Tabari (1 passage)

1. Full Dutch translation of Tabari's text

   The statement concerning the explanation of His saying, the Exalted: وَلَقَدْ أَرْسَلْنَا نُوحًا إِلَى قَوْمِهِ فَلَبِثَ فِيهِمْ أَلْفَ سَنَةٍ إِلا خَمْسِينَ عَامًا فَأَخَذَهُمُ الطُّوفَانُ وَهُمْ ظَالِمُونَ (14) (And indeed We sent Nūḥ to his people, and he remained among them a thousand years less fifty years; then the flood seized them while they were wrongdoers. (14))

   This is a threat from Allah, the Exalted, whose praise is exalted, against these polytheists (mushrikīn) of Quraysh, who said to those who believed: "Follow our way, and we shall bear your sins." He says to His Prophet Muḥammad — may Allah's peace and blessings be upon him: Let not grieve you, O Muḥammad, the affliction that you and your companions suffer from these polytheists; for indeed, even though I grant them respite and prolong their respite at length, yet the outcome of their affair is destruction, and the outcome of your affair and the affair of your companions is exaltation and victory over them, and deliverance from the punishment that befalls them — just as We did with Nūḥ, when We sent him to his people, and he remained among them a thousand years less fifty years, while he called them to the oneness [of Allah] (tawḥīd) and to the abandonment of the gods and the idols; but this calling of his to Allah increased in them nothing of drawing near to Him and acceptance of the sincere counsel that he brought them from Allah, except flight.

   And it has been mentioned that he was sent to his people when he was three hundred and fifty years old.

   As Naṣr ibn ʿAlī al-Jahḍamī related to us, saying: Nūḥ ibn Qays related to us, saying: ʿAwn ibn Abī Shaddād related to us, saying: Indeed, Allah sent Nūḥ to his people when he was three hundred and fifty years old; thereupon he remained among them a thousand years less fifty years; then he lived after that three hundred and fifty years. فَأَخَذَهُمُ الطُّوفَانُ (then the flood seized them) — the Exalted, whose praise is exalted, says: Then the abundant water destroyed them. And every overflowing, widespread water that engulfs everything is, among the Arabs, a ṭūfān (flood), whether it be a torrent or something else. Likewise is death, when it is widespread and abundant, also a ṭūfān among them. Of this is the saying of the rajaz-poet:

   "A flood of snatching death has extirpated them."

   And in agreement with our statement concerning that spoke the scholars of exegesis.

   * Mention of who said that:

   Bishr related to us, saying: Yazīd related to us, saying: Saʿīd related to us, on the authority of Qatāda, concerning his saying: فَأَخَذَهُمُ الطُّوفَانُ (then the flood seized them) he said: that is the water that was sent upon them.

   It was related to me on the authority of al-Ḥusayn, saying: I heard Abū Muʿādh saying: ʿUbayd informed us, saying: I heard al-Ḍaḥḥāk saying: the ṭūfān is the drowning.

   And His saying: وَهُمْ ظالِمُونَ (while they were wrongdoers) says: while they wronged themselves through their disbelief.

   And as for the saying of the rajaz-poet "A flood of snatching death has extirpated them" — this is a verse from the shortened rajaz meter, and it belongs to the evidentiary verses of Abū ʿUbayda in Majāz al-Qurʾān. He said: the ṭūfān, its purport is every abundant water that engulfs everything, whether it comes from a torrent or something else; and likewise it is with death when it is snatching, widespread and abundant. And in (al-Lisān, entry ṭ-w-f): the ṭūfān is the water that overspreads every place. And it has been said: the ṭūfān of any matter: that of it which is abundant, encompassing and enveloping the whole group, such as the drowning that overtakes many cities; and the mass slaughter and the snatching death, that is called a ṭūfān. And by this in its entirety was His saying, the Exalted, explained: فَأَخَذَهُمُ الطُّوفَانُ وَهُمْ ظَالِمُونَ (then the flood seized them while they were wrongdoers).

   Show original Arabic

   القول في تأويل قوله تعالى : وَلَقَدْ أَرْسَلْنَا نُوحًا إِلَى قَوْمِهِ فَلَبِثَ فِيهِمْ أَلْفَ سَنَةٍ إِلا خَمْسِينَ عَامًا فَأَخَذَهُمُ الطُّوفَانُ وَهُمْ ظَالِمُونَ (14) وهذا وعيد من الله تعالى ذكره هؤلاء المشركين من قريش، القائلين للذين آمنوا: اتبعوا سبيلَنا، ولنحمل خطاياكم، يقول لنبيه محمد صلى الله عليه وسلم: لا يحزننك يا محمد ما تلقى من هؤلاء المشركين أنت وأصحابك من الأذى، فإني وإن أمليت لهم فأطلت إملاءهم، فإن مصير أمرهم إلى البوار، ومصير أمرك وأمر أصحابك إلى العلوّ والظفر بهم، والنجاة مما يحلّ بهم من العقاب، كفعلنا ذلك بنوح، إذ أرسلناه إلى قومه، فلبث فيهم ألف سنة إلا خمسين عاما يدعوهم إلى التوحيد، وفراق الآلهة والأوثان، فلم يزدهم ذلك من دعائه إياهم إلى الله من الإقبال إليه، وقبول ما أتاهم به من النصيحة من عند الله إلا فرارا. وذُكر أنه أُرسل إلى قومه وهو ابن ثلاث مئة وخمسين سنة. كما حدثنا نصر بن عليّ الْجَهْضَمِيّ، قال: ثنا نوح بن قيس، قال: ثنا عون بن أبي شداد، قال: إن الله أرسل نوحا إلى قومه وهو ابن خمسين وثلاث مئة سنة فلبث فيهم ألف سنة إلا خمسين عاما، ثم عاش بعد ذلك خمسين وثلاث مئة سنة، فأخذهم الطوفان، يقول تعالى ذكره: فأهلكهم الماء الكثير، وكلّ ماء كثير فاش طامٌّ؛ فهو عند العرب طوفان، سيلا كان أو غيره، وكذلك الموت إذا كان فاشيا كثيرا، فهو أيضا عندهم طوفان؛ ومنه قول الراجز: أَفْنَاهُـْم طُوفان مَوْتٍ جارِفِ (3) وبنحو قولنا في ذلك قال أهل التأويل. * ذكر من قال ذلك: حدثنا بشر، قال: ثنا يزيد، قال: ثنا سعيد، عن قَتادة، قوله: ( فَأَخَذَهُمُ الطُّوفَانُ ) قال: هو الماء الذي أرسل عليهم. حُدثت عن الحسين، قال: سمعت أبا معاذ يقول: أخبرنا عبيد، قال: سمعت الضحاك يقول: الطوفان: الغرق. وقوله: (وَهُمْ ظالِمُونَ) يقول: وهم ظالمون أنفسهم بكفرهم. -------------------------- الهوامش: (3) هذا بيت من مشطور الرجز، وهو من شواهد أبي عبيدة في مجاز القرآن (الورقة 184 - أ) قال: الطوفان: مجازه كل ماء طام فاش، من سبيل كان أم من غيره وهو كذلك من الموت إذا كان جارفًا فاشيًا كثيرًا. قال: "أفناهم الطوفان ..." البيت. ونقله المؤلف بحروفه. وفي (اللسان: طوف): والطوفان الماء الذي يغشى كل مكان. وقيل: الطوفان من كل شيء: ما كان كثيرًا محيطًا مطيفًا بالجماعة كلها، كالغرق الذي يشتمل على المدن الكثيرة؛ والقتل الذريع والموت الجارف، يقال له: طوفان. وبذك كله فسر قوله تعالى: (فأخذهم الطوفان وهم ظالمون)