Tafseer of Taa-Haa · Taa-Haa · 20:45
They said, "Our Lord, indeed we are afraid that he will hasten [punishment] against us or that he will transgress."
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.
His word قَالا رَبَّنَا إِنَّنَا نَخَافُ أَنْ يَفْرُطَ عَلَيْنَا (20:45): Allah the Exalted says: Mūsā and Hārūn said: Our Lord, we fear Pharaoh — when we call him to that which You have commanded us to summon him to — that he will hasten to punish us. This derives from the expression: farraṭa minnī ilā fulān amrun — when something escaped him toward another. Hence also the word fāriṭ al-qawm — the one who rushes ahead, hurrying before his group to the water or the dwelling-place — as the poet of the verse said:
Qad faraṭa l-ʿilju ʿalaynā wa-ʿajil
(The foreigner rushed ahead of us and hastened.)
As for al-ifrāṭ (excess): this is exceeding, going beyond the limits, and transgressing the bounds — one says: you have gone to excess in your speech, when one exceeds the limits and goes beyond measure.
As for al-tafrīṭ (negligence): this is slackness — one says: I was negligent in this matter until it passed, when one was slack in it.
In the same sense in which we have explained this, the exegetes spoke.
Those who said this are mentioned below:
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 — both on the authority of Ibn Abī Najīḥ, on the authority of Mujāhid, concerning أَنْ يَفْرُطَ عَلَيْنَا : he said: a punishment from him.
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: the same.
Yūnus related to me, saying: Ibn Wahb informed us, saying: Ibn Zayd said, concerning His word إِنَّنَا نَخَافُ أَنْ يَفْرُطَ عَلَيْنَا أَوْ أَنْ يَطْغَى : he said: we fear that he will hasten to punish us when we convey to him your word or command — he will act rashly and swiftly. And he recited: لا تَخَافَا إِنَّنِي مَعَكُمَا أَسْمَعُ وَأَرَى (Fear not, indeed I am with you both, I hear and I see).