Tafseer of The Family of Imraan · Aal-i-Imraan · 3:2
Allah - there is no deity except Him, the Ever-Living, the Sustainer of existence.
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.
As for the meaning of His words: "lā ilāha illā huwa" ("there is no god but He"), this is an announcement from Allah, Mighty and Exalted, by which He informs His servants that divinity (al-ulūhiyya) belongs exclusively to Him, to the exclusion of all other gods and partners beside Him, and that worship (ʿibāda) is not fitting and not permissible for anyone other than Him — because of the fact that to Him alone belongs lordship (rubūbiyya) and that He alone possesses godhood (ulūhiyya); and that all that is besides Him is His possession, and that all that is beside Him is His creation; He has no partner in His dominion and His kingship. [This is] an argument from Him, exalted is His remembrance, against them: that, since this is so, it is not permissible for them to worship any other than Him, nor to make anyone a partner with Him in His dominion, since every object of worship besides Him is His possession, and everything glorified beside Him is His creation; and the possession is obliged to devote its obedience exclusively to its owner and to direct its servitude toward its master and sustainer. And [it is also] a notification to every one of His creatures who, on the day that He sent this down to His prophet Muḥammad ﷺ by revealing it to him and sending him with it to them by his tongue — Allah's blessings and peace be upon him — persisted in the worship of an idol-image, an idol, the sun, the moon, a human being, an angel, or anything else among the things that the sons of Adam worshipped and venerated as divinity, and who took it, to the exclusion of his Owner and Creator, as a god and lord: [a notification] that he persists in error, has deviated from the right way, and treads a path other than the straight path, in that he directs worship toward another than Him, while godhood belongs to none but Him.
Abū Jaʿfar [al-Ṭabarī] said: It has been mentioned that Allah began the sending down of this surah with its opening, with that with which He began: namely the denial that divinity should belong to anyone other than Him, and the describing of Himself with that with which He described Himself at its beginning — as an argument from Him thereby against a group of the Christians who came to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ from Najrān and disputed with him concerning ʿĪsā, Allah's blessings be upon him, and who went astray concerning [their conception of] Allah. Then Allah, Mighty and Exalted, sent down concerning their affair and the affair of ʿĪsā more than eighty verses of this surah, from its beginning, as an argument against them and against everyone who shared their opinion, on behalf of His prophet Muḥammad ﷺ. But they refused anything other than to persist in their error and their unbelief. Then he called them to the mutual cursing (mubāhala), but they refused that and asked whether the poll-tax for non-Muslims (jizyah) could be accepted from them; and he ﷺ accepted that from them, and they returned to their land.
Yet, although the matter is so and it was they against whom the disputation was directed, it holds that every other creature whose condition equals their condition in unbelief in Allah and in taking something other than Allah as lord, god, and object of worship, is also included under the argument with which Allah, Blessed and Exalted, refuted those concerning whom these verses were revealed, and is also refuted by the Criterion (al-furqān) by which He distinguished, for His messenger ﷺ, between him and them.
Mention of the narration of those whom we have named concerning his statement about the descent of the beginning of this surah, that it descended concerning those of the Christians whose characteristic we have described:
6543 — Muḥammad ibn Ḥumayd related to us, saying: Salama ibn al-Faḍl related to us, saying: Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq related to me, on the authority of Muḥammad ibn Jaʿfar, saying: The delegation of Najrān came to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ: sixty riders, among whom were fourteen men of their nobles, and among those fourteen were three persons to whom their affair was referred: "al-ʿĀqib", the leader of the people, the man of their judgement and their counsellor, the one without whose opinion they did not act, whose name was ʿAbd al-Masīḥ; and "al-Sayyid", their support and the administrator of their lodging and their assembly, whose name was al-Ayham; and Abū Ḥāritha ibn ʿAlqama, brother of Bakr ibn Wāʾil, their bishop, their scholar, their leader and the administrator of their school (midrās). Abū Ḥāritha had risen to esteem among them and had studied their books, until his knowledge in their religion became excellent. The kings of the Romans among the Christians had honoured him, provided him with wealth, given him servants, built churches for him and bestowed honours upon him, on account of what reached them about his knowledge and his devotion in their religion. Ibn Isḥāq said: Muḥammad ibn Jaʿfar ibn al-Zubayr said: They came to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ at Medina and entered his mosque when he had performed the afternoon prayer (al-ʿaṣr), dressed in garments of ḥibara cloth: long mantles and outer garments, in [the fine bearing of the men] of Balḥārith ibn Kaʿb. He said: One of those among the companions of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ who saw them that day says: We never saw, after them, a delegation like theirs! When their prayer-time arrived, they rose to pray in the mosque of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ; and the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: Let them be! And they prayed toward the east.
He said: The names of the fourteen among them to whom their affair was referred were: "al-ʿĀqib", that is ʿAbd al-Masīḥ; and al-Sayyid, that is al-Ayham; and "Abū Ḥāritha ibn ʿAlqama", brother of Bakr ibn Wāʾil; and Aws, and al-Ḥārith, and Zayd, and Qays, and Yazīd, and Nubayh, and Khuwaylid, and ʿAmr, and Khālid, and ʿAbd Allāh, and Yuḥannis: amid sixty riders. With the Messenger of Allah ﷺ there spoke, of them: "Abū Ḥāritha ibn ʿAlqama", and "al-ʿĀqib" ʿAbd al-Masīḥ, and "al-Ayham" al-Sayyid; and they belonged to Christianity according to the religion of the emperor (al-malik), albeit with mutual difference in their opinion. They say: "He is Allah", and they say: "He is the son of Allah", and they say: "He is the third of three" — and thus runs the statement of the Christians.
As an argument for their statement "He is Allah" they adduce that he raised the dead to life, healed the sick, gave tidings of the unseen, and fashioned out of clay something in the shape of a bird, into which he then breathed so that it became a flying bird — and all that with the permission of Allah, that He might make it a sign for mankind.
And as an argument for their statement "He is the son of Allah" they adduce, saying: "He had no known father, and he spoke in the cradle — something which no one of the sons of Adam before him has done."
And as an argument for their statement "He is the third of three" they adduce the words of Allah, Mighty and Exalted: "We have done, and We have commanded, and We have created, and We have decreed." They say: "Were He One, He would not have said: 'I have done, and I have commanded, and I have decreed, and I have created', but rather it is He, and ʿĪsā, and Maryam."
Concerning all these statements of theirs the Qurʾān descended, and Allah mentioned therein, to His prophet ﷺ, their statement.
When the two scholars had spoken to him, the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said to the two of them: Submit [to Islam]! They said: We have already submitted. He said: You have not submitted; so submit! They said: Indeed, we have already submitted before you! He said: You both lie; what holds you back from Islam is your invocation of a child for Allah, Mighty and Exalted, your worship of the cross, and your eating of pork. They said: Who then is his father, O Muḥammad? Then the Messenger of Allah ﷺ remained silent toward them and gave them no answer. Then Allah sent down concerning all this — their statement and the mutual difference in their affair — the beginning of "Surah Āl ʿImrān", up to more than eighty verses of it. He said: الم * اللَّهُ لا إِلَهَ إِلا هُوَ الْحَيُّ الْقَيُّومُ ("Alif Lām Mīm. Allah — there is no god but He, the Living, the Sustainer of all"). Thus He opened the surah with the absolving of Himself, Blessed and Exalted, from what they said, and with the declaration that to Him alone belong creating and commanding, without His having a partner therein — as a refutation of the unbelief they had invented and the partners they had set up beside Him — and as an argument against them on the basis of their own statement about their companion [ʿĪsā], that He might thereby make them know their error. So He said: "Allah, there is no god but He", that is to say: He has no partner in His affair.
6544 — Al-Muthannā related to me, saying: Isḥāq related to us, saying: Ibn Abī Jaʿfar related to us, on the authority of his father, on the authority of al-Rabīʿ, concerning His words: الم * اللَّهُ لا إِلَهَ إِلا هُوَ الْحَيُّ الْقَيُّومُ , he said: The Christians came to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ and disputed with him about ʿĪsā the son of Maryam, and said to him: Who is his father? And they spoke lie and slander about Allah — there is no god but He, He has taken neither consort nor child to Himself. Then the Prophet ﷺ said to them: Do you not know that there is no child but that it resembles its father? They said: Indeed! He said: Do you not know that our Lord is living and does not die, and that ʿĪsā is overtaken by perishing? They said: Indeed! He said: Do you not know that our Lord watches over all things, protects them, guards them and sustains them? They said: Indeed! He said: Does ʿĪsā possess any of that? They said: No! He said: Do you not know that from Allah, Mighty and Exalted, nothing is hidden, neither on earth nor in heaven? They said: Indeed! He said: Does ʿĪsā know any of that, except what was taught to him? They said: No! He said: Our Lord formed ʿĪsā in the womb as He willed; do you know that? They said: Indeed! He said: Do you not know that our Lord consumes no food, drinks no drink and produces no excrement? They said: Indeed! He said: Do you not know that ʿĪsā was carried by his mother as a woman carries, that she then bore him as a woman bears her child, that he was then nourished as a child is nourished, and that he then ate food, drank drink and produced excrement? They said: Indeed! He said: How then can this be as you have claimed? He said: Then they acknowledged [the truth], but after that they refused anything other than denial. Then Allah, Mighty and Exalted, sent down: الم * اللَّهُ لا إِلَهَ إِلا هُوَ الْحَيُّ الْقَيُّومُ .
Explanation of the words of the Exalted: الْحَيُّ الْقَيُّومُ (2) ("the Living, the Sustainer of all").
Abū Jaʿfar said: The Qurʾān-reciters differ in opinion concerning it.
The Qurʾān-reciters of the regions read it as (al-ḥayyu l-qayyūm).
ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb and Ibn Masʿūd read it, according to what is mentioned about the two of them, as (al-ḥayyu l-qayyūm).
And concerning ʿAlqama ibn Qays it is mentioned that he used to read: (al-ḥayyu l-qayyim).
6545 — Abū Kurayb related that to us, saying: ʿAthhām ibn ʿAlī related to us, saying: Al-Aʿmash related to us, on the authority of Ibrāhīm, on the authority of Abū Maʿmar, saying: I heard ʿAlqama read: "al-ḥayyu l-qayyim". I said: Did you [yourself] hear it from him? He said: That I do not know.
6546 — Abū Hishām al-Rifāʿī related to us, saying: Wakīʿ related to us, saying: Al-Aʿmash related to us, on the authority of Ibrāhīm, on the authority of Abū Maʿmar, on the authority of ʿAlqama, the same.
And concerning ʿAlqama there is transmitted, contrary to that, namely what [follows]:
6547 — Abū Hishām related to us, saying: ʿAbd Allāh related to us, saying: Shaybān related to us, on the authority of al-Aʿmash, on the authority of Ibrāhīm, on the authority of Abū Maʿmar, on the authority of ʿAlqama, that he read: "al-ḥayyu l-qayyām".
Abū Jaʿfar said: The reading which, according to us, may not be otherwise in this matter, is what the Qurʾān-reciters of the Muslims have transmitted in a widespread transmission, without mutual agreement or collusion, by way of inheritance, and what is established in their copies (maṣāḥif); and that is the reading of him who read: "al-ḥayyu l-qayyūm".
Explanation of the words of the Exalted: الْحَيُّ ("the Living").
The scholars of interpretation (ahl al-taʾwīl) differ in opinion about the meaning of His words "al-ḥayy".
Some of them said: the meaning thereof concerning Allah, exalted is His remembrance, is: that He described Himself with perpetual subsistence, and denied of Himself the death which is possible for every other one of His creatures.
Mention of who said that:
6548 — Muḥammad ibn Ḥumayd related to us, saying: Salama ibn al-Faḍl related to us, saying: Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq related to me, on the authority of Muḥammad ibn Jaʿfar ibn al-Zubayr: "al-ḥayy", the one who does not die, whereas ʿĪsā, according to their statement, died and was crucified — that is to say, according to the statement of the scholars who disputed with the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, of the Christians among the people of Najrān.
6549 — Al-Muthannā related to me, saying: Isḥāq related to us, saying: Ibn Abī Jaʿfar related to us, on the authority of his father, on the authority of al-Rabīʿ, concerning His words "al-ḥayy", he said: He says: living, He does not die.
And others said: the meaning of "al-ḥayy" which Allah, Mighty and Exalted, intended in this verse and with which He described Himself, is: that for Him the governing of all that He wills and chooses is easy, that nothing that He wills is impossible for Him, and that He is not like the one among the gods and partners who has no [power of] governance.
And others said: the meaning thereof is: that to Him belongs the abiding life, which has always belonged to Him as an attribute and will always remain so. And they said: He described Himself with life because He has life — just as He described Himself with knowledge because He has knowledge, and with power because He has power.
Abū Jaʿfar said: The meaning thereof is, according to me: that He described Himself with the abiding life that knows no perishing and no interruption, and that He denied of Himself that which befalls every living creature from Him in the way of perishing and interruption of life at the arrival of its life-term. Thus He informed His servants that He is the one who deserves the worship and the godhood of His creatures, the Living who does not die and does not perish, as everyone dies who takes a lord besides Him, and as everyone perishes who claims godhood besides Him. And He adduced against His creatures as an argument: that whoever perishes and thus vanishes, and dies and thus comes to nought, cannot be a god who deserves to be worshipped instead of the God who does not perish and does not die; and that the God is the one who abides, who does not die, does not perish and does not come to nought — and that is Allah, there is no god but He.
Explanation of the words of the Exalted: الْقَيُّومُ ("the Sustainer of all").
Abū Jaʿfar said: We have already mentioned the difference of the Qurʾān-reciters concerning it, and what we prefer thereof, and what is the ground on which we have preferred what we have preferred.
Now as for the explanation of all the ways which we have mentioned that the Qurʾān-reciters have read it, these lie close together. And the meaning thereof, in its entirety, is: the sustainer who guards all things, sustains, governs and disposes them as He wills and loves in the way of change, replacement, increase and decrease. As:
6550 — Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr related to me, saying: Abū ʿĀṣim related to us, saying: ʿĪsā ibn Maymūn related to us, saying: Ibn Abī Najīḥ related to us, on the authority of Mujāhid, concerning the words of Allah, exalted is His praise: الْحَيُّ الْقَيُّومُ , he said: the one who conducts the governance over all things.
6551 — Al-Muthannā related to me, saying: Abū Ḥudhayfa related to us, saying: Shibl related to us, on the authority of Ibn Abī Najīḥ, on the authority of Mujāhid, the same.
6552 — Al-Muthannā related to me, saying: Isḥāq related to us, saying: Ibn Abī Jaʿfar related to us, on the authority of his father, on the authority of al-Rabīʿ: "al-qayyūm", the sustainer over all things, who guards them, protects them and sustains them.
And others said: "the meaning thereof is: the abiding in His place". And they directed it to the abiding dwelling with which no vanishing and no displacement is accompanied; and [they said] that Allah, Mighty and Exalted, thereby, in His description of Himself, denied only the change of Himself, and the moving of Himself from place to place, and the occurrence of the alternation that occurs among human beings and among all the remaining creatures besides them.
Mention of who said that:
6553 — Ibn Ḥumayd related to us, saying: Salama related to us, on the authority of Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq, on the authority of Muḥammad ibn Jaʿfar ibn al-Zubayr: "al-qayyūm", the one who abides in his place in his dominion over his creation, and does not vanish — whereas ʿĪsā, according to their statement, [did] vanish, that is to say according to the statement of the scholars who disputed with the Prophet ﷺ, of the people of Najrān, concerning ʿĪsā, from the place on which he was located, and removed himself from it to another.
Abū Jaʿfar said: The correct of the two interpretations is what Mujāhid and al-Rabīʿ said, namely that this is a description of Allah, exalted is His remembrance, of Himself, that He is the one who sustains the affair of all things, in the sustaining of them, the warding off [of harm] in their favour, the guarding of them, the governing of them and the disposing of them by His power — derived from the saying of the Arabs: "so-and-so sustains the affair of this town", by which is meant: the one who takes upon himself the management of its affair.
"Al-qayyūm" is thus — since this is its meaning — [on the pattern] "al-fayʿūl" from the saying of the speaker: "Allah sustains the affair of His creation". Its origin is "al-qayywūm"; but when the first wāw of "al-qayywūm" was preceded by a resting (sākina) yāʾ, while it itself was in motion, it was converted into a yāʾ, and it was made, together with the yāʾ that preceded it, into one doubled (mushaddada) yāʾ. For thus the Arabs treat the moving wāw when a resting yāʾ precedes it.
As for "al-qayyām", its origin is "al-qaywām", and it is [on the pattern] "al-fayʿāl" from "qāma yaqūm"; the moving wāw of "qaywām" was preceded by a resting yāʾ, and the two were made together into one doubled yāʾ.
And were "al-qayyūm" [on the pattern] "faʿʿūl", then it would be "al-qawwūm"; but it is [on the pattern] "al-fayʿūl". And likewise "al-qayyām": were it [on the pattern] "al-faʿʿāl", then it would be "al-qawwām", as one says: "al-ṣawwām wa-l-qawwām", and as He, exalted is His praise, said: كُونُوا قَوَّامِينَ لِلَّهِ شُهَدَاءَ بِالْقِسْطِ [Surah al-Māʾida: 8] ("Be steadfast upholders for the sake of Allah, witnesses in justice"); but it is [on the pattern] "al-fayʿāl", and therefore one says: "al-qayyām".
As for "al-qayyim", that is [on the pattern] "al-fayʿil" from "qāma yaqūm"; the moving wāw was preceded by a resting yāʾ, and the two were made into one doubled yāʾ, as one says: "so-and-so is the master (sayyid) of his people" from "sāda yasūd", and "this is excellent (jayyid) food" from "jāda yajūd", and what resembles that.
It has only come in these expressions because thereby the superlative degree in praise was intended; thus "al-qayyūm", "al-qayyām" and "al-qayyim" were more emphatic in praise than "al-qāʾim". And ʿUmar, may Allah be pleased with him, preferred in his reading — if Allah wills — "al-qayyām", because that is the predominant form in the speech of the people of the Ḥijāz in the triliteral words that contain [as middle radical] the yāʾ or the wāw. Thus for the man who is a goldsmith (al-ṣawwāgh) they say: "al-ṣayyāgh", and for the man who travels about much (al-dawwār) they say: "al-dayyār". And it has been said that the words of Allah, exalted is His praise: لا تَذَرْ عَلَى الأَرْضِ مِنَ الْكَافِرِينَ دَيَّارًا [Surah Nūḥ: 26] ("Leave not upon the earth any of the unbelievers as an inhabitant") is in fact "dawwār", [on the pattern] "faʿʿāl" from "dāra yadūr", but that it descended in the language of the people of the Ḥijāz and was thus confirmed in the copy (muṣḥaf).
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Footnotes:
(4) The purport of the sentence is: "He informed His servants that divinity belongs exclusively to Him... as an argument from Him, exalted is His remembrance, against them".
(5) His word "wa-muʿarrifan": in the printed edition and the manuscript it stands as "wa-muʿarrif", but the correct is the naṣb ending of it, for the purport of the sentence is "He informed His servants that divinity belongs exclusively to Him... making known to whomever of His creatures...". As for the conjunctive wāw in "wa-muʿarrifan", it does not conjoin "muʿarrifan" to "iḥtijājan", for that is not permissible, but rather it conjoins to the sentence "He informed His servants...", as if he said "and He informed them of that, making known".
(6) The purport is "and making known to whomever of His creatures... persisted in the worship of an idol-image...".
(7) Al-ilāha: the worshipping of a god, as already preceded in its explanation 1: 124.
(8) In the printed edition it stands "wa-muttakhidhatahu dūna mālikihi...", which is untenable. It became unclear to him through his earlier word "which the sons of Adam worshipped", whereby he supposed that this followed upon it, and that is an error that corrupts the purport; rather it follows upon his word "persisting in the worship of an idol-image".
(9) The purport of the sentence: "and making known to whomever of His creatures... persisting in the worship of an idol-image... that he persists in error...".
(10) In the printed edition it stands "wa-munʿazil", and that is an error; the manuscript was not read correctly, in which it stands without diacritical points, and the dāl resembles the rāʾ! Inʿadala ʿani l-ṭarīq: he deviated from it and went crooked. One says: ʿadala ʿani l-shayʾ: he deviated, and ʿadala ʿani l-ṭarīq: he went astray, inclined away and his way went crooked.
(11) In the printed edition and the manuscript it stands "more than thirty verses", and that is an outright error, for the revelation [itself] mentions the number of them, and the following report mentions the number explicitly "... up to more than eighty verses".
(12) In the printed edition it stands "to the Messenger of Allah...", but I have confirmed what stands in the manuscript.
(13) In [the edition of] Ibn Hishām it stands: "the delegation of the Christians of Najrān". Thimāl al-qawm: their pillar, their refuge, the one who feeds them, gives them drink and in all this manages their affair.
(14) In Ibn Hishām it stands: "the delegation of the Christians of Najrān". Thimāl al-qawm: their pillar, their refuge, the one who feeds them, gives them drink and in all this manages their affair.
(15) Al-midrās (with kasra on the mīm and a resting dāl): that is the house in which they study their books; and by his word "the administrator of their midrās" he means their scholar who has studied the books, gives their legal opinions (fatwā) and speaks with the proof in their religion.
(16) In the printed edition it stands "in his religion", but I have confirmed what stands in the manuscript and in Ibn Hishām. Al-Ṭabarī has omitted from his narration here, on the authority of Ibn Isḥāq, what Ibn Hishām has confirmed in the Sīra 2: 222-223, as will yet come in the source-investigation.
(17) In Ibn Hishām it stands: "and when they came...".
(18) That which stands between brackets is an indispensable addition, from the text of Ibn Hishām. Al-ḥibarāt (with kasra on the ḥāʾ and fatḥa on the bāʾ) is the plural of ḥibara (with kasra on the ḥāʾ and fatḥa on the bāʾ): that is a marked type of the striped garments of Yemen, and it belongs to the excellent garments.
(19) In the printed edition and the manuscript it stands "and Khuwaylid ibn ʿAmr", and that is an error; the correct is from Ibn Hishām.
(20) In the printed edition and the manuscript it stands "and he belongs to Christianity", but the correct is from Ibn Hishām.
(21) In Ibn Hishām it stands: "that We might make him a sign for mankind", as the text of the verse.
(22) In the printed edition it stands "with something that no one has done...", and that is a corrupt statement; the correct is from the manuscript. And in Ibn Hishām it stands: "and this no one has done...".
(23) In the printed edition and the manuscript "Alif Lām Mīm" was not mentioned, and I have confirmed it from Ibn Hishām.
(24) In the printed edition it stands "with the absolving of Himself" [with the maṣdar], and I have confirmed what stands in the manuscript; in Ibn Hishām it stands: "with the hallowing of Himself".
(25) In the printed edition and the manuscript it stands "wa-raddan ʿalayhi" with the conjunctive wāw, and that is an error; the correct is from Ibn Hishām.
(26) The report 6543 — In Ibn Hishām it stands: "He has none other than Him as a partner in His affair". The report Ibn Hishām has transmitted at length in his Sīra, and it will come, after the completion of it, in the following reports. Sīrat Ibn Hishām 2: 222-225.
(27) In the manuscript and in al-Durr al-manthūr 2: 3 the text reads: "Our Lord formed ʿĪsā in the womb as He willed; He said: Do you not know that our Lord consumes no food and drinks no drink" — only al-Durr al-manthūr has omitted "He said" from this passage. As for al-Baghawī (on the margin of Tafsīr Ibn Kathīr) 2: 93: "Our Lord formed ʿĪsā in the womb as He willed, and our Lord neither consumes nor drinks". And I have left what stands in the printed edition in its state, out of fear that it derives from another copy in which this stood.
(28) In the printed edition and the manuscript it stands "that ʿĪsā was carried by a woman...", and the correct is "his mother", as in al-Durr al-manthūr and al-Baghawī.
(29) In the printed edition it stands "tashāghur" with the ghayn, and that is an error; see what preceded: 127 note 2. And see what I have said about his word "wirātha" in the foregoing, p. 127 note 3.
(30) See the explanation of "al-ḥayy" in the foregoing 5: 386, 387.
(31) The report 6548 — Sīrat Ibn Hishām 2: 225, and it is from the remainder of the foregoing report 6543.
(32) See the explanation of "al-ḥayy" in the foregoing 5: 386, 387.
(33) The report 6553 — In the manuscript and the printed edition it stands "ʿUmar ibn Isḥāq", and that is a clear error; this is the chain of transmission (isnād) of Abū Jaʿfar to "Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq", which recurs [constantly] in his tafsīr. And this report is the completion of the two foregoing reports 6543 and 6548, in Sīrat Ibn Hishām 2: 225. And in the printed edition and the manuscript stands another error: "the abiding in his place" [al-qiyām] instead of "the one who abides in his place" [al-qāʾim], and the correct is from Sīrat Ibn Hishām.
(34) See what preceded in the explanation of "al-qayyūm": 5: 388, 389, and here there is an addition concerning "al-qayyām" and "al-qayyim" that was not mentioned there.
(35) See Maʿānī al-Qurʾān of al-Farrāʾ 1: 110.
