Tafseer of The letter Saad · Saad · 38:3
How many a generation have We destroyed before them, and they [then] called out; but it was not a time for escape.
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 explanation of the saying of the Exalted: كَمْ أَهْلَكْنَا مِنْ قَبْلِهِمْ مِنْ قَرْنٍ فَنَادَوْا وَلاتَ حِينَ مَنَاصٍ (How many generations We destroyed before them! Then they cried out, but there was no longer any time to escape) (38:3).
The Exalted, whose praise is proclaimed, says: Many did We destroy before these polytheists (mushrikīn) of Quraysh — those who gave the lie to Our messenger Muḥammad ﷺ regarding the truth he brought them from Us. مِنْ قَرْنٍ means: of the communities that were before them and that followed their path by giving the lie to their messengers regarding what these brought them from Allah. فَنَادَوْا means: they lamented to their Lord, wailed, and sought help by turning to Him in repentance, when Allah's might of punishment descended upon them and they beheld His chastisement with their own eyes — fleeing from His retribution and fleeing from His painful chastisement. وَلاتَ حِينَ مَنَاصٍ means: and that was not the moment to flee from the chastisement or to escape it through repentance, for the word of the chastisement had already been confirmed against them. They showed repentance at a moment when repentance no longer availed them, and sought remission outside the time of remission.
The word مَنَاصٍ is a mafʿal-form derived from al-nawṣ. Al-nawṣ means in the language of the Arabs: the receding backward; and al-manāṣ means: the escape. Witness to this is the saying of Imruʾ al-Qays:
"Is it at the remembrance of Salmā, now that she has gone away from you, that you recede (tanūṣu) and shrink back a step before her, while you again step forward (tabūṣu)?"
That is to say: or step forward. Concerning this one says: nāṣa-nī fulān — when someone goes away from you; and bāṣa-nī — when he gets ahead of you; and nāḍa fī al-bilād (with the letter ḍād) — when he travels through the land. Al-Farrāʾ mentioned that al-ʿUqaylī recited this to him:
"As long as Isḥāq and his old man live, I care not for a loss, and the escape (manāḍ) does not weigh heavy upon me. And though she appeared from the fold of the curtain, unadorned, then I would say: a gazelle, with no ornament (khuḍāḍ) upon her."
And al-khuḍāḍ means: the ornament.
In accordance with what we have said concerning this, the people of Qurʾānic interpretation (ahl al-taʾwīl) have also spoken.
* Mention of who said that:
Ibn Bashshār related to us, saying: ʿAbd al-Raḥmān related to us, saying: Sufyān related to us, on the authority of Abū Isḥāq, on the authority of al-Tamīmī, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās concerning His saying وَلاتَ حِينَ مَنَاصٍ ; he said: it is not a time of springing up, nor a time of fleeing.
Abū Kurayb related to us, saying: Ibn ʿAṭiyya related to us, saying: Isrāʾīl related to us, on the authority of Abū Isḥāq, on the authority of al-Tamīmī, he said: I asked Ibn ʿAbbās: What is your opinion concerning the saying of Allah وَلاتَ حِينَ مَنَاصٍ ? He said: it is not a time of springing up nor of fleeing — the restraining of the people.
Ibn Ḥumayd related to us, saying: Ḥakkām related to us, on the authority of ʿAnbasa, on the authority of Abū Isḥāq al-Hamdānī, on the authority of al-Tamīmī, he said: I asked Ibn ʿAbbās about the saying of Allah وَلاتَ حِينَ مَنَاصٍ ; he said: it is not a time of springing up nor of fleeing.
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 وَلاتَ حِينَ مَنَاصٍ ; he said: it is not a time of springing up nor of fleeing.
ʿAlī related to me, saying: ʿAbd Allāh related to us, saying: Muʿāwiya related to me, on the authority of ʿAlī, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, concerning His saying وَلاتَ حِينَ مَنَاصٍ ; he says: it is not a time of seeking help (maghāth).
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 saying of Allah وَلاتَ حِينَ مَنَاصٍ ; he said: this is not a time of fleeing.
Bishr related to us, saying: Yazīd related to us, saying: Saʿīd related to us, on the authority of Qatāda فَنَادَوْا وَلاتَ حِينَ مَنَاصٍ ; he said: the people called out at a time inopportune for calling, and they desired to show repentance when they beheld Allah's chastisement with their own eyes, but that was not accepted from them.
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 saying وَلاتَ حِينَ مَنَاصٍ ; he said: when the chastisement descended upon them, they were unable to return to repentance, nor to flee from the chastisement.
It was related to me on the authority of al-Ḥusayn, he said: I heard Abū Muʿādh say: ʿUbayd related to us, saying: I heard al-Ḍaḥḥāk say concerning His saying فَنَادَوْا وَلاتَ حِينَ مَنَاصٍ ; he says: and it is not a time of fleeing.
Yūnus related to me, saying: Ibn Wahb informed us, saying: Ibn Zayd said concerning His saying وَلاتَ حِينَ مَنَاصٍ : it is not a time of a refuge by which they are saved. The accusative (naṣb) of ḥīn in His saying وَلاتَ حِينَ مَنَاصٍ comes about because lāta is compared to laysa, whereby the subject (the ism) of the verb is kept hidden.
Some grammarians of the school of Basra have transmitted the nominative (rafʿ) with lāta in ḥīn. He claimed that some read "wa-lāta ḥīnu manāṣin" with rafʿ, and placed this on a par with laysa, as though one said: laysa, with ḥīn as the hidden subject. He said, and in poetry it runs:
"They sought our reconciliation, but it was no time for it (wa-lāta awāni), and we answered that it was no time of continuance."
He connected awān in the genitive (jarr) and kept the ḥīn hidden up to awān, because lāta occurs solely with ḥīn (the notion of time). He said: and lāta occurs only in connection with ḥīn. Some grammarians of the school of Kufa said: there are Arabs who annex lāta to a word (iḍāfa) and thereby produce the genitive (khafḍ); and he mentioned that he recited:
"lāta sāʿati mandami" (there is no time of repentance)
with the genitive of sāʿa. He said: but the rule is that one produces the accusative with it, because it has the meaning of laysa; and he mentioned that he recited:
"He remembered the love for Laylā, but it was no time (lāta ḥīnan), and grayness had already appeared and cut off the companion."
He said: and someone recited to me:
"They sought our reconciliation, but it was no time for it (wa-lāta awānin), and we answered that it was no time of continuance."
with the genitive of awānin. He said: and lāta occurs with all designations of time.
There has been disagreement concerning the manner in which one pauses (al-waqf) at the reading لاتَ حينَ . Some philologists said: one pauses upon it as "wa-lāt" with the tāʾ, and then begins anew with "ḥīna manāṣ." They said: it is merely the lā which has the meaning of "mā," and that as a negation, connected to the tāʾ — just as thumma was connected to it, so that one said thummata, and just as rubba was connected, so that one said rubbata.
Others among them said: it is rather a hāʾ added to lā, and one pauses upon it as "lāh," because it is a hāʾ added before the pause (waqf) — just as it is added in their saying:
"The compassionate ones (al-ʿāṭifūnah) at the moment when there is no compassionate one, and the feeding ones (al-muṭʿimūnah) at the moment: where then is the food?"
When it is then connected, it becomes a tāʾ. Some of them said: one pauses upon the "lā," and then begins with "taḥīn," and he claimed that it is the rule of the tāʾ that it comes at the beginning of ḥīn, awān and al-ān. In support of his view he adduces the saying of the poet:
"Before the day of captivity he gave Jumāna a gift, so connect yourself then with us, as you claimed, now (talāna)."
[He holds] that here there is no "lā" to which a hāʾ or tāʾ would be connected; and he says: the saying لاتَ حِينَ is in reality laysa ḥīn, and lāta has not been found in any place in the language.
The correct judgment concerning this is, in our opinion: that the "lā" is a particle of negation like mā, and that, when it is connected, it becomes a tāʾ in the connection — just as the Arabs have done with the particles. They have, however, applied this with the lengthened "lā" (al-mudda) solely with designations of time and not with other words. There is no ground for the reasoning by which the one argued who said: that he has not found lāta in any place in the language of the Arabs, so that it would be permissible to construe His saying وَلاتَ حِينَ in that direction — for one uses a word in one place, and then uses it in another place differing from that. That, in analogy (qiyās), is not further removed from the correct than their saying: raʾaytu with the hamza, after which they said: fa-anā arāhu without the hamza, on account of the usage that had become established among them, and what is comparable to that of the particles which occur in one place in a certain form and then in another place differing from that, according to the usage that is current among the Arabs amongst themselves.
As for what he adduced in support from the saying of the poet "wa-kamā zaʿamta talāna," that rests with him upon an error in the interpretation of the word. For the poet meant by his saying "wa-ṣilīnā kamā zaʿamti talāna": connect yourself with us as you now (al-ān) claimed. He dropped the hamza of anti, so that the tāʾ of zaʿamti met the nūn of anti — and that was quiescent (sākin), so that it fell away in the pronunciation and the tāʾ of anti remained. Then he dropped the hamza of al-ān, so that the word in pronunciation took on the form of talān. The second tāʾ is in reality separate from al-ān, for it is the tāʾ of anti. As for his claim that he saw the tāʾ connected to ḥīn in the copy (of the Qurʾān) that is called al-Imām: what the copies of the Muslims in their various regions have transmitted is the binding proof for the people of Islam, and the tāʾ stands separate from ḥīn in all those copies. Therefore we have preferred that the pause fall upon the hāʾ in His saying وَلاتَ حِينَ .
