Tabari (1 passage)

1. Full Dutch translation of Tabari's text

   The discourse on the explanation of His statement, the Exalted: حَتَّى إِذَا جَاءَنَا قَالَ يَا لَيْتَ بَيْنِي وَبَيْنَكَ بُعْدَ الْمَشْرِقَيْنِ فَبِئْسَ الْقَرِينُ (43:38) (Until, when he comes to Us, he says: "Would that between me and you there were the distance of the two easts" — and what a wretched companion!)

   The reciters differed over the recitation of His statement ( حَتَّى إِذَا جَاءَنَا ) (Until, when he comes to Us). Most of the reciters of the Ḥijāz, except for Ibn Muḥayṣin, and some of the Kūfans and some of the Syrians, recited "حتى إذا جاءانا" (jāʾānā, in the dual), with the meaning: until there come to Us this one who was blind to the remembrance of the All-Merciful, together with his companion who was assigned to him from among the devils. And there recited, the way most of the reciters of Kūfa and Basra, and Ibn Muḥayṣin: ( حَتَّى إِذَا جَاءَنَا ) (jāʾanā, in the singular), with the meaning: until there comes to Us this one who is blind, from among the children of Ādam, to the remembrance of the All-Merciful.

   And the correct view concerning that, in our opinion, is that they are two recitations close to one another in meaning, and that is because in Allah's — blessed and exalted is He — report about the state of one of the two groups upon its coming to Him, concerning that wherein We coupled them to one another in the worldly life, there lies for the hearer sufficiency to know the report about the other, since the report about the state of the one makes known the report about the state of the other; and they are, moreover, two recitations that are widespread in the recitation of the regions, so with whichever of the two the reciter recites, he is correct.

   And in agreement with what we have said concerning that, the people of interpretation (ahl al-taʾwīl) also spoke.

   * Mention of who said that:

   Bishr related to us, saying: Yazīd related to us, saying: Saʿīd related to us, on the authority of Qatāda: until there come to Us he and his companion, both together.

   And His statement ( يَا لَيْتَ بَيْنِي وَبَيْنَكَ بُعْدَ الْمَشْرِقَيْنِ ) (Would that between me and you there were the distance of the two easts): the Exalted, whose mention is exalted, says: one of these two companions said to his other companion: I wish that between me and you there were the distance of the two easts — that is to say: the distance between the east and the west, whereby the name of the one was made to prevail over the other, as one says "shibh al-qamarayn" (the likeness of the two moons), and as the poet said:

   "We have hemmed you in along the horizons of the heaven; ours are her two moons and the rising stars" (4)

   And as another said:

   "Basra of al-Azd is ours, and Iraq belongs to us, and the two Mawṣils, and ours is Egypt and the Holy Place" (5)

   He means al-Mawṣil and al-Jazīra, and he said "the two Mawṣils," making Mawṣil [as the prevailing name] prevail.

   And it is said: by His statement ( بُعْدَ الْمَشْرِقَيْنِ ) (the distance of the two easts) is meant: the east of winter and the east of summer, and that is because the sun in winter rises from one east and in summer from another east; and likewise the west sets in two different wests, as He — whose praise is exalted — said: رَبُّ الْمَشْرِقَيْنِ وَرَبُّ الْمَغْرِبَيْنِ (the Lord of the two easts and the Lord of the two wests).

   And it has been mentioned that this is the statement of the one to his companion at the moment when each of them is bound to the other, until he makes him enter Hell (jahannam).

   * Mention of who said that:

   Ibn ʿAbd al-Aʿlā related to us, saying: Ibn Thawr related to us, on the authority of Maʿmar, on the authority of Saʿīd al-Jurayrī, saying: it has reached me that when the unbeliever is raised up from his grave on the Day of Resurrection, the devil seizes him by his hand and does not leave him until Allah makes them both go to the Fire; and that is the moment at which he says: "Would that between me and you there were the distance of the two easts — and what a wretched companion!" As for the believer, there is assigned to him an angel who is with him, until he said: either there is judgment between the people, or we pass on to what Allah wills.

   -----------------

   The footnotes:

   (4) The verse is by al-Farazdaq (his dīwān, al-Ṣāwī edition, 519). He said: and "her two moons" are the sun and the moon; he put them in the dual by way of predominance (taghlīb). And al-Mubarrad rendered it in al-Kāmil in one place as "we have hemmed in along the extremities," and in another place as "along the horizons." End of citation. The author adduced it in connection with His statement, the Exalted: (يا ليت بيني وبينك بعد المشرقين) (Would that between me and you there were the distance of the two easts): that is to say: the distance between the east and the west. And he derived his words from the words of al-Farrāʾ in the Maʿānī al-Qurʾān (folio 295). Al-Farrāʾ said: he means the distance between the east of winter and the east of summer. And it is said that he meant the east and the west, and he said "the two easts," and that is the more likely of the two possibilities, because the Arabs sometimes join the two names under the designation of the better known of the two, so that one says: "the two Zahdams came to you," while in reality one of them is Zahm (that is to say: and the other is Kardam, [like] the two ʿAbsites, as was previously mentioned in an earlier witness-verse). And the poet said: "We have hemmed you in along the horizons of the heaven..." the verse.

   (5) This witness-verse has the same meaning as the preceding one. Al-Farrāʾ likewise adduced it in the Maʿānī al-Qurʾān, just like the preceding one, [in support of the point] that two things with different designations are sometimes subsumed under a single designation, so that one says "the two Basras" for Basra and Kūfa, and "the two Mawṣils" for al-Mawṣil and al-Jazīra. And all of this belongs to the chapter on making the better known of the two designations prevail over the other. He said: and a man from [the tribe of] Ṭayyiʾ recited to me: "Basra of al-Azd is ours..." the verse; he means al-Jazīra and al-Mawṣil.

   Show original Arabic

   القول في تأويل قوله تعالى : حَتَّى إِذَا جَاءَنَا قَالَ يَا لَيْتَ بَيْنِي وَبَيْنَكَ بُعْدَ الْمَشْرِقَيْنِ فَبِئْسَ الْقَرِينُ (38) اختلفت القرّاء في قراءة قوله: ( حَتَّى إِذَا جَاءَنَا ) فقرأته عامة قرّاء الحجاز سوى ابن محيصن, وبعض الكوفيين وبعض الشاميين " حتى إذا جاءنا " على التوحيد بمعنى: حتى إذا جاءنا هذا الذي عَشِي عن ذكر الرحمن, وقرينه الذي قيض له من الشياطين. وقرأ ذلك عامة قرّاء الكوفة والبصرة وابن محيصن: ( حَتَّى إِذَا جَاءَنَا ) على التوحيد, بمعنى: حتى إذا جاءنا هذا العاشي من بني آدم عن ذكر الرحمن. والصواب من القول في ذلك عندنا أنهما قراءتان متقاربتا المعنى وذلك أن في خبر الله تبارك وتعالى عن حال أحد الفريقين عند مقدمه عليه فيما أقرنا فيه في الدنيا, الكفاية للسامع عن خبر الآخر, إذ كان الخبر عن حال أحدهما معلوما به خبر حال الآخر, وهما مع ذلك قراءتان مستفيضتان في قرءة الأمصار, فبأيتهما قرأ القارئ فمصيب. وبنحو الذي قلنا في ذلك قال أهل التأويل. * ذكر من قال ذلك: حدثنا بشر, قال: ثنا يزيد, قال: ثنا سعيد, عن قتادة: حتى إذَا جاءنا هو وقرينه جميعا. وقوله: ( يَا لَيْتَ بَيْنِي وَبَيْنَكَ بُعْدَ الْمَشْرِقَيْنِ ) يقول تعالى ذكره: قال أحد هذين القرينين لصاحبه الآخر: وددت أن بيني وبينك بعد المشرقين: أى بعد ما بين المشرق والمغرب, فغلب اسم أحدهما على الآخر, كما قيل: شبه القمرين, وكما قال الشاعر? أخَذْنــا بآفــاقِ السَّــمَاءِ عَلَيْكُـمُ لنَــا قَمَرَاهَــا والنُّجُــومُ الطَّـوَالِعُ (4) وكما قال الآخر? فَبَصْــرَةُ الأزْدِ مِنَّـا والعِـرَاقُ لنَـا والمَـوْصِلانِ وَمِنَّـا مِصْـرُ والحَـرَمُ (5) يعني: الموصل والجزيرة, فقال: الموصلان, فغلب الموصل. وقد قيل: عنى بقوله ( بُعْدَ الْمَشْرِقَيْنِ ) : مشرق الشتاء, ومشرق الصيف, وذلك أن الشمس تطلع في الشتاء من مشرق, وفي الصيف من مشرق غيره; وكذلك المغرب تغرب في مغربين مختلفين, كما قال جلّ ثناؤه: رَبُّ الْمَشْرِقَيْنِ وَرَبُّ الْمَغْرِبَيْنِ . وذُكر أن هذا قول أحدهما لصاحبه عند لزوم كل واحد منهما صاحبه حتى يورده جهنم. * ذكر من قال ذلك: حدثنا ابن عبد الأعلى, قال: ثنا ابن ثور, عن معمر, عن سعيد الجريري, قال: بلغني أن الكافر إذا بُعث يوم القيامة من قبره, سفع بيده الشيطان, فلم يفارقه حتى يصيرهما الله إلى النار, فذلك حين يقول: يا ليت بيني وبينك بعد المشرقين, فبئس القرين. وأما المؤمن فيوكَّل به ملك فهو معه حتى قال: إما يفصل بين الناس, أو نصير إلى ما شاء الله. ----------------- الهوامش : (4) البيت للفرزدق ( ديوانه طبعة الصاوي 519 ) . قال : وقمراها : الشمس والقمر ، ثناهما تغليبا . ورواه المبرد في الكامل :" أخذنا بأطراف" في موضع ، ورواه في آخر بآفاق . ا هـ . واستشهد به المؤلف عند قوله تعالى : (يا ليت بيني وبينك بعد المشرقين) : أي بعد ما بين المشرق والمغرب . وأخذ كلامه من كلام الفراء في معاني القرآن ( الورقة 295 ) قال الفراء : يريد ما بين مشرق الشتاء ومشرق الصيف . ويقال إنه أراد المشرق والمغرب ، فقال المشرقين ، وهو أشبه الوجهين بالصواب ؛ لأن العرب قد تجمع الاسمين ، على تسمية أشهرهما فيقال : جاءك الزهدمان ، وإنما أحدهما زهم ( أي والآخر : كردم العبسيان كما تقدم في شاهد سابق ) وقال الشاعر :" أخذنا بآفاق السماء ..." البيت . (5) هذا الشاهد في معنى الذي قبله . استشهد به الفراء أيضا في معاني القرآن كسابقه ، على أن الشيئين المختلفي اللفظ ، قد يجمعان بلفظ واحد ، فيقال البصرتان ، البصرة والكوفة ، والموصلان للموصل والجزيرة . وكل هذا من باب تغليب الأشهر من اللفظين على الآخر . قال : وأنشدني رجل من طيئ :" فبصرة الأزد منا ..." البيت ، يريد الجزيرة والموصل .