zayd said, concerning His word بِالْوَادِ الْمُقَدَّسِ طُوًى : he said: that valley is Ṭuwā, where Mūsā was, and where there descended upon him from Allah what descended. He said: and it lies in the direction of the Mount (al-Ṭūr).
Others said: it is a command from Allah to Mūsā to enter the valley with his bare feet.
Mention of those who said this:
Muḥammad ibn Manṣūr al-Ṭūsī related to us, saying: Ṣāliḥ ibn Isḥāq related to us, on the authority of Jaʿfar ibn Burqān, on the authority of ʿIkrima, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, concerning the word of Allah, Blessed and Exalted فَاخْلَعْ نَعْلَيْكَ إِنَّكَ بِالْوَادِ الْمُقَدَّسِ طُوًى : he said: "tread the valley" (ṭaʾ al-wādī).
Ibn Ḥumayd related to us, saying: Yaḥyā related to us, saying: al-Ḥasan related to us, on the authority of Yazīd, on the authority of ʿIkrima, concerning His word (Ṭuwā): he said: "tread the valley."
Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr related to me, saying: Abū ʿĀṣim related to us, saying: ʿĪsā related to us; and al-Ḥārith related to me, saying: al-Ḥasan related to us, saying: Warqāʾ related to us — all on the authority of Ibn Abī Najīḥ, on the authority of Saʿīd ibn Jubayr, concerning the word of Allah (Ṭuwā): he said: tread the ground barefoot, just as you enter the Kaʿba barefoot; he says: because of the blessing of the valley.
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: (Ṭuwā) — tread the ground barefoot.
The readers differed over the reading of it. Some readers of Medina read it as (Ṭuwā) — with ḍamma on the ṭāʾ and without tanwīn — as though they made it the name of the land in which the valley lay, as the poet said:
"They aided their Prophet and strengthen his back at Ḥunayn when the champions abandoned it"
and he did not give Ḥunayn inflection (tanwīn), because he made it a name for the town rather than the valley; but had he made it the name of the valley he would indeed have inflected it, as the readers read وَيَوْمَ حُنَيْنٍ إِذْ أَعْجَبَتْكُمْ ("and on the day of Ḥunayn when your great numbers made you proud"). Likewise another poet said:
"Are we not the noblest of the two groups in origin and the greatest of those who kindled fire at the heart of Ḥirāʾ?"
and he did not inflect Ḥirāʾ — though it is a mountain — because he treated it as the name of the town. Likewise Ṭuwā in the reading of the one who does not inflect it: he treated it as the name of the land.
The common readers of Kūfa read it as (Ṭuwan) — with ḍamma on the ṭāʾ and tanwīn; and the readers who read it thus differed over its meaning in accordance with what I have mentioned of the disagreement among the exegetes. As for the one who intended by it the maṣdar of ṭawaytu — for him the tanwīn is self-evident. And as for the one who wished to use it as the name of the valley: he adds tanwīn because it is a masculine noun, not feminine, and because its lām al-fiʿl (third radical) is a yāʾ — which made it lighter — so he inflected it just as Allah said وَيَوْمَ حُنَيْنٍ since Ḥunayn is the name of a valley, and the valley is masculine.
Abū Jaʿfar says: In our view, the more correct of the two readings is that of the one who read it with ḍamma on the ṭāʾ and tanwīn, because — if it is the name of the valley — it deserves tanwīn for the reason previously mentioned by the one who said that; and if it is a maṣdar or an explanation, then its ruling is likewise tanwīn. And in our opinion it is the name of the valley. If that is so, it stands in the genitive (khafḍ) as a substitution referring back to al-wādī (the valley).
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Notes:
(9) This verse is by ʿAdī ibn Zayd (al-Lisān: ṭawā). He said: and as for ṭuwā and ṭuwā (with kasra and ḍamma on the ṭāʾ) — a thing folded twice — then it is an adjective with the value of thanī and thanī (with kasra and ḍamma on the thāʾ), and it is not a proper name and is always inflected, as ʿAdī ibn Zayd said: "O reproacher..." the verse; and I saw in a note on a manuscript of the Amālī of Ibn Barrī that what occurs in the poem of ʿAdī is: "upon me a thanan from your mouth" — he meant: the repeated reproach.
(10) This verse is by Ḥassān ibn Thābit (al-Lisān: ḥanan). The proof in it is that Ḥunayn is not inflected, because he made it a name of the town, as the author said, or a region.
(11) The verse is in (al-Lisān: ḥarā). Al-Jawharī said: Ḥirāʾ is not inflected because he regards it as the town that is beside it; and in the tradition: "he secluded himself for worship in Ḥirāʾ," inflected — and it is a mountain among the mountains near Mecca. In a transmission of al-Lisān: ṭaran, in place of rāʾ, in one place.
