Tafseer of The Poets · Ash-Shu'araa · 26:20
[Moses] said, "I did it, then, while I was of those astray.
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.
Allah, Whose praise is exalted, says: "Mūsā said to Pharaoh: 'I committed that deed which I committed' — that is to say: I killed that soul which I killed — 'and at that time I was among those who erred.' He says: and I was among the ignorant, before there had come to me from Allah a revelation forbidding me to kill him." The Arabs use 'error' (ḍalāl) in the sense of 'ignorance' (jahl), and 'ignorance' in the sense of 'error', and they say: "so-and-so did not know the way" and "so-and-so lost the way" — with the same meaning.
And in accordance with what we have said about this, the exegetes spoke.
* Mention of who said this: *
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 of them — on the authority of Ibn Abī Najīḥ, on the authority of Mujāhid: وَأَنَا مِنَ الضَّالِّينَ — he said: "among the ignorant."
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.
Ibn Jurayj said: "And in the reading of Ibn Masʿūd it stands: 'And I was among the ignorant' (wa-anā min al-jāhilīn)."
He said: al-Ḥusayn related to us, saying: Abū Sufyān related to us, on the authority of Maʿmar, on the authority of Qatāda: وَأَنَا مِنَ الضَّالِّينَ — he said: "among the ignorant."
It was related to me from al-Ḥusayn, saying: I heard Abū Muʿādh say: ʿUbayd informed us, saying: I heard al-Ḍaḥḥāk say concerning his word: وَأَنْتَ مِنَ الْكَافِرِينَ : "Mūsā said: 'I did not disbelieve, but I did it and I was among those who erred.' And in the reading of Ibn Masʿūd it stands: 'I did it and I was among the ignorant.'"
Yūnus related to me, saying: Ibn Wahb informed us, saying: Ibn Zayd said concerning his word قَالَ فَعَلْتُهَا إِذًا وَأَنَا مِنَ الضَّالِّينَ : "Before anything had come to me from Allah, my killing of him was an error and a mistake." He said: "The error here is the mistake — he does not say: it was an error in his relation to Allah."
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: قَالَ فَعَلْتُهَا إِذًا وَأَنَا مِنَ الضَّالِّينَ — he said: "and I was among the ignorant."
