Tafseer of Those drawn up in Ranks · As-Saaffaat · 37:145
But We threw him onto the open shore while he was ill.
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.
His statement فَنَبَذْنَاهُ بِالْعَرَاءِ ("Then We cast him onto the barren shore") means: We cast him onto the open expanse of the land, where nothing covered him, neither tree nor anything else. To this belongs the saying of the poet:
"I raised a foot without fearing that it would stumble for her sake, and in the barren, open land I cast off my clothes."
By "the land" he means: the open expanse.
And the exegetes (ahl al-taʾwīl) have said approximately the same as what we have said concerning this.
* Mention of who said that:
ʿAlī related to me, saying: Abū Ṣāliḥ related to me, saying: Muʿāwiya related to me, on the authority of ʿAlī, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, concerning His statement فَنَبَذْنَاهُ بِالْعَرَاءِ ("Then We cast him onto the barren shore"); he says: We cast him onto the coast.
Bishr related to us, saying: Yazīd related to us, saying: Saʿīd related to us, on the authority of Qatāda, concerning فَنَبَذْنَاهُ بِالْعَرَاءِ ("Then We cast him onto the barren shore"): onto a land in which there was nothing, nor any vegetation.
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, concerning His statement بِالْعَرَاءِ ("onto the barren shore"); he said: onto the land. And His statement وَهُوَ سَقِيمٌ ("while he was ill") means: and he was like a newborn child: raw flesh.
As Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥusayn related to us, saying: Aḥmad related to us, saying: Asbāṭ related to us, on the authority of al-Suddī, concerning وَهُوَ سَقِيمٌ ("while he was ill"): like the form of a newborn child.
Ibn Ḥumayd related to us, saying: Salama related to us, on the authority of Ibn Isḥāq, on the authority of Yazīd ibn Ziyād, on the authority of ʿAbd Allāh ibn Abī Salama, on the authority of Saʿīd ibn Jubayr, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās; he said: it — that is, the great fish — brought him out, until it spewed him onto the coast of the sea, and it cast him down like a newborn child, without anything lacking in his form.
Yūnus related to me, saying: Ibn Wahb informed us, saying: Ibn Zayd said: the great fish did not spew him out until he had become like a newborn child; the flesh and the bones had grown back again, so that he became like a newborn child, and it cast him down in a place, and Allah caused a gourd plant (yaqṭīn) to grow over him.
