Tabari (1 passage)

1. Full Dutch translation of Tabari's text

   The statement concerning the explanation of His word, the Exalted: فَاطِرُ السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالأَرْضِ جَعَلَ لَكُمْ مِنْ أَنْفُسِكُمْ أَزْوَاجًا وَمِنَ الأَنْعَامِ أَزْوَاجًا يَذْرَؤُكُمْ فِيهِ لَيْسَ كَمِثْلِهِ شَيْءٌ وَهُوَ السَّمِيعُ الْبَصِيرُ (11) ("The Originator of the heavens and the earth. He has made for you, from yourselves, mates, and among the cattle, mates; thereby He multiplies you. There is nothing like Him, and He is the All-Hearing, the All-Seeing.")

   He, exalted is His mention, says: فَاطِرُ السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالأرْضِ , the Originator of the seven heavens and the earth. As:

   Muḥammad related to us, saying: Aḥmad related to us, saying: Asbāṭ related to us, on the authority of al-Suddī, concerning His word: فَاطِرُ السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالأرْضِ , he said: the Originator.

   And His statement: جَعَلَ لَكُمْ مِنْ أَنْفُسِكُمْ أَزْوَاجًا ("He has made for you, from yourselves, mates") — He, exalted is His mention, says: your Lord has given you mates from yourselves. He, glorified is His praise, said مِنْ أَنْفُسِكُمْ ("from yourselves") only, because He created Eve from a rib of Adam, so that she came forth from the men. وَمِنَ الأنْعَامِ أَزْوَاجًا ("and among the cattle, mates") — He, glorified is His praise, says: and He has made for you mates among the cattle: of the sheep two, of the goats two, of the camels two, and of the cattle two, male and female, and of every kind thereof. يَذْرَؤُكُمْ فِيهِ ("thereby He multiplies you") — He says: He creates you amid that which He has given you of mates, and He provides for you by means of that which He has given you of cattle. The scholars of interpretation (taʾwīl) differed concerning the meaning of His statement: يَذْرَؤُكُمْ فِيهِ in this place. Some of them said: its meaning is: He creates you therein.

   * Mention of who said that:

   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 of them — on the authority of Ibn Abī Najīḥ, on the authority of Mujāhid, concerning His word: يَذْرَؤُكُمْ فِيهِ , he said: generation after generation of mankind and of the cattle.

   Muḥammad ibn al-Muthannā related to us, saying: Aḥmad related to us, saying: Asbāṭ related to us, on the authority of al-Suddī, concerning His word: يَذْرَؤُكُمْ , he said: He creates you.

   Ibn Ḥumayd related to us, saying: 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 word: يَذْرَؤُكُمْ فِيهِ , he said: generation after generation of mankind and of the cattle.

   Muḥammad ibn al-Muthannā related to us, saying: Muḥammad ibn Jaʿfar related to us, saying: Shuʿba related to us, on the authority of Manṣūr, that he said concerning this verse: يَذْرَؤُكُمْ فِيهِ , he said: He creates you.

   Others said: no, its meaning is: He provides for you therein.

   * Mention of who said that:

   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 word: جَعَلَ لَكُمْ مِنْ أَنْفُسِكُمْ أَزْوَاجًا وَمِنَ الأنْعَامِ أَزْوَاجًا يَذْرَؤُكُمْ فِيهِ , he says: He makes therein for you a provision by which you live.

   Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Aʿlā related to us, saying: Muḥammad ibn Thawr related to us, on the authority of Maʿmar, on the authority of Qatāda: يَذْرَؤُكُمْ فِيهِ , he said: He provides for you therein.

   Bishr related to us, saying: Yazīd related to us, saying: Saʿīd related to us, on the authority of Qatāda, concerning His word: يَذْرَؤُكُمْ فِيهِ , he said: a provision from Allah by which He gives you life. These two opinions, although they differ in wording on the part of those who voiced them, may perhaps both be led back to one and the same meaning; namely, that the one who says its meaning is "He provides for you therein" intends by that statement: He gives you life through your provision thereby, just as He brings to life the one whom He had not yet created through forming him and breathing the spirit into him, until he lives on alive. I have already explained earlier the meaning of Allah's bringing forth (dharʾ) of the creation, with the proofs for it that make repetition unnecessary.

   And His statement: لَيْسَ كَمِثْلِهِ شَيْءٌ ("there is nothing like Him") admits of two possibilities of interpretation. The first is that its meaning is: He is not like any thing, and the word "mithl" (likeness) was inserted into the expression to strengthen the wording, when the wording differs between the word and the kāf, while both have one and the same meaning, as it was said:

   "I have not defiled myself with anything that you abhor" (1)

   Here, upon "mā" — a particle of negation — "in" was inserted, which is likewise a particle of negation, on account of the difference in wording between the two, although their meaning is in agreement, to strengthen the expression; and as Aws ibn Ḥajar said:

   "And slain ones like the trunks of palm trees, drenched by a plunging, gushing rain" (2)

   Its meaning is: like the trunks of palm trees. And as another said:

   "Saʿd ibn Zayd — when you behold their excellence, there is none among mankind like them" (3)

   The second interpretation is that the meaning is: there is nothing like Him, with the kāf being the element inserted into the expression, as in the saying of the rajaz poet:

   "And hearthstones, like those which are made into cooking-stones" (4)

   Here, upon the kāf a kāf was inserted to strengthen the comparison; and as another said:

   "The ghayādīq jostle one another along the way, while the neck draws itself back, like an egg upon a mountaintop" (5)

   Here the kāf was inserted together with "ʿan." We have already explained this in a place other than this with an exposition more extensive than this, and therefore we have here confined ourselves in the exposition of it.

   And His statement: وَهُوَ السَّمِيعُ الْبَصِيرُ ("and He is the All-Hearing, the All-Seeing") — He, glorified is His praise, says, while describing Himself with that which He truly is, and He means Himself: the All-Hearing of that which His creatures utter of words, the All-Seeing of their deeds; nothing of that remains hidden from Him, and the knowledge of anything of it does not escape Him, and He encompasses the whole of it, and He keeps precise account of the small and the great of it. لِتُجْزَى كُلُّ نَفْسٍ بِمَا كَسَبَتْ ("that every soul may be recompensed for what it has earned") of good or evil.

   (Footnotes: (1) This is the first hemistich of a verse by al-Nābigha al-Dhubyānī; the second hemistich reads: "in that case, may my hand no longer be able to raise the whip." (See Mukhtār al-shiʿr al-jāhilī with the commentary of Muṣṭafā al-Saqqā, al-Ḥalabī edition.) The transmission of the first hemistich therein reads: "I have said nothing evil of what has been charged against me." The commentator says: he means: if I had said this which has reached you, then may my hand be paralyzed, so that I can no longer raise the whip, however light it may be. In the Lisān and the Tāj it is transmitted as the author transmits it. Al-Zabīdī says: one says "mā nadiyanī min fulān shayʾun akrahuhu," that is: nothing of him has defiled or touched me. The place of the proof in the verse according to the author is his statement "mā in," where the particle of negation "mā" was inserted upon the particle of negation "in" on account of the difference in their wording, to strengthen the expression. This is analogous to the insertion of the comparative kāf upon the word "mithl" — which expresses comparison — in His word, the Exalted: "there is nothing like Him," to strengthen the expression, on account of the difference between the two wordings. (2) This proof is from the words of Aws ibn Ḥajar al-Tamīmī, a famous pre-Islamic poet; it is a proof like the preceding, in which the comparative instrument "the kāf" was inserted upon its sister in meaning, "mithl," on account of the difference in their wording, to strengthen the expression, and this is analogous to "mā" in His word, the Exalted: "there is nothing like Him." (3) I have not been able to determine the poet of this verse. The author has cited it as a proof for the joint insertion of the two comparative instruments (the kāf and mithl) upon one and the same thing, so that it is in meaning equal to the two preceding proofs. (4) This is a verse from several verses of the mashṭūr al-rajaz, attributed to Khiṭām al-Mujāshiʿī; al-Jawharī in the Ṣiḥāḥ and al-Ṣiqillī in his commentary on the verses of the Īḍāḥ of al-Fārisī attribute it to Humayān ibn Quḥāfa. The proof-verse is the last of them. Therein: al-ṣāliyāt are the hearthstones upon which the cooking pots are set and which have been scorched by the fire until they have become black; and yuʾthafayn means: they are made into cooking-stones for the pot — this is the plural of uthfiyya; one says "athfā al-qidra yathfīhā": he made cooking-stones for it. The place of the proof is his statement "kamā," for the first kāf is a particle and the second is a noun with the meaning of "mithl." The meaning is: nothing remained but erected stones, like the cooking-stones. The author has cited it as a proof for the insertion of the kāf upon the kāf to strengthen the expression. (5) I have not been able to determine the poet of the verse, and its meaning has not become entirely clear to me; perhaps there is a copyist's error in it. The place of the proof in it is clear: it is the insertion of "ʿan" upon the kāf in his statement "ka-bayḍatin"; either the kāf is redundant, that is "ʿan bayḍatin," or the kāf is a noun with the meaning of "mithl" in the position of the genitive.)

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   القول في تأويل قوله تعالى : فَاطِرُ السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالأَرْضِ جَعَلَ لَكُمْ مِنْ أَنْفُسِكُمْ أَزْوَاجًا وَمِنَ الأَنْعَامِ أَزْوَاجًا يَذْرَؤُكُمْ فِيهِ لَيْسَ كَمِثْلِهِ شَيْءٌ وَهُوَ السَّمِيعُ الْبَصِيرُ (11) يقول تعالى ذكره: ( فَاطِرُ السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالأرْضِ ) , خالق السموات السبع والأرض. كما: حدثنا محمد, قال: ثنا أحمد, قال: ثنا أسباط, عن السديّ, قوله: ( فَاطِرُ السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالأرْضِ ) قال: خالق. وقوله: ( جَعَلَ لَكُمْ مِنْ أَنْفُسِكُمْ أَزْوَاجًا ) يقول تعالى ذكره: زوّجكم ربكم من أنفسكم أزواجا. وإنما قال جلّ ثناؤه: ( مِنْ أَنْفُسِكُمْ ) لأنه خلق حوّاء من ضلع آدم, فهو من الرجال.( وَمِنَ الأنْعَامِ أَزْوَاجًا ) يقول جلّ ثناؤه: وجعل لكم من الأنعام أزواجا من الضأن اثنين, ومن المعز اثنين, ومن الإبل اثنين, ومن البقر اثنين, ذكورا وإناثا, ومن كل جنس من ذلك.( يَذْرَؤُكُمْ فِيهِ ) يقول: يخلقكم فيما جعل لكم من أزواجكم, ويعيشكم فيما جعل لكم من الأنعام. وقد اختلف أهل التأويل في معنى قوله: ( يَذْرَؤُكُمْ فِيهِ ) في هذا الموضع, فقال بعضهم: معنى ذلك: يخلقكم فيه. * ذكر من قال ذلك: حدثني محمد بن عمرو, قال: ثنا أبو عاصم, قال: ثنا عيسى; وحدثني الحارث, قال: ثنا الحسن, قال: ثنا ورقاء جميعا, عن ابن أبي نجيع, عن مجاهد, في قوله: ( يَذْرَؤُكُمْ فِيهِ ) قال: نسل بعد نسل من الناس والأنعام. حدثنا محمد بن المثنى, قال: ثنا أحمد, قال: ثنا أسباط, عن السديّ, قوله: ( يَذْرَؤُكُمْ ) قال: يخلقكم. حدثنا ابن حميد ، قال: ثنا حكام ، عن عنبسة ، عن محمد بن عبد الرحمن ، عن القاسم بن أبي بزّة ، عن مجاهد ، في قوله: ( يَذْرَؤُكُمْ فِيهِ ) قال: نسلا بعد نسل من الناس والأنعام. حدثنا محمد بن المثنى ، قال: ثنا محمد بن جعفر ، قال ثنا شعبة ، عن منصور ، أنه قال في هذه الآية : ( يَذْرَؤُكُمْ فِيهِ ) قال يخلقكم. وقال آخرون: بل معناه: يعيشكم فيه. * ذكر من قال ذلك: حدثني محمد بن سعد, قال: ثني أبي, قال: ثني عمي, قال: ثني أبي, عن أبيه, عن ابن عباس, قوله: ( جَعَلَ لَكُمْ مِنْ أَنْفُسِكُمْ أَزْوَاجًا وَمِنَ الأنْعَامِ أَزْوَاجًا يَذْرَؤُكُمْ فِيهِ ) يقول: يجعل لكم فيه معيشة تعيشون بها. حدثنا محمد بن عبد الأعلى, قال: ثنا محمد بن ثور, عن معمر, عن قتادة ( يَذْرَؤُكُمْ فِيهِ ) قال: يعيشكم فيه. حدثنا بشر, قال: ثنا يزيد, قال: ثنا سعيد, عن قتادة, قوله: ( يَذْرَؤُكُمْ فِيهِ ) قال: عيش من الله يعيشكم فيه. وهذان القولان وإن اختلفا في اللفظ من قائليهما فقد يحتمل توجيههما إلى معنى واحد, وهو أن يكون القائل في معناه يعيشكم فيه, أراد بقوله ذلك: يحييكم بعيشكم به كما يحيي من لم يخلق بتكوينه إياه, ونفخه الروح فيه حتى يعيش حيا. وقد بينت معنى ذرء الله الخلق فيما مضى بشواهده المغنية عن إعادته. وقوله: ( لَيْسَ كَمِثْلِهِ شَيْءٌ ) فيه وجهان: أحدهما أن يكون معناه: ليس هو كشيء, وأدخل المثل في الكلام توكيدًا للكلام إذا اختلف اللفظ به وبالكاف, وهما بمعنى واحد, كما قيل: ما إن نديت بشيء أنت تكرهه (1) فأدخل على " ما " وهي حرف جحد " إن " وهي أيضًا حرف جحد, لاختلاف اللفظ بهما, وإن اتفق معناهما توكيدا للكلام, وكما قال أوس بن حجر: وَقَتْــلَى كمِثْــلِ جــذُوعِ النَّخـيلْ تَغَشَّــــاهُمُ مُسْـــبِلٌ مُنْهَمِـــرْ (2) ومعنى ذلك: كجذوع النخيل, وكما قال الآخر: سَـعْدُ بْـنُ زيـد إذَا أبْصَـرْتَ فَضْلَهُمُ مـا إن كـمِثْلِهِمِ فِـي النَّـاسِ مِنْ أحَدٍ (3) والآخر: أن يكون معناه: ليس مثل شيء, وتكون الكاف هي المدخلة في الكلام, كقول الراجز: * وَصَالِياتٍ كَكَما يُؤْثَفَيْنِ (4) فأدخل على الكاف كافا توكيدا للتشبيه, وكما قال الآخر: تَنْفِــي الغَيــادِيقُ عَـلى الطَّـرِيقِ قَلَّــصَ عَــنْ كَبَيْضَـةٍ فِـي نِيـقِ (5) فأدخل الكاف مع " عن ", وقد بيَّنا هذا في موضع غير هذا المكان بشرح هو أبلغ من هذا الشرح, فلذلك تجوّزنا في البيان عنه في هذا الموضع. وقوله: ( وَهُوَ السَّمِيعُ الْبَصِيرُ ) يقول جلّ ثناؤه واصفا نفسه بما هو به, وهو يعني نفسه: السميع لما تنطق به خلقه من قول, البصير لأعمالهم, لا يخفى عليه من ذلك شيء, ولا يعزب عنه علم شيء منه, وهو محيط بجميعه, محصٍ صغيره وكبيره ( لِتُجْزَى كُلُّ نَفْسٍ بِمَا كَسَبَتْ ) من خير أو شرّ. ------------------------ الهوامش: (1) هذا مصراع أول من بيت للنابغة الذبياني . وعجزه : * إذن فـلا رفعت سوطي إلى يدي * ( انظر مختار الشعر الجاهلي بشرح مصطفى السقا طبعة الحلبي ) ورواية الشطر الأول فيه : * مـا قلـت من سييء مما أتيت به * قال شارحه : يقول : إذا كنت قلت هذا الذي بلغك ، فشلت يدي حتى لا أطيق رفع السوط على خفته . وروى في اللسان والتاج كرواية المؤلف ، قال الزبيدي : يقال : ما نديني من فلان شيء أكرهه ، أي ما بلني ولا أصابني . وما نديت له كفى بشر وما نديت بشيء . ومحل الشاهد في البيت عند المؤلف قوله" ما إن" حيث أدخل حرف النفي" ما" على حرف النفي" إن" لاختلاف لفظهما ، توكيدا للكلام . وهو نظير إدخال كاف التشبيه ، على كلمة" مثل" التي تفيد التشبيه ، في قوله تعالى (ليس كمثله شيء) ، لتوكيد الكلام ؛ لاختلاف اللفظين . (2) وهذا الشاهد من كلام أوس بن حجر التميمي ، وهو شاعر جاهلي مشهور ، شاهد كالشاهد السابق ، أدل فيه أداة التشبيه" الكاف" على أختها في المعنى" مثل" لاختلاف لفظهما ، توكيدا للكلام ، وهو نظير" ما" في قوله تعالى : (ليس كمثله شيء ) . (3) لم أقف على قائل هذا البيت . وقد استشهد به المؤلف على إدخال أداتي التشبيه ( الكاف ، ومثل ) معا على شيء واحد ، فهو في معنى الشاهدين قبله . (4) هذا بيت من عدة أبيات من مشطور الرجز ، ينسبان على خطام المجاشعي ، ونسبهما الجوهري في الصحاح ، والصقلي في شرحه لأبيات الإيضاح للفارسي ، إلى هميان بن قحافة . وبيت الشاهد آخرها بيتا . ( انظر الأبيات في هامش صفحة 282 من الجزء الأول من سر صناعة الإعراب لابن جنى طبعة شركة مصطفى البابي الحبي وأولاده ) وفيه : الصاليات : الأثافي التي توضع عليها القدور وقد صليت النار حتى اسودت . ويؤثفين : يجعلن أثافي للقدر ، وهي جمع أثفية ، يقال أثفى القدر يثفيها : جعل لها أثافي . ومحل الشاهد قوله" كما" فإن الكاف الأولى حرف ، والثانية اسم بمعنى مثل . والمعنى : لم يبق إلا حجارة منصوبة كمثل الأثافي . واستشهد به المؤلف على دخول الكاف على الكاف لتوكيد الكلام. (5) لم أقف على قائل البيت . ولم يتضح لي معناه تماما ، ولعل فيه تحريفا من الناسخ . وموضع الشاهد فيه واضح ، وهو دخول" عن" على الكاف في قوله"كبيضة" فإما أن تكون الكاف زائدة ، أي عن بيضة ، وإما أن تكون الكاف اسما بمعنى مثل في محل جر .