Tabari (1 passage)

1. Full Dutch translation of Tabari's text

   And he informed them about what Pharaoh and his people call to be worshipped: إِنَّ رَسُولَكُمُ الَّذِي أُرْسِلَ إِلَيْكُمْ لَمَجْنُونٌ (Verily, your messenger who has been sent to you is surely mad). He said: your messenger, this one who claims to have been sent to you, has lost his mind — for he says something that we do not know and do not understand. Pharaoh said this and ascribed madness to Moses, the enemy of Allah, because he and his people were convinced that there exists no Lord to be worshipped apart from himself, and that what Moses called them to believe was vain and possessed no reality. Then Moses spoke, refuting and making his Lord known by His attributes and His proofs — for among the people of Pharaoh it held that the one whom they at that time knew as their Lord was Pharaoh, and those whom they knew as lords for their forefathers were other kings who had lived before Pharaoh and had already passed away, so that they did not understand that Moses was conveying to them something that had a meaning comprehensible or graspable to them — and that is why Pharaoh said about him: he is mad, for his words were in their eyes words whose meaning they did not understand.

   Show original Arabic

   وأخبرهم عما يدعو إليه فرعون وقومه: ( إِنَّ رَسُولَكُمُ الَّذِي أُرْسِلَ إِلَيْكُمْ لَمَجْنُونٌ ) يقول: إن رسولكم هذا الذي يزعم أنه أرسل إليكم لمغلوب على عقله, لأنه يقول قولا لا نعرفه ولا نفهمه, وإنما قال ذلك ونسب موسى عدو الله إلى الجنة, لأنه كان عنده وعند قومه أنه لا رب غيره يعبد, وأن الذي يدعوه إليه موسى باطل ليست له حقيقة, فقال موسى عند ذلك محتجًّا عليهم, ومعرفهم ربهم بصفته وأدلته, إذ كان عند قوم فرعون أن الذي يعرفونه ربًّا لهم في ذلك الوقت هو فرعون, وأن الذي يعرفونه لآبائهم أربابا ملوك أخر, كانوا قبل فرعون, قد مضوا فلم يكن عندهم أن موسى أخبرهم بشيء له معنى يفهمونه ولا يعقلونه, ولذلك قال لهم فرعون: إنه مجنون, لأن كلامه كان عندهم كلاما لا يعقلون معناه.