Tabari (1 passage)

1. Full Dutch translation of Tabari's text

   As for His word: أَحَسِبَ النَّاسُ أَنْ يُتْرَكُوا أَنْ يَقُولُوا آمَنَّا وَهُمْ لا يُفْتَنُونَ ("Do the people think that they will be left alone as soon as they say: We believe, without being tested?") — the meaning of this is: have they, O Muḥammad, among your companions who emigrated because of the harm that the polytheists (mushrikīn) inflicted upon them, thought that We would leave them undisturbed without any testing or trial or examination, merely because they said: "We believe in you, O Muḥammad, and we hold you to be truthful in what you have brought us from Allah"? By no means! We shall indeed test them, so that the truthful among them may be distinguished from the liar.

   And in line with what we have said about this, the people of interpretation (ahl al-taʾwīl) have spoken.

   * Mention of 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 on the authority of Ibn Abī Najīḥ, on the authority of Mujāhid, concerning the word of Allah: آمَنَّا وَهُمْ لا يُفْتَنُونَ ("We believe, without being tested") — he said: they are tested in their persons and in their possessions.

   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 like of it.

   Bishr related to us, saying: Yazīd related to us, saying: Saʿīd related to us, on the authority of Qatāda: وَهُمْ لا يُفْتَنُونَ ("without being tested") — that is to say: they are not put to the test.

   Ibn Bashshār related to us, saying: Muʾammal related to us, saying: Sufyān related to us, on the authority of Abū Hāshim, on the authority of Mujāhid, concerning His word: وَهُمْ لا يُفْتَنُونَ ("without being tested") — he said: they are not tested.

   Now as for the grammatical aspect: the first [أنْ] is in the accusative (manṣūb) on account of the verb ḥasiba ("to think"), while the second [أنْ], according to some of the Arabic grammarians, is in the accusative because yutrakū ("to be left alone") is connected with it, and the meaning of the expression according to their view is: أَحَسِبَ النَّاسُ أَنْ يُتْرَكُوا ("Do the people think that they will be left alone") because they said "We believe"; and when the governing lām was elided from li-an, it came to be in the accusative, as I have mentioned. According to the view of another, however, it is in the genitive (khafḍ) through an implied governing particle; and the Arabs are not in the habit of saying "I left so-and-so that he departed" with the insertion of an into the sentence, but rather they say "I left him, he departed." An is inserted here only because the expression is sufficient with His word: أنْ يُتْرَكُوا ("that they will be left alone"), since the meaning is: do the people think that they will be left alone, without being tested, on account of the fact that they say "We believe"? Thus His word أنْ يُتْرَكُوا ("that they will be left alone") was sufficient in that it applies to the people themselves, and not to their utterances. And if one places the an in His word أنْ يَقُولُوا ("that they say") in the accusative with the intention of a repetition of ḥasiba, then that is permissible, and in that case the meaning of the expression would be: do the people think that they will be left alone — did they think that they would say "We believe" without being tested?

   Show original Arabic

   وأما قوله: ( أَحَسِبَ النَّاسُ أَنْ يُتْرَكُوا أَنْ يَقُولُوا آمَنَّا وَهُمْ لا يُفْتَنُونَ ) فإن معناه: أظنَّ الذين خرجوا يا محمد من أصحابك من أذى المشركين إياهم أن نتركهم بغير اختبار ولا ابتلاء امتحان، بأن قالوا: آمنا بك يا محمد فصدّقناك فيما جئتنا به من عند الله، كلا لنختبرهم، ليتبين الصادق منهم من الكاذب. وبنحو الذي قلنا في ذلك قال أهل التأويل. * ذكر من قال ذلك: حدثني محمد بن عمرو، قال: ثنا أبو عاصم، قال: ثنا عيسى، وحدثني الحارث، قال: ثنا الحسن، قال: ثنا ورقاء، جميعا عن ابن أبي نجيح، عن مجاهد، في قول الله: ( آمَنَّا وَهُمْ لا يُفْتَنُونَ ) قال: يُبْتَلُونَ في أنفسهم وأموالهم. حدثنا القاسم، قال: ثنا الحسين، قال: ثني حجاج، عن ابن جُرَيج، عن مجاهد، مثله. حدثنا بشر، قال: ثنا يزيد، قال: ثنا سعيد، عن قَتادة (وَهُمْ لا يُفْتَنُونَ) أي: لا يبتلون. حدثنا ابن بشار، قال: ثنا مؤمل، قال: ثنا سفيان، عن أبي هاشم، عن مجاهد، في قوله: (وَهُمْ لا يُفْتَنُونَ) قال: لا يُبْتَلونَ. فإن الأولى منصوبة بحسب، والثانية منصوبة في قول بعض أهل العربية بتعلق يتركوا بها وأن معنى الكلام على قوله: ( أَحَسِبَ النَّاسُ أَنْ يُتْرَكُوا ) لأن يقولوا آمنا؛ فلما حذفت اللام الخافضة من لأن نصبت على ما ذكرت. وأما على قول غيره فهي في موضع خفض بإضمار الخافض، ولا تكاد العرب تقول تركت فلانا أن يذهب، فتدخل أن في الكلام، وإنما تقول تركته يذهب، وإنما أدخلت أن هاهنا لاكتفاء الكلام بقوله: (أنْ يُتْرَكُوا) إذ كان معناه: أحسب الناس أن يتركوا وهم لا يفتنون من أجل أن يقولوا آمنا، فكان قوله: (أنْ يُتْرَكُوا) مكتفية بوقوعها على الناس، دون أخبارهم. وإن جعلت " أن " في قوله: (أنْ يَقُولُوا) منصوبة بنية تكرير أحسب، كان جائزا، فيكون معنى الكلام: أحسب الناس أن يتركوا أحسبوا أن يقولوا آمنا وهم لا يفتنون.