Tafseer of The Ant · An-Naml · 27:66
Rather, their knowledge is arrested concerning the Hereafter. Rather, they are in doubt about it. Rather, they are, concerning it, blind.
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.
And His word: بَلِ ادَّارَكَ عِلْمُهُمْ فِي الآخِرَةِ (nay, their knowledge has caught up with the Last Day): The Qurʾān reciters differed over the reading of this. Most of the reciters of Medina — except Abū Jaʿfar — and most of the reciters of Kūfa recited it as بَلِ ادَّارَكَ with kasra on the lām of "bal" and tashdīd on the dāl of "iddāraka," with the meaning: nay, their knowing concerning the Last Day has become joined together — whether it is real or not — and then the tāʾ was assimilated into the dāl, as it is said: اثَّاقَلْتُمْ إِلَى الأَرْضِ — and we have already explained this previously with what suffices to dispense with repeating it.
Most of the reciters of Mecca recited it as "bal adrakaʿilmuhum fī l-ākhirah" with sukūn on the dāl and fatḥa on the alif, with the meaning: or has their knowledge attained the knowledge of the Last Day. Abū ʿAmr ibn al-ʿAlāʾ rejected — according to what is related of him — the reading of whoever recited "bal adrakaʿ," and said: "bal" is affirmative, and the interrogative in this place is a negation. The meaning of the word, if one reads it thus, is: "bal adrakaʿ" — their knowledge of the Last Day has not attained it; and with the interrogative form Ibn Muḥayṣin read it, in the manner I have mentioned that Abū ʿAmr rejected.
In a manner similar to what I have mentioned of the Meccans that they recited it, it is related that Mujāhid recited it thus, except that in the place of "bal" he recited the word "am."
Ibn al-Muthannā related to us, saying: ʿAbdullāh ibn Mūsā related to us, saying: ʿUthmān ibn al-Aswad related to us, on the authority of Mujāhid, that he recited "am adrakaʿilmuhum." Ibn ʿAbbās recited — according to what is related of him — with an added yāʾ after "bal," and then began "addāraka" with fatḥa on its alif as an interrogative with tashdīd on the dāl.
Ḥumayd ibn Masʿada related to us, saying: Bishr ibn al-Mufaḍḍal related to us, saying: Shuʿba related to us, on the authority of Abū Ḥamza, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, concerning this verse: "balā addāraka ʿilmuhum fī l-ākhirah" — that is to say: it has not attained it.
Muḥammad ibn al-Muthannā related to us, saying: Muḥammad ibn Jaʿfar related to us, saying: Shuʿba related to us, on the authority of Abū Ḥamza, who said: I heard Ibn ʿAbbās recite "balā addāraka ʿilmuhum fī l-ākhirah" — it is only an interrogative expressing that it has not attained it. It was as though Ibn ʿAbbās understood this to mean that its import is the import of mockery of the denier of the Day of Judgment.
The correct reading in our judgment concerning this is the two readings I have mentioned — the one related from the reciters of Mecca and Baṣra, namely "bal adrakaʿilmuhum" with sukūn on the lām of bal and fatḥa on the alif of adrakaʿ and lightening (takhfīf) of its dāl — and the other from the reciters of Kūfa, namely بَلِ ادَّارَكَ with kasra on the lām and tashdīd on the dāl of iddāraka — for these are the two readings well known among the reciters of the great cities; whoever recites either of the two readings has done well in our judgment. As for the reading related from Ibn ʿAbbās: although its meaning and grammatical analysis are correct, it goes against the muṣḥafs of the Muslims — for in "balā" there is an added yāʾ in his reading which is not in the muṣḥafs; moreover, it is a reading which we do not know any of the reciters of the great cities to have read. As for the reading related from Ibn Muḥayṣin: what Abū ʿAmr said against it is a correct statement, for the Arabs affirm with "bal" what follows it and do not negate it; the interrogative in this place is a negation without affirmation, and this is because Allah has informed that the polytheists (mushrikīn) are in doubt about the Hour, as He said: بَلْ هُمْ فِي شَكٍّ مِنْهَا بَلْ هُمْ مِنْهَا عَمُونَ (nay, they are in doubt about it, indeed, they are blind to it).
The exegetes differed over the interpretation of this. Some said: The meaning is: nay, their knowledge has caught up with the Last Day and they certainly knew it when they beheld it, at the moment when their certainty no longer availed them anything, because in the worldly life they had been deniers of it.
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, who said: ʿAṭāʾ al-Khurāsānī said, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās: "bal adrakaʿilmuhum" — he said: their sight in the Last Day, at the moment when knowledge and sight no longer availed them.
Others said: the meaning is: nay, their knowledge concerning the Last Day has become hidden.
Mention of those who said that:
ʿAlī related to me, saying: Abū Ṣāliḥ related to us, saying: Muʿāwiya related to me, on the authority of ʿAlī, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, concerning His word "bal adrakaʿilmuhum fī l-ākhirah": he says: their knowledge has become hidden.
Yūnus related to me, saying: Ibn Wahb informed us, saying: Ibn Zayd said concerning His word: بَلِ ادَّارَكَ عِلْمُهُمْ فِي الآخِرَةِ — he said: it says: their knowledge went astray concerning the Last Day; they have no knowledge therein, هُمْ مِنْهَا عَمُونَ (they are blind to it).
Yet others said: The meaning of this is: their knowledge has not attained it.
Mention of those who said that:
ʿAbd al-Wārith ibn ʿAbd al-Ṣamad related to me, saying: My father related to me, on the authority of my grandfather, who said: al-Ḥusayn related to us, on the authority of Qatāda, concerning His word: بَلِ ادَّارَكَ عِلْمُهُمْ فِي الآخِرَةِ — he recited it as "bal adrakaʿilmuhum fī l-ākhirah" — he said: their knowledge has not attained it, and no longing of theirs reaches to it.
Others said: the meaning of this is: "bal adrakaʿ" = "am adrakaʿ".
Mention of those who said that:
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: "bal adrakaʿilmuhum" — he said: "am adrakaʿ".
Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr related to me, saying: Abū ʿĀṣim related to us, saying: ʿUthmān related to us, on the authority of Mujāhid: "bal adrakaʿilmuhum" — he said: "am adrakaʿilmuhum" — whence would their knowledge attain that?
Al-Qāsim related to us, saying: al-Ḥusayn related to us, saying: Ḥajjāj related to us, on the authority of Ibn Jurayj, on the authority of Mujāhid, similarly.
Abū Jaʿfar says: The most correct of the statements concerning the interpretation of this, according to the reading of whoever recites "bal adrakaʿ," is the statement we have mentioned from ʿAṭāʾ al-Khurāsānī, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās — namely that the meaning of this, if one reads it thus, is: وَمَا يَشْعُرُونَ أَيَّانَ يُبْعَثُونَ (and they do not perceive when they will be resurrected) — but their knowledge has caught up with precisely that moment in the Last Day when they are resurrected, and then their knowledge of it avails them nothing; but in the worldly life they are in doubt about it, indeed, they are blind to it.
And I say that this is the most correct of the statements concerning the interpretation of this according to the reading mentioned, because that is the clearest of its meanings. And if that is its meaning, the expression contains an elided element of which the present matters are the indicator — and that is that the meaning of the expression is: and they do not know when they will be resurrected — but they know that in the Last Day; the expression then is: and they do not know when they will be resurrected, but their knowledge of that has caught up with them in the Last Day; but in the worldly life they are in doubt about it. But according to the reading of whoever recites it as بَلِ ادَّارَكَ with kasra on the lām and tashdīd on the dāl, the most correct statement is the one we have mentioned from Mujāhid — namely that the meaning of "bal" is "am," and the Arabs use "am" in the place of "bal" and "bal" in the place of "am" when at the beginning of the expression there is an interrogative, as the poet said:
"By Allah, I do not know whether Salmā appeared to me in a dream — or sleep — or whether everything is dear to me"
By this he means: "nay, everything is dear to me" — so that the interpretation of the expression is then: and they do not know when they will be resurrected — but has their knowledge caught up with the Last Day — that is to say: their knowledge concerning the Last Day has become joined together — that is to say: with knowledge of the Last Day; that is to say: this has not become joined together and they have not known it — rather their knowledge has passed it by and gone astray, so that they have not attained it and have not known it.
And His word: بَلْ هُمْ فِي شَكٍّ مِنْهَا (nay, they are in doubt about it): he says: nay, these polytheists (mushrikīn) who ask you about the Hour are in doubt about its arrival — they have no certainty about it and do not believe that they will be resurrected after death; بَلْ هُمْ مِنْهَا عَمُونَ (indeed, they are blind to it): he says: they are blind to the knowledge of its arrival.
[Editor's note: (1) tataghawwalat: she appeared to me in dreams in various forms. The proof in the verse is that the first "am" is connective, for it is the counterpart of the hamza; he says: I do not know whether it is a dream-apparition of Salmā that appeared to me, or sleep that confuses the spirits of things one with another — those are the veils of dreams. And the second "am" is for diverting (afwend), with the meaning of "bal": he says: indeed, everything is dear to my soul. He means what appears to him of the phantom of the imagination. And what he sees in dreams. This verse is among the testimonia of al-Farrāʾ in Maʿānī l-Qurʾān. And in al-Lisān (entry d-r-k): whoever reads "bal adārakaʿ": al-Farrāʾ said: the meaning in the language is: taddāraka, that is to say: their knowledge concerning the Last Day has become joined together — he means: with knowledge of the Last Day: whether it will be or not; and therefore He said: (bal hum fī shakkin minhā bal hum minhā ʿamūn) — he said: and in the recitation of Ubay it is "am taddārakaʿ"; and the Arabs put "bal" in the place of "am" and "am" in the place of "bal" when at the beginning of the expression there is an interrogative, as the word of the poet: "fawallāhi..." the verse. The meaning of "am" is "bal." And Abū Muʿādh al-naḥwī said: whoever reads "bal adrakaʿ" and whoever reads "bal adārakaʿ" both have the same meaning. He says: they are, in the Last Day, knowers, as the word of Allah the Exalted: (asmiʿ bihim wa-abṣir yawma yaʾtūnanā) and the like. Al-Suddī said in his tafsīr: their knowledge came together in the Last Day; and its meaning according to him is: they knew in the Last Day that of which they had been promised in this life that it was real. And al-Azharī said: the correct view in the interpretation of adrakaʿ and adārakaʿ and the meaning of the verse is what al-Suddī said and what Abū Muʿādh and Abū Saʿīd declared in favor of. And what al-Farrāʾ said about the meaning of taddāraka as: their knowledge concerning the Last Day has become joined together, in the sense that it will be or will not be, is not clear — the meaning is rather: their knowledge has become joined together and strengthened in the Last Day, at the moment when the Hour had really arrived and they had lost, and the truth of what they had been promised became clear to them, at the moment when that knowledge no longer availed them anything, ends here.]
