Tafseer of The Ant · An-Naml · 27:12
And put your hand into the opening of your garment [at the breast]; it will come out white without disease. [These are] among the nine signs [you will take] to Pharaoh and his people. Indeed, they have been a people defiantly disobedient."
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, exalted be His mention, says — informing of what He spoke to His prophet Mūsā: وَأَدْخِلْ يَدَكَ فِي جَيْبِكَ — it has been transmitted that He, exalted be His mention, commanded him to put his palm into the opening at the neck of his garment; and the reason He commanded him to put it into the neck-opening of his garment is that the garment he was wearing at that time was a woolen mantle (midraʿa). Some said: it had no sleeve. Others said: its sleeve reached to part of his hand.
* Mention of those who said that:
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: وَأَدْخِلْ يَدَكَ فِي جَيْبِكَ — he said: only the palm into your neck-opening; he said: it was a mantle reaching to part of his hand — had it had a sleeve, He would have commanded him to put his hand into his sleeve.
He said: Ḥajjāj related to me, on the authority of Yūnus ibn Abī Isḥāq, on the authority of his father, on the authority of ʿAmr ibn Maymūn, who said: Ibn Masʿūd said: Mūsā went in to Pharaoh clad in a woolen mantle, meaning a garment of wool.
And His word: تَخْرُجْ بَيْضَاءَ — He says: the hand comes forth radiantly white, other than the color of Mūsā — مِنْ غَيْرِ سُوءٍ — He says: without leprosy (baraṣ). فِي تِسْعِ آيَاتٍ — Allah, exalted be His mention, says: put your hand into your neck-opening, it will come forth radiantly white without leprosy, and that is a sign among the nine signs with which you have been sent to Pharaoh. The mention of "sent" has been omitted because His word إِلَى فِرْعَوْنَ وَقَوْمِهِ indicates that this is the meaning — as the poet said:
"She saw me at her two ropes and turned away in fear, while the woman at the rope was a shy, timid hare."
The meaning of the line is: "she saw me approaching at her two ropes," but the mention of "approaching" has been omitted because the listeners know the meaning once he said "she saw me at her ropes"; and such examples in Arabic usage are numerous.
The nine signs are the signs which we have expounded earlier.
And Yūnus related to me, saying: Ibn Wahb informed us, saying: Ibn Zayd said concerning His word تِسْعِ آيَاتٍ إِلَى فِرْعَوْنَ وَقَوْمِهِ : he said: those are the signs which Allah has mentioned in the Qurʾān: the staff, the hand, the locusts, the lice, the frogs, the flood, the blood, the stone, and the affliction that struck the property of Pharaoh's retinue.
And His word: إِنَّهُمْ كَانُوا قَوْمًا فَاسِقِينَ — He says: Pharaoh and his people from the Copts were a depraved (fāsiqīn) people, that is to say: disbelievers (kāfirīn) toward Allah. We have already expounded the meaning of fisq (moral corruption) earlier.
