Tafseer of Those drawn up in Ranks · As-Saaffaat · 37:130
"Peace upon Elias."
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: سَلامٌ عَلَى إِلْ يَاسِينَ ("Peace be upon Il-Yāsīn") (37:130).
The Exalted, whose mention is exalted, says: a granting of security from Allah to the family of Yāsīn.
The Qurʾān-reciters have differed over the reading of His saying: سَلامٌ عَلَى إِلْ يَاسِينَ ("Peace be upon Il-Yāsīn"). Most of the reciters of Mecca, Basra, and Kūfa read it: ( سَلامُ عَلى إلْياسِينَ ) with a kasra on the alif of "Ilyāsīn." Some of them then said: it is the name of Ilyās, and they said: he was called by two names, Ilyās and Ilyāsīn, just as [is the case with] Ibrāhīm and Ibrāhām. As proof for this they adduced that everything in this sūra that follows His word سَلامٌ ("Peace") is a peace upon the prophet who has been mentioned, not upon his family; and likewise it is with Ilyāsīn: it is merely a peace upon Ilyās, not upon his family.
Some of the scholars of the Arabic language said: Ilyās is a name from among the Hebrew names, like their words Ismāʿīl and Isḥāq, and the alif and the lām form part of it. And he said: were you to make it an Arabic word, derived from al-ils, you would put it into an ifʿāl-form, like al-ikhrāj ("the bringing out") and al-idkhāl ("the bringing in"), and it would then be [grammatically] declined (with tanwīn). And he said: He said, "Peace be upon Ilyāsīn," and made it with a nūn. And with the foreign among the names the Arabs do indeed do something like this: they say Mīkāl, Mīkāʾīl, and Mīkāʾīn. And among the Banū Asad they say: "This Ismāʿīn has come," while the rest of the Arabs say it with a lām. He said: And one of the Banū Numayr recited to me [a verse], concerning a desert lizard he had caught:
The master of the market says, when we came: "This, by the Lord of the House, is Isrāʾīn!" (1)
He said: This, then, is like His word "Ilyāsīn." He said: And if you wish, you may take "Ilyāsīn" as a plural, so that you make his companions share in his name, just as you say to a people whose chief is al-Muhallab: "The Muhālaba and the Muhallabūn have come to you." It would then stand on equal footing with their words al-Ashʿarīn (with lightening / without tashdīd) and al-Saʿdīn (with lightening) and the like. The poet said:
I am the son of Saʿd, the lord of the Saʿdīn (2)
He said: And with two [persons], the one is joined to the other when the latter is the better known as a name, as in the saying of the poet:
The two Zahdams gave me an ill reward, while I was the man who used to be rewarded with honor. (3)
And the name of one of the two is Zahdam. And another said:
May Allah requite the two one-eyed men therein with blame, and Farwa, [who was like] the dung of the lopsided, crook-beaked cow. (4)
And the name of one of the two is Aʿwar ("the one-eyed").
Most of the reciters of Medina read that: "Salāmun ʿalā āli Yāsīn" ("Peace be upon the family of Yāsīn"), with the separation of "āl" from "Yāsīn." Some of them explained that in the sense of: peace be upon the family of Muḥammad. And it has been transmitted from some of the reciters that he read His saying وَإِنَّ إِلْيَاسَ ("And verily Ilyās") with the elision of the hamza in "Ilyās," and that he made the alif and the lām fall upon "Yās" as the definite article, and he said: his name was only "Yās," to which an alif and a lām were added. He then read accordingly: "Salāmun ʿalā Ilyāsīn."
The correct view concerning the reading of this, according to us, is the reading of him who read it: سَلامٌ عَلَى إِلْ يَاسِينَ ("Peace be upon Il-Yāsīn") with a kasra on its alif, on the pattern of "Idrāsīn." For Allah, the Exalted whose mention is exalted, in every place in this sūra where He has mentioned one of His prophets — Allah's blessings be upon them — has announced that a peace rests upon him, not upon his family. So too the peace in this place ought to be upon Ilyās, like His peace upon the rest of His prophets, not upon his family, in the manner of its meaning which we have expounded.
And if anyone supposes that Ilyāsīn is something other than Ilyās, then in what we have set forth of the argumentation of him who maintained that Ilyāsīn [is identical to] Ilyās there is sufficient [proof], without there being any need to add anything to it.
Moreover, there is that which 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: سَلامٌ عَلَى إِلْ يَاسِينَ ("Peace be upon Il-Yāsīn"), he said: [that is] Ilyās.
And in the reading of ʿAbd Allāh ibn Masʿūd: "Salāmun ʿalā Idrāsīn" — in it lies a clear indication of the incorrectness of the statement of him who said: by this is meant "peace be upon the family of Muḥammad," and of the unsoundness of the reading of him who read: "Wa-inna Ilyāsa" by joining the nūn of "inna" to "al-Yās," and by taking the alif and the lām therein as added for the definition of the name which is "Yās." That is because ʿAbd Allāh used to say: Ilyās is Idrīs, and he read: "Wa-inna Idrīsa la-mina l-mursalīn," and then he read accordingly: "Salāmun ʿalā Idrāsīn," just as the others read: سَلامٌ عَلَى إِلْ يَاسِينَ ("Peace be upon Il-Yāsīn") with the separation of "al-āl" from "Yāsīn." And comparable to the naming of Ilyās with "Il-Yāsīn" is [the word]: وَشَجَرَةً تَخْرُجُ مِنْ طُورِ سَيْنَاءَ ("And a tree that issues from Mount Sīnāʾ"), [after which] He then said in another place: وَطُورِ سِينِينَ ("And Mount Sīnīn"), while it is one and the same place that is called by those [two names].
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Footnotes:
(1) These two verses are among the proof-texts of al-Farrāʾ in Maʿānī al-Qurʾān (photocopy of the university copy, p. 274). He said: And His word "Wa-inna Ilyāsa la-mina l-mursalīn": it is mentioned that he was a prophet, and that this name is a name from among the Hebrew names, like their words Ismāʿīl and Isḥāq, and the alif and the lām form part of it. And were you to make it an Arabic word, derived from the alif, you would put it into an ifʿāl-form, like al-ikhrāj and al-idkhāl, and it would be [grammatically] declined (that is, with tanwīn). Then He said: "Salāmun ʿalā Ilyāsīn," and made it with a nūn. And with the foreign among the names the Arabs do indeed do something like this: they say Mīkāl, Mīkāʾīl, and Mīkāʾīn, with a nūn. And this is among the Banū Asad; they say: "This Ismāʿīn has come," with a nūn, while the rest of the Arabs say it with a lām. He said: And one of the Banū Numayr recited to me, concerning a desert lizard that one of them had caught: "The master of the market says..." — the two verses. This, then, is a form for His word "Ilyāsīn." In Majāz al-Qurʾān (photocopy of the university copy, leaf 210-1) Abū ʿUbayda said: "Salāmun ʿalā Ilyāsīn": that is to say, peace be upon Ilyās and his family, and upon the adherents of his religion altogether, without the addition of the yāʾ on the basis of number [plural]. The poet said:
The victory of the two beloved ones suffices me — it suffices me!
Thus did ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Zubayr [treat the name] Abū Khubayb [as a diminutive] and [treat] those who shared his opinion as a number [plural], and he did not join them together with the yāʾ — that is, he did not reckon them to him by means of the nisba-yāʾ — so that he would say "Khubaybiyyūn." And Abū ʿAmr ibn al-ʿAlāʾ said: a herald called out on the day of al-Kilāb and said: "The Yazīds have perished," meaning thereby Yazīd ibn ʿAbd al-Madān, Yazīd ibn Hawbar, and Yazīd ibn Makhrama, the Ḥārithites. And one says: "The Ḥārithites and the Ashʿarites have come to you."
(2) This too is among the proof-texts of al-Farrāʾ in Maʿānī al-Qurʾān; it comes after the proof-text that precedes it. Al-Farrāʾ said, after his preceding words that "Ilyāsīn" among the Banū Asad is a variant of "Ilyās": And if you wish, you may take "Ilyāsīn" as a plural, so that you make his companions share in his name, just as you say to the people whose chief is al-Muhallab: "The Muhālaba and the Muhallabūn have come to you," so that it stands on equal footing with His word: al-Ashʿarīn and al-Saʿdīn and the like. The poet said: "I am the son of Saʿd..." — the verse. And this resembles the words of Abū ʿUbayda in Majāz al-Qurʾān, which we have rendered at the end of the preceding proof-text.
(3) This is the third proof-text for the reading of His word "Salāmun ʿalā Ilyāsīn." Al-Farrāʾ and Abū ʿUbayda have both transmitted it in their respective books. Al-Farrāʾ said, after his preceding words: And with two [persons] it is more usual that the one is joined to the other, when the latter is the better known as a name, as in the saying of the poet: "The two Zahdams gave me... the verse." And the name of one of the two is Zahdam. And Abū ʿUbayda said: And likewise one says it with two [persons]. And he recited the verse and attributed it to Qays ibn Zuhayr. Then he said after it: And they are only Zahdam and Kardam, the two ʿAbsites: two brothers. And to ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib it was said: "We ask you for the sunna of the two ʿUmars" — meaning thereby Abū Bakr and ʿUmar, may Allah be pleased with them both. Then Abū ʿUbayda mentioned thereafter yet another way and said: The people of Medina say: "Salāmun ʿalā āli Yāsīn," that is to say: upon the family of Yāsīn. Saʿd ibn Abī Waqqāṣ, Abū ʿAmr, and the people of Sham said: they are his people and whoever was with him upon his religion. And the Shīʿa said: the family of Muḥammad, who are the people of his house. And they adduced as proof that you make a diminutive of "al-āl" and turn it into "uhayl." End [of quotation]. And after his preceding words on the subject he mentioned yet another way and said: And some have read: "Wa-inna Ilyāsa," whereby one makes his name "Yās," to which the alif and the lām have been added. Then they read: "Salāmun ʿalā āli Yāsīn." In the tafsīr of al-Kalbī there came the explanation: "upon the family of Yāsīn": upon the family of Muḥammad, peace and blessings be upon him. And the first [view] is the most in accordance with the correct one, and Allah knows best, because in the reading of ʿAbd Allāh (that is, Ibn Masʿūd) there stands: "Wa-inna Idrīsa la-mina l-mursalīn," "Salāmun ʿalā Idrāsīn." And a witness to the correctness of this may be His word: "Wa-shajaratan takhruju min ṭūri Sīnāʾ," after which He then said in another place: "Wa-ṭūri Sīnīn," while it is one and the same meaning. And Allah knows best.
(4) This is the fourth proof-text on the same subject; al-Farrāʾ recited it in Maʿānī al-Qurʾān, after the preceding [one]. And the author of al-Lisān recited it under [the root] ḍjm, and attributed it to al-Akhṭal, with the reading "malāma" ("blame") in place of "dhamāma" ("blameworthiness"). He said: al-ḍajam is the crookedness in the nose, which inclines toward one of its two sides. And al-mutaḍājim is the one with a crooked mouth. Al-Akhṭal said: "Jazā llāhu... the verse." And Farwa is the name of a man. End [of quotation]. And the locus of the proof therein is his word "al-aʿwarayn" ("the two one-eyed men"), entirely as in the preceding.
