Tafseer of The Family of Imraan · Aal-i-Imraan · 3:119
Here you are loving them but they are not loving you, while you believe in the Scripture - all of it. And when they meet you, they say, "We believe." But when they are alone, they bite their fingertips at you in rage. Say, "Die in your rage. Indeed, Allah is Knowing of that within the breasts."
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.
The discourse on the explanation of the saying of the Exalted: يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا لا تَتَّخِذُوا بِطَانَةً مِنْ دُونِكُمْ لا يَأْلُونَكُمْ خَبَالا وَدُّوا مَا عَنِتُّمْ ("O you who believe, do not take intimates (biṭāna) from outside your own circle; they spare no effort to corrupt you, they wish for what harms you.")
Abū Jaʿfar [al-Ṭabarī] said: By this He means, exalted be His mention: O you who have held Allah and His Messenger to be true and have professed what their Prophet brought them from their Lord — "do not take intimates (biṭāna) from outside your own circle," He says: do not take for yourselves allies and friends — "from outside your own circle," He says: from outside the people of your religion and your faith-community, that is to say: from anyone other than the believers.
* * *
He made the word "biṭāna" (intimate, literally: lining) a metaphor for a person's bosom friend, and likened him to the garment that lies close against his belly, because of his closeness to him — in his insight into his secrets and into that which he conceals from those who stand far from him and from many of his close ones — just like the place of the garment that lies close against his body.
* * *
Allah forbade those who believe in Him to take from those who disbelieve in Him bosom friends and chosen confidants, and then informed them of what these harbor toward them of deceit and treachery, and their seeking of calamity for them. Thus He warned them thereby against them and against forming friendship with them, (12) and He said, exalted be His mention: "They spare no effort to corrupt you (lā yaʾlūnakum khabālan)," that is to say: they spare no effort to do you evil. This is derived from "alawtu, ālū, alwan"; one says: "mā alā fulānun kadhā," that is to say: he did not refrain from it / spared no effort, as the poet said: (13)
A half-blind [ewe] that does not refrain, when she comes forward, from looking at me from her face, nor saves me from poverty (14)
That is to say: she cannot see at midday.
* * *
By His saying, exalted be His mention, "They spare no effort to corrupt you," He means the intimates whom He forbade the believers to take from outside their own circle. He says: these intimates spare not for you their utmost capacity for corruption, that is to say: they refrain from no effort in that which brings you corruption. (15)
* * *
The root meaning of "al-khabl" and "al-khabāl" is corruption; then it is used in many senses. This is evident from the narration of the Prophet ﷺ:
7679 — "Whoever is afflicted by khabl — or: by a wound." (16)
* * *
As for His saying: "They wish for what harms you (waddū mā ʿanittum)" — this means: they wish for your ruin and torment. He says: they wish for you misery and evil in your religion and that which afflicts you and does not gladden you. (17)
* * *
It has been mentioned that this verse was revealed concerning a group of Muslims who associated with their allies among the Jews and the hypocrites among them, and showed them affection because of the ties that had existed between them in their time of ignorance (jāhiliyya) before Islam. Allah forbade them that, and forbade them to consult these in any of their affairs.
* Mention of who said that:
7680 — Ibn Ḥumayd related to us, saying: Salama related to us, on the authority of Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq, he said: Muḥammad ibn Abī Muḥammad said, on the authority of ʿIkrima or on the authority of Saʿīd ibn Jubayr, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, he said: There were men among the Muslims who maintained ties with men among the Jews, because of the neighborliness and the alliance that existed between them in the jāhiliyya. Then Allah, mighty and exalted, revealed concerning them, forbidding them to be intimate with them (18), out of fear of the temptation (fitna) that could come to them from them: "O you who believe, do not take intimates from outside your own circle," up to His saying: وَتُؤْمِنُونَ بِالْكِتَابِ كُلِّهِ ("while you believe in the entire Book"). (19)
7681 — Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr related to me, saying: Abū ʿĀṣim related to us, saying: ʿĪsā related to us, on the authority of Ibn Abī Najīḥ, on the authority of Mujāhid, concerning the saying of Allah, mighty and exalted: "O you who believe, do not take intimates from outside your own circle; they spare no effort to corrupt you" — [this concerns] the hypocrites among the inhabitants of Medina. Allah, mighty and exalted, forbade the believers to take them as allies.
7682 — Bishr related to us, saying: Yazīd related to us, saying: Saʿīd related to us, on the authority of Qatāda, concerning His saying: "O you who believe, do not take intimates from outside your own circle; they spare no effort to corrupt you, they wish for what harms you" — Allah, mighty and exalted, forbade the believers to bring in the hypocrites (20), or to take them as brothers, or to take them as allies to the exclusion of the believers. (21)
7683 — Muḥammad ibn Saʿd related to me, saying: my father related to me, saying: my uncle related to me, saying: my father related to me, on the authority of his father, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, concerning His saying: "Do not take intimates from outside your own circle" — these are the hypocrites.
7684 — It was related to me on the authority of ʿAmmār, he said: Ibn Abī Jaʿfar related to us, on the authority of his father, on the authority of al-Rabīʿ, concerning His saying: "O you who believe, do not take intimates from outside your own circle; they spare no effort to corrupt you" — He says: do not bring in the hypocrites (22), taking them as allies to the exclusion of the believers.
7685 — Abū Kurayb and Yaʿqūb ibn Ibrāhīm related to us, both saying: Hushaym related to us, saying: al-ʿAwwām ibn Ḥawshab informed us, on the authority of al-Azhar ibn Rāshid, on the authority of Anas ibn Mālik, he said: The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: "Do not give yourselves light by the fire of the people of shirk, and do not engrave 'ʿarabī' on your signet rings." He said: we did not know what that meant, until they came to al-Ḥasan and asked him about it, whereupon he said: yes. As for his saying "do not engrave 'ʿarabī' on your signet rings" — by it he says: do not engrave 'Muḥammad' on your signet rings. And as for his saying "do not give yourselves light by the fire of the people of shirk" — by it he means the polytheists (mushrikīn); he says: do not consult them in any of your affairs. He said: al-Ḥasan said: and the confirmation of that is in the Book of Allah, and then he recited this verse: "O you who believe, do not take intimates from outside your own circle." (23)
7686 — Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥusayn related to us, saying: Aḥmad ibn al-Mufaḍḍal related to us, saying: Asbāṭ related to us, on the authority of al-Suddī: "O you who believe, do not take intimates from outside your own circle" — as for the "biṭāna" (intimates): these are the hypocrites.
7687 — Al-Qāsim related to us, saying: al-Ḥusayn related to us, saying: Ḥajjāj related to me, on the authority of Ibn Jurayj, concerning His saying: "O you who believe, do not take intimates from outside your own circle" — the [whole] verse: he said: the believer does not take the hypocrite as an intimate to the exclusion of his brother. (24)
7688 — Yūnus related to me, saying: Ibn Wahb informed us, saying: Ibn Zayd said concerning His saying: "O you who believe, do not take intimates from outside your own circle" — the [whole] verse: he said: these are the hypocrites. And he recited His saying: قَدْ بَدَتِ الْبَغْضَاءُ مِنْ أَفْوَاهِهِمْ the [whole] verse ("Already has the hatred become apparent from their mouths").
* * *
Abū Jaʿfar [al-Ṭabarī] said: And they differed regarding the explanation of His saying: "They wish for what harms you."
Some of them said, its meaning is: they wish that you stray from your religion. (25)
* Mention of who said that:
7689 — Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥusayn related to us, saying: Aḥmad related to us, saying: Asbāṭ related to us, on the authority of al-Suddī: "They wish for what harms you" — he says: [they wish] that you stray.
* * *
And others said, such as:
7690 — Al-Qāsim related to us, saying: al-Ḥusayn related to us, saying: Ḥajjāj related to me, on the authority of Ibn Jurayj: "They wish for what harms you" — he says: in your religion, that is to say: they wish that you fall into difficulties in your religion.
* * *
Abū Jaʿfar [al-Ṭabarī] said: If someone were to say to us: how is it that it is said "waddū mā ʿanittum" (they wished for what harmed you), where the statement about the "biṭāna" is given in the past tense in the position of a circumstantial clause (ḥāl), as an explanatory addition after the completion of the statement, while circumstantial clauses (ḥālāt) come about exclusively through the forms of nouns and of verbs in the future tense, and not through those in the past tense? (26)
— then it is answered: it is not, with this, as you suppose, namely that His saying "waddū mā ʿanittum" is a circumstantial clause (ḥāl) of the "biṭāna." Rather it is a second statement about them, detached from the first and not connected with it. For the meaning of the discourse is: O you who believe, do not take intimates whose characteristic is thus-and-so, whose characteristic is so-and-so. The statement about the second characteristic is therefore not connected with the first characteristic, even though they both belong to the characteristics of one and the same person.
* * *
Some scholars of the Arabic language have claimed that His saying "waddū mā ʿanittum" belongs to the qualifying clause (ṣila) of the "biṭāna," while it is [already] provided with a qualifying clause by His saying "lā yaʾlūnakum khabālan"; there is then no basis for a second qualifying clause after the completion of the "biṭāna" with its qualifying clause. (27) But the correct view in this is as we set forth earlier, namely that His saying "waddū mā ʿanittum" is a new, independent statement about the "biṭāna," different from the first statement, and is not a circumstantial clause (ḥāl) of the "biṭāna" nor an explanatory addition to it. (28)
* * *
The discourse on the explanation of the saying of the Exalted: قَدْ بَدَتِ الْبَغْضَاءُ مِنْ أَفْوَاهِهِمْ ("Already has the hatred become apparent from their mouths.")
Abū Jaʿfar [al-Ṭabarī] said: By this He means, exalted be His praise: already has the hatred become apparent from these whom I have forbidden you, O believers, to take as intimates for yourselves from outside your own circle — "from their mouths," that is to say: with their tongues. And that which became manifest to them [i.e. from those intimates] through their tongues (29) is their persistence in their unbelief and their enmity toward whoever departs from the misguidance in which they persist. That is one of the strongest causes of their enmity toward the people of faith, for that is an enmity for the sake of religion, and the enmity for the sake of religion is the enmity that does not abate except through the crossing-over of one of the two enemies to the faith-community of the other — and that is a crossing-over from guidance [in the case of the believer] to a misguidance that, for the one to whom he crosses over, was already a misguidance before that moment. Thus in their disclosure of that to the believers, and in their persistence in it, lay the clearest indication for the people of faith concerning the hatred and enmity in which they are.
* * *
Some have said: the meaning of His saying "Already has the hatred become apparent from their mouths" is: already has their hatred toward the people of faith become apparent to their allies among the hypocrites and the people of unbelief, by their informing one another of it. And the adherents of this view claimed that those intended by this verse are the hypocrites, and not those who openly professed unbelief among the Jews and the people of shirk.
* Mention of who said that:
7691 — Bishr related to us, saying: Yazīd related to us, saying: Saʿīd related to us, on the authority of Qatāda, concerning His saying: "Already has the hatred become apparent from their mouths" — he says: already has the hatred become apparent from the mouths of the hypocrites toward their brothers among the unbelievers, in their deceit toward Islam and its people, and their hatred of them.
7692 — It was related to me on the authority of ʿAmmār, he said: Ibn Abī Jaʿfar related to us, on the authority of his father, on the authority of al-Rabīʿ: "Already has the hatred become apparent from their mouths" — he says: from the mouths of the hypocrites.
* * *
This saying which we have transmitted from Qatāda is a saying that has no basis. That is because Allah, exalted be His mention, forbade the believers only to take intimates from those whom they had already come to know as deceivers toward Islam and its people and as full of hatred — whether through clear indications pointing to this being among their characteristics, or because those characterized by this displayed enmity, hatred, and open opposition toward them. As for those whom they had not recognized with certainty as the one whom Allah, mighty and exalted, had forbidden them to befriend and be intimate with (30) — it is not permissible that they should be forbidden to befriend and associate with them, except after they had been made known to them, whether by their persons and their names, or by characteristics by which they recognized them.
And since this is so — and since the disclosure by the hypocrites with their tongues of what lives in their hearts of hatred toward the believers, [but then] to their brothers among the unbelievers, gives the believers no knowledge of what these harbor toward them, all the more so since they feign faith toward them with their tongues and profess affection toward them — it was clear that those whom Allah forbade the believers to take as intimates for themselves from outside their own circle are those whose hatred has become apparent to them through their tongues, in accordance with that by which Allah, mighty and exalted, has characterized them, so that the believers might recognize them by the characteristic by which Allah has designated them. And they are those whom the Exalted, exalted be His mention, has characterized as the inhabitants of the Fire, abiding therein eternally — of those who had a protection-covenant (dhimma) and a pact from the Messenger of Allah ﷺ and his companions, among the People of the Book. For if they were the hypocrites, then the matter concerning them would be as we have set forth. And if they were the unbelievers who openly fought the believers in battle, then the believers would not have taken them as intimates for themselves to the exclusion of the believers, given the difference of their lands and the dispersion of their cities. Rather they are those who were in the midst of the believers, among the People of the Book, in the days of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ — of those who had from the Messenger of Allah ﷺ a pact and a covenant, namely the Jews of the Banū Isrāʾīl.
* * *
And "al-baghḍāʾ" (the hatred) is a verbal noun (maṣdar). It has been mentioned that in the reading of ʿAbd Allāh ibn Masʿūd it reads: (قَدْ بَدَا الْبَغْضَاءُ مِنْ أَفْوَاهِهِمْ) ("Already has the hatred become apparent from their mouths"), in the masculine form [of the verb badā]. This is permissible in the masculine form, even though the word [baghḍāʾ] has a feminine form, because the feminine gender of verbal nouns is not an obligatory feminine gender, so that it is permissible to treat what of it appears in the feminine form as both masculine and feminine, as He, mighty and exalted, said: وَأَخَذَ الَّذِينَ ظَلَمُوا الصَّيْحَةُ [Surah Hūd: 67] ("And the Cry seized those who did wrong" — with masculine verb), and as He said: فَقَدْ جَاءَكُمْ بَيِّنَةٌ مِنْ رَبِّكُمْ [Surah al-Anʿām: 157] ("Already has a clear proof from your Lord come to you" — with masculine verb), while in another place He said: وَأَخَذَتِ الَّذِينَ ظَلَمُوا الصَّيْحَةُ [Surah Hūd: 94] (with feminine verb) and قَدْ جَاءَتْكُمْ بَيِّنَةٌ مِنْ رَبِّكُمْ [Surah al-Aʿrāf: 73, 85] (with feminine verb). (31)
* * *
And He said: "from their mouths," while that which has become apparent of hatred has become apparent only through their tongues, because by this is meant the speech that became manifest to the believers from their mouths. Therefore He said: "Already has the hatred become apparent from their mouths," [that is] through their tongues.
* * *
The discourse on the explanation of the saying of the Exalted: وَمَا تُخْفِي صُدُورُهُمْ أَكْبَرُ ("And what their breasts conceal is greater.")
Abū Jaʿfar [al-Ṭabarī] said: By this He means, exalted be His mention: and that which their breasts conceal — that is to say: the breasts of these whom He has forbidden you to take as intimates — and thus conceal from you, O believers — "is greater," He says: greater and more immense than what has already become apparent to them through their tongues from their mouths of hatred. Such as:
7693 — Bishr related to us, saying: Yazīd related to us, saying: Saʿīd related to us, on the authority of Qatāda, concerning His saying: "And what their breasts conceal is greater" — he says: and what their breasts conceal is greater than what they have made apparent with their tongues.
7694 — It was related to me on the authority of ʿAmmār, on the authority of Ibn Abī Jaʿfar, on the authority of his father, on the authority of al-Rabīʿ, concerning His saying: "And what their breasts conceal is greater" — he says: what their breasts keep hidden is greater than what they have made apparent with their tongues.
* * *
The discourse on the explanation of His saying: قَدْ بَيَّنَّا لَكُمُ الآيَاتِ إِنْ كُنْتُمْ تَعْقِلُونَ (118) ("We have already made the signs clear to you, if you have understanding.") (3:118)
Abū Jaʿfar [al-Ṭabarī] said: By this He means, exalted be His praise: "We have already made clear to you," O believers — "the signs," by "the signs (āyāt)" He means the lessons (ʿibar). We have already made clear to you, concerning the matter of these Jews whom We have forbidden you to take as intimates to the exclusion of the believers, that from which you may take instruction and admonition out of their affair — "if you have understanding," that is to say: if you comprehend from Allah His admonitions and His command and prohibition, and know the places where their benefit lies for you, and the measure of the profit they yield you.
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Footnotes:
(12) In the printed edition it reads "fa-ḥadhdharahum bi-dhālika minhum ʿan mukhāllatihim," with the removal of the assimilation of the lām and the omission of the wāw before "ʿan," and in the manuscript it reads "wa-ʿan mukhālatihim." The correct reading of it is what I have established, unless "nahāhum" has dropped out of the discourse, so that it would read "wa-nahāhum ʿan mukhālatihim."
(13) This is Abū l-ʿIyāl al-Hudhalī.
(14) Dīwān al-Hudhaliyyīn 2: 263, al-Ḥayawān 3: 535, al-Maʿānī al-kabīr: 690, al-Lisān (alā) (jahr). It belongs to fine poetry in the poetic contests between him and Badr ibn ʿĀmir al-Hudhalī. Badr ibn ʿĀmir composed some verses when it reached him that a nephew of Abū l-ʿIyāl was siding with the latter's adversaries; he disavowed that and claimed that he was not one to do evil to his brother Abū l-ʿIyāl, but Abū l-ʿIyāl deemed him a liar, whereupon Badr hastened to refute him. It is all good poetry as to its meaning. Abū l-ʿIyāl likened Badr's poetry therein and in his praise of him to a ewe, and said to him:
You have sworn never to forget the youth of a poem — never! But what is this that makes me forget? Indeed, you will forget her and know that she is but a follower of an intractable, refractory [ewe]. You gave me [a ewe] and I was content with the adornment of my gift, but behold, by your father, it was a delusion of madness. A half-blind [ewe] that does not refrain... ....................................
And "al-jahrāʾ" is she who does not see in the sun, which is a weakness of eyesight. And one says "ʿāla yaʿīlu ʿaylan wa-ʿaylatan": he became poor. He says: you gave me poetry, praise, and words and I was content with them, but behold, then there was nothing but word and speech; when the matter is revealed and becomes clear, this poetry blinds and goes out, and when it really comes down to it, your word avails nothing, but you are as I have just told you:
Indeed, I have watched you in all assemblies, and behold, while you stand by whoever desires to wound me...
(15) Abū Jaʿfar has indeed gone far astray in his artificiality in the explanation of "lā yaʾlūnakum," for the exposition of the philologists on the meaning of this word in Arabic is more correct and more complete than his exposition. They mentioned the meaning he mentioned and then said: "mā alawtu dhālika: that is to say, I was not able to do it; and mā alawtu an afʿalahu: that is to say, I did not refrain from doing it," and they said: "it belongs to the contranyms (aḍdād): alā: he became slow and weak — and alā: he exerted himself." Consult that in the books on Arabic.
(16) The narration 7679 — Abū Jaʿfar transmitted it without isnād. Aḥmad transmitted it in his Musnad 4: 31, and al-Bayhaqī in al-Sunan 8: 53. The narration of Aḥmad runs via his teacher "Muḥammad ibn Salama al-Ḥarrānī, on the authority of Ibn Isḥāq" — and Yazīd ibn Hārūn said: Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq informed us — "on the authority of al-Ḥārith ibn Fuḍayl, on the authority of Fuḍayl, on the authority of Sufyān ibn Abī l-ʿAwjāʾ" — Yazīd said: al-Sulamī — "on the authority of Abū Shurayḥ al-Khuzāʿī, he said: The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said" — and Yazīd said: I heard the Messenger of Allah ﷺ saying —: "Whoever is afflicted by [shed] blood or by khabl — al-khabl means: the wound — he has the choice of one of three: either he exacts retaliation (qiṣāṣ), or he takes the blood-money (al-ʿaql), or he pardons. And if he desires a fourth [option], then seize his hand. And if he does any of that and thereafter [again] transgresses his bounds and kills, then for him is the Fire, in which he abides eternally and forever." By "al-dam" (blood) he means the killing of a person, and by "al-khabl" or "al-jirāḥ": the severing of a limb. I have left what is in al-Ṭabarī in its original state: "aw jirāḥ" (or wound), and indicated by the punctuation that it is as if it were another narration in his saying "khabl," as a doubt of the transmitter. But the sense of the narration leads me to suppose that it is "ay: jirāḥ" (that is to say: wound), because in the narration itself "al-khabl" is explained by "al-jirāḥ" (wound).
(17) See the explanation of "al-ʿanat" earlier, 4: 358-361.
(18) In the printed edition it reads "fa-nahāhum" with the fāʾ at the beginning; the correct reading is what is in the manuscript and in Ibn Hishām.
(19) The narration 7680 — Sīrat Ibn Hishām 2: 207. It follows upon the two preceding narrations with the numbers 7644, 7645.
(20) His saying "yastadkhilū" means: to take them as intimates. "Istadkhalahu": he took him as an initiate (dakhīl), as one says "istaṣḥabahu": he took him as a companion. And "al-dakhīl" and "al-mudākhil" is the one who penetrates the man in all his affairs. This form "istadkhalahu" is something the lexical books have neglected, while it is pure and firmly rooted Arabic, as you see.
(21) In the printed edition it reads "ay yatawallawhum"; in the manuscript it reads "an yatawallawhum"; the correct reading is what I have established.
(22) See p. 141, footnote 3.
(23) The narration 7685 — al-Azhar ibn Rāshid al-Baṣrī: trustworthy (thiqa). Al-Bukhārī gave him a biography in al-Kabīr 1/1/455, and Ibn Abī Ḥātim 1/1/313 — without mentioning therein any criticism (jarḥ). There is another transmitter named "al-Azhar ibn Rāshid al-Kāhilī," who is from Kufa and is other than the Baṣrī, and later than him. To him too al-Bukhārī and Ibn Abī Ḥātim gave a biography. For from the Baṣrī transmits "al-ʿAwwām ibn Ḥawshab," who died in the year 148, and from the Kufan al-Kāhilī transmits "Marwān ibn Muʿāwiya al-Fazārī," who died in the year 193. And Marwān ibn Muʿāwiya belongs to the teachers of Aḥmad, while al-ʿAwwām ibn Ḥawshab belongs to the teachers of his teachers. What a difference between this one and that one! And despite this clear difference, the ḥāfiẓ al-Mizzī erred and mentioned in al-Tahdhīb al-Kabīr that Abū Ḥātim said of the Baṣrī: "unknown (majhūl)." And the ḥāfiẓ [Ibn Ḥajar] followed him in that in Tahdhīb al-Tahdhīb, and al-Dhahabī in al-Mīzān. And it made the confusion still worse, for he mentioned that Ibn Maʿīn declared him weak. But Ibn Maʿīn and Abū Ḥātim said that only of the Kufan al-Kāhilī. For Ibn Abī Ḥātim transmitted in the biography of "al-Kāhilī" 1/1/313, no. 1180, on the authority of Ibn Maʿīn, he said: "Azhar ibn Rāshid, from whom Marwān ibn Muʿāwiya transmitted: weak (ḍaʿīf)." Then he said: "I asked my father about Azhar ibn Rāshid? He said: he is unknown (majhūl)." And the ḥāfiẓ Ibn Ḥajar did not investigate it thoroughly and the exposition in the two biographies became muddled for him, for he said in the biography of "al-Kāhilī" — after the biography of "al-Baṣrī" —: "I fear that they are one and the same! But Ibn Maʿīn distinguished between them." And the distinction between them is like the sun. The narration was transmitted by Aḥmad in the Musnad: 11978 (volume 3, p. 99, Ḥalabī edition), on the authority of Hushaym, with this isnād — without the words of al-Ḥasan, namely al-Baṣrī. And al-Bukhārī transmitted it likewise in al-Kabīr 1/1/455 — without the words of al-Ḥasan, on the authority of Musaddad, on the authority of Hushaym, with it. Then al-Bukhārī explained a part of it and said: "Abū ʿAbd Allāh [that is al-Bukhārī himself] said: 'ʿarabī' means 'Muḥammad rasūl Allāh.' He says: do not write the same as the seal of the Prophet: 'Muḥammad rasūl Allāh.'" And Abū Yaʿlā transmitted it at length — like the narration of al-Ṭabarī or somewhat longer — with the words of al-Ḥasan in it. He transmitted it on the authority of Isḥāq ibn Isrāʾīl, on the authority of Hushaym, with this isnād. Ibn Kathīr took it from him 2: 227 and then said: "Thus did the ḥāfiẓ Abū Yaʿlā, Allah's mercy be upon him, transmit it. And al-Nasāʾī transmitted it on the authority of Mujāhid ibn Mūsā, on the authority of Hushaym, with it. And the imam Aḥmad transmitted it on the authority of Hushaym, with his isnād like his, without mentioning the explanation of al-Ḥasan al-Baṣrī. And this explanation is doubtful" — to the end of what he said. And I have not found it in the Sunan of al-Nasāʾī; perhaps it is in the Sunan al-Kubrā. And al-Suyūṭī mentioned it 2: 66 and moreover attributed it to ʿAbd ibn Ḥumayd, Ibn al-Mundhir, Ibn Abī Ḥātim and al-Bayhaqī in al-Shuʿab. And he did not attribute it to al-Nasāʾī, nor to the Taʾrīkh of al-Bukhārī.
(24) See: 141, footnote 3 / p. 142, footnote 1.
(25) See the explanation of "al-ʿanat" earlier, pp. 4: 358-361.
(26) See "al-qaṭʿ" earlier 6: 270, footnote 3, and the remaining registers of technical terms.
(27) See the explanation of "al-ṣila" earlier 5: 299, footnote 5; it is the qualifying clause attached to the indefinite noun.
(28) See "al-qaṭʿ" earlier 6: 270, footnote 3, and the remaining registers of technical terms.
(29) In the manuscript and the printed edition it reads "bi-afwāhihim"; the correct reading, in agreement with the text of this verse, is what I have established.
(30) In the printed edition it reads "fa-ammā man lam yataʾassūhu maʿrifatan," which has no meaning, and in the manuscript it reads "lam sawhu maʿrifatan" without diacritical points; the correct reading of it is what I have established. One says "athbatahu maʿrifatan," that is to say: he knew him fully.
(31) See Maʿānī al-Qurʾān of al-Farrāʾ 1: 231.
