Tabari (1 passage)

1. Full Dutch translation of Tabari's text

   The Exalted, whose remembrance is exalted, says: بَلْ ضَلُّوا عَنْهُمْ (Nay, they had strayed away from them). He says: Nay, their gods whom they used to worship abandoned them and took a path other than theirs, for their worshippers perished, while they — being stones or copper — were not struck by what struck them; and they called upon them, but they gave them no answer and came not to their aid. That is their straying away from them, and that is their lie (ifk). The Mighty and Exalted says: these gods, which strayed away from those who worshipped them apart from Allah when the chastisement of Allah descended upon them — while they hoped that they would come to their aid — and which abandoned them, that is their lie. He says: it is their lie which they used to invent, when they said "These are our gods"; and وَمَا كَانُوا يَفْتَرُونَ (and that which they used to invent). He says: and it is that which they used to invent, when they said: "They bring us nearer to Allah in closeness, and they are our intercessors with Allah." And the expression is cast in the form of the verb (al-fiʿl), while what is meant is the object (al-mafʿūl bihi), so it was said: "and that is their lie (ifk)", while what is meant therein is: that by which the lie was told (al-maʾfūk bihi), because the lie (al-ifk) is only the act of the liar (al-āfik), and the gods are that by which the lie was told. And the exposition concerning similar cases has already been given earlier. He said: and likewise is His statement وَمَا كَانُوا يَفْتَرُونَ (and that which they used to invent).

   And the reciters (al-qurrāʾ) differed over the reading of His statement وَذَلِكَ إِفْكُهُمْ (And that is their lie). Most of the reciters of the cities read it "wa-dhālika ifkuhum", with a kasra on the alif, a sukūn on the fāʾ, and a ḍamma on the kāf, with the meaning which we have expounded.

   And it has been related from Ibn ʿAbbās — may Allah be pleased with them both — concerning that, what Aḥmad ibn Yūsuf related to me, saying: al-Qāsim related to us, saying: Hushaym related to us, on the authority of ʿAwf, from someone who related it to him, from Ibn ʿAbbās, that he read it "wa-dhālika afkuhum", that is, with a fatḥa on the alif and the kāf, and he said: it led them astray (aḍallahum). Now whoever reads the first reading, which the reciters of the cities follow, with him the hāʾ and the mīm stand in the position of the genitive (khafḍ). And whoever reads this reading which we have mentioned from Ibn ʿAbbās, with him the hāʾ and the mīm stand in the position of the accusative (naṣb), and that is because the meaning of the statement comes down to this: and that is their turning away from belief in Allah.

   And the correct reading therein, according to us, is the reading that follows the reading of the cities, on account of the agreement of the authoritative proof (al-ḥujja) concerning it.

   Show original Arabic

   يقول تعالى ذكره: ( بَلْ ضَلُّوا عَنْهُمْ ) يقول: بل تركتهم آلهتهم التي كانوا يعبدونها, فأخذت غير طريقهم, لأن عبدتها هلكت, وكانت هي حجارة أو نحاسا, فلم يصبها ما أصابهم ودعوها, فلم تجبهم, ولم تغثهم, وذلك ضلالها عنهم, وذلك إفكهم, يقول عزّ وجلّ هذه الآلهة التي ضلَّت عن هؤلاء الذين كانوا يعبدونها من دون الله عند نـزول بأس الله بهم, وفي حال طمعهم فيها أن تغيثهم, فخذلتهم, هو إفكهم: يقول: هو كذبهم الذي كانوا يكذّبون, ويقولون به هؤلاء آلهتنا وما كانوا يفترون, يقول: وهو الذي كانوا يفترون, فيقولون: هي تقرّبنا إلى الله زُلفى, وهي شفعاؤنا عند الله. وأخرج الكلام مخرج الفعل, والمعنيّ المفعول به, فقيل: وذلك إفكهم, والمعنيّ فيه: المأفوك به لأن الإفك إنما هو فعل الآفك, والآلهة مأفوك بها. وقد مضى البيان عن نظائر ذلك قبل, قال: وكذلك قوله ( وَمَا كَانُوا يَفْتَرُونَ ) . واختلفت القرّاء في قراءة قوله ( وَذَلِكَ إِفْكُهُمْ ) فقرأته عامة قرّاء الأمصار، وذلك إفكهم بكسر الألف وسكون الفاء وضم الكاف بالمعنى الذي بيَّنا. وروي عن ابن عباس رضي الله عنهما في ذلك ما حدثني أحمد بن يوسف, قال: ثنا القاسم, قال: ثنا هشيم, عن عوف, عمن حدثه, عن ابن عباس, أنه كان يقرؤها(وَذَلِكَ أَفْكُهُمْ) يعني بفتح الألف والكاف وقال: أضلهم. فمن قرأ القراءة الأولى التي عليها قرّاء الأمصار, فالهاء والميم في موضع خفض. ومن قرأ هذه القراءة التي ذكرناها عن ابن عباس فالهاء والميم في موضع نصب, وذلك أن معنى الكلام على ذلك, وذلك صرفهم عن الإيمان بالله. والصواب من القراءة في ذلك عندنا, القراءة التي عليها قراءة الأمصار لإجماع الحجة عليها.