Tafseer of The Groups · Az-Zumar · 39:56
Lest a soul should say, "Oh [how great is] my regret over what I neglected in regard to Allah and that I was among the mockers."
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: Opdat een ziel niet zou zeggen: "O wat een spijt heb ik om wat ik verwaarloosd heb jegens Allah, en voorwaar, ik behoorde tot de spotters." (39:56)
The Exalted, whose mention is lofty, says: and turn back in repentance to your Lord and submit yourselves to Him ( so that a soul should not say ) — meaning: so that no soul should say — ( "Oh, what regret I have for what I neglected toward Allah" ). And this is comparable to His saying: En Hij heeft op de aarde stevige bergen geworpen, opdat zij niet met jullie zou wankelen (16:15), meaning: lest it should sway with you. For "an," where that is its meaning, stands in the position of the accusative (naṣb).
And His saying ( oh, what regret ) means that it says: oh, what remorse.
As Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥusayn related to me, he said: Aḥmad ibn al-Mufaḍḍal related to me, he said: Asbāṭ related to us, on the authority of al-Suddī, concerning His saying ( oh, what regret ), he said: the remorse. And the alif in His saying ( yā ḥasratā ) is the marker of the speaker; what is actually meant is: yā ḥasratī ("oh, my regret"), but the Arabs change the yāʾ that marks the noun of the speaker in supplication into an alif, and they say: yā waylatā and yā nadamā, pronouncing that in the form of the vocative. And sometimes it is said: yā ḥasrata upon the servants, as it is said: yā lahf and yā lahfā over him. And al-Farrāʾ mentioned that Abū Tharwān recited to him the following:
You visit her, but I do not visit your women — oh, what regret over the children of the slave-women (al-imāʾ), the gatherers of firewood!
With the kasra (genitive vocalization), as one places the kasra in the vocative when the speaker adds it to himself. And sometimes they add the hāʾ after this alif, and then they sometimes pronounce it with kasra and sometimes with ḍamma (nominative). And al-Farrāʾ mentioned that some members of the Banū Asad recited the following:
O Lord, O my Lord, You alone do I ask for ʿAfrāʾ, O my Lord, before the appointed time —
with kasra. He said: and the kasra occurs more frequently in their speech, except in their expression yā hanāh and yā hantāh, for in that the ḍamma occurs more frequently than the kasra, because it occurs abundantly in speech, so that it became as if it were a single word.
And His saying: ( for what I neglected toward Allah ) — He says: for that which I neglected of acting upon what Allah commanded me, and in which I fell short in this world regarding obedience to Allah.
And in accordance with what we have said about this, the interpreters (ahl al-taʾwīl) have spoken.
* Mention of who said that:
Ibn Ḥumayd related to us, he said: Ḥakkām related to us, on the authority of ʿAnbasa, on the authority of Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān, on the authority of al-Qāsim ibn Abī Bazza, on the authority of Mujāhid, concerning His saying ( oh, what regret I have for what I neglected toward Allah ), he said: in the matter of Allah.
Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr related to me, he said: Abū ʿĀṣim related to us, he said: ʿĪsā related to us; and al-Ḥārith related to me, he said: al-Ḥasan related to us, he said: Warqāʾ related to us — both of them — on the authority of Ibn Abī Najīḥ, on the authority of Mujāhid, concerning the saying of Allah: ( for what I neglected toward Allah ), he said: in the matter of Allah.
Muḥammad related to us, he said: Aḥmad related to us, he said: Asbāṭ related to us, on the authority of al-Suddī, concerning His saying: ( for what I neglected toward Allah ), he said: what I left undone of the matter of Allah.
And His saying: ( and indeed, I was among the mockers ) — He says: and indeed, I was among those who mocked the matter of Allah, His Book, His messenger, and the believers therein.
And in accordance with what we have said about this, the interpreters (ahl al-taʾwīl) have spoken.
* Mention of who said that:
Bishr related to us, he said: Yazīd related to us, he said: Saʿīd related to us, on the authority of Qatāda, concerning His saying: ( So that a soul should not say: "Oh, what regret I have for what I neglected toward Allah, and indeed, I was among the mockers" ), he said: it was not enough for him that he neglected obedience to Allah, until he began to mock the people of obedience to Allah. He said: this is the saying of a group among them.
Muḥammad related to us, he said: Aḥmad related to us, he said: Asbāṭ related to us, on the authority of al-Suddī: ( and indeed, I was among the mockers ) — He says: among those who mocked the Prophet ﷺ, the Book, and that with which he came.
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The footnotes:
(4) The verse is by Abū Tharwān al-ʿUklī. It belongs to the testimonia that al-Farrāʾ cites in Maʿānī al-Qurʾān (folio 285). He said: and His saying "yā ḥasratā, yā waylatā" is added to the speaker: the Arabs change the yāʾ into an alif in every expression whose meaning is a cry for help, which comes out in the form of the vocative. And sometimes they said: yā ḥasrata, just as they said: yā lahf over so-and-so, and yā lahfā over him. He said: Abū Tharwān al-ʿUklī recited to me: "You visit her, but I do not visit..." the verse — end. He placed the kasra as the one calling places it when the speaker adds it to himself. And al-imāʾ are the slave-women of bondage (al-raqīq) who are taken for service and labor with their masters; the singular is ama. And al-ḥawāṭib is the plural of ḥāṭiba, and that is she who is sent out to gather firewood for the fire. And al-lahf, with sukūn on the hāʾ or with fatḥa, is: grief, sorrow, and anger.
(5) The verse belongs to the testimonia of al-Farrāʾ in Maʿānī al-Qurʾān (folio 286). He said, after his words which we cited in the preceding testimonium concerning the inflection of that which is added to the yāʾ of the speaker after the omission of the yāʾ or its change into an alif: and sometimes the Arabs added the hāʾ (the hāʾ of the pause) after the alif that is in "ḥasratā," and then they pronounced it once with kasra and once with ḍamma. He said: Abū Faqʿas recited to me, from one of the Banū Asad: "O Lord, O my Lord, I ask... the two verses," with kasra. He said: and Abū Faqʿas recited to me:
Oh, what a welcome with the pebbles of a sating [camel], when it came I brought it to the woman drawing water —
and the kasra occurs more frequently in the speech of the Arabs, except in their expression yā hanāh and yā hunaytāh, and the ḍamma occurs in this more frequently than the kasra, because it occurs abundantly in speech, so that it became like a single vocative word (that is, as if the entire expression became one word in the vocative). And in Khizānat al-adab al-kubrā of al-Baghdādī (3:263) it states: and this is from a rajaz poem that Abū Muḥammad al-Aswad al-Aʿrābī cited in Ḍāllat al-adīb, and he attributed it to no one. And it also states therein: and al-Zamakhsharī said in al-Mufaṣṣal: it is the right of the hāʾ of the pause that it be at rest (sākin), and vocalizing it is an error, as in Iṣlāḥ al-manṭiq of Ibn al-Sikkīt, from his saying:
* yā marḥabāh bi-jimār nājiya — which belongs to that which cannot be relied upon for analogy and for the usage of the eloquent. And the excuse of the one who said that is: that he equated the connection (al-waṣl) with the pause (al-waqf), with the equating of the hāʾ of the pause to the hāʾ of the pronoun. End.
