Tabari (1 passage)

1. Full Dutch translation of Tabari's text

   The explanation of the saying of the Exalted: سَيَقُولُ لَكَ الْمُخَلَّفُونَ مِنَ الأَعْرَابِ شَغَلَتْنَا أَمْوَالُنَا وَأَهْلُونَا فَاسْتَغْفِرْ لَنَا يَقُولُونَ بِأَلْسِنَتِهِمْ مَا لَيْسَ فِي قُلُوبِهِمْ قُلْ فَمَنْ يَمْلِكُ لَكُمْ مِنَ اللَّهِ شَيْئًا إِنْ أَرَادَ بِكُمْ ضَرًّا أَوْ أَرَادَ بِكُمْ نَفْعًا بَلْ كَانَ اللَّهُ بِمَا تَعْمَلُونَ خَبِيرًا (48:11) (Those of the bedouins who stayed behind will say to you: "Our possessions and our families kept us occupied, so ask forgiveness for us." They say with their tongues what is not in their hearts. Say: "Who then has any power for you against Allah, if He intends harm for you or intends benefit for you? Nay, Allah is ever Well-Acquainted with what you do.")

   The Exalted, whose renown be mentioned, says to His Prophet Muḥammad ﷺ: Those who stayed behind will say to you, O Muḥammad — namely those whom Allah left behind with their families, away from your company and from setting out with you on the journey you undertook and the march you made to Mecca as a ʿumra-pilgrim, in order to visit the Sacred House of Allah — when you return to them and reproach them for having stayed behind and not gone out with you: "The tending of our possessions and the setting in order of our means of livelihood and our families kept us from going out with you, so ask our Lord forgiveness for us for our staying behind from you." Allah, praised be His laud, says, while He gives them the lie concerning that saying of theirs: These bedouins who stayed behind from you say with their tongues what is not in their hearts — and that is their request to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ to ask forgiveness for them. He says: They ask Him this without any repentance on their part and without remorse for what proceeded from them of disobedience to Allah by their staying behind from the company of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ and travelling with him. قُلْ فَمَنْ يَمْلِكُ مِنَ اللَّهِ شَيْئًا (Say: "Who then has any power against Allah?") — the Exalted, whose renown be mentioned, says to His Prophet: Say to these bedouins who ask you to ask forgiveness for them on account of their staying behind from you: If I were to ask forgiveness for you, O people, and Allah thereafter willed your destruction, or the destruction of your possessions and your families, or if He willed benefit for you by making your possessions thrive and setting your families in order for you — who then is it that is able to repel what Allah wills for you of good or evil? For Allah — none can resist Him, and no victor overcomes Him.

   And His saying بَلْ كَانَ اللَّهُ بِمَا تَعْمَلُونَ خَبِيرًا (Nay, Allah is ever Well-Acquainted with what you do) — the Exalted, whose renown be mentioned, says: The matter is not as these hypocrites among the bedouins suppose, that Allah does not know what hypocrisy they conceal within themselves; nay, Allah has from time immemorial been Well-Acquainted with what they do of good and evil; nothing of the deeds of His creatures remains hidden from Him, neither what they keep secret nor what they do openly, and He records it against them until He requites them for it.

   And the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, according to what has been related about him, when he wished to travel to Mecca in the year of al-Ḥudaybiya as a ʿumra-pilgrim, called the Arabs to set out, and whoever dwelt around his city of the steppe-dwellers and bedouins, that they should go out with him, as a precaution against his people the Quraysh, lest they should make war upon him or bar him from the House. And he ﷺ entered the state of consecration (iḥrām) for the ʿumra, and he drove the sacrificial animals with him, so that the people would know that he did not desire war. But many of the bedouins showed themselves slow toward him and stayed behind, not following him. They are the ones whom Allah, blessed and exalted, meant by His saying سَيَقُولُ لَكَ الْمُخَلَّفُونَ مِنَ الأعْرَابِ شَغَلَتْنَا أَمْوَالُنَا وَأَهْلُونَا (Those of the bedouins who stayed behind will say to you: "Our possessions and our families kept us occupied")... the verse.

   And in agreement with what we have said concerning this, the scholars who have knowledge of the life-history of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ and his military expeditions (maghāzī) have spoken, among them Ibn Isḥāq.

   Ibn Ḥumayd related to us, saying: Salama related to us, on the authority of Ibn Isḥāq, that. Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr related to us, 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 His saying سَيَقُولُ لَكَ الْمُخَلَّفُونَ مِنَ الأعْرَابِ شَغَلَتْنَا أَمْوَالُنَا وَأَهْلُونَا (Those of the bedouins who stayed behind will say to you: "Our possessions and our families kept us occupied"): He said: The bedouins of Medina: Juhayna and Muzayna. He asked them to go along on his departure to Mecca. They said: "Should we go with him to a people who fought him and killed his companions, that we should fight them?!" And they put forward the busyness [of their affairs] as an excuse.

   And the reciters differed concerning the recitation of His saying إِنْ أَرَادَ بِكُمْ ضَرًّا (if He intends harm for you). The reciters of Medina and Basra and some of the reciters of Kūfa read it ضَرًّا with a fatḥa on the ḍād, in the meaning of: al-ḍarr, which is the opposite of benefit. And most of the reciters of Kūfa read it ضُرّا with a ḍamma on the ḍād, in the meaning of misery and illness.

   And the more pleasing to me of the two recitations is the fatḥa on the ḍād in this place, because of His saying أَوْ أَرَادَ بِكُمْ نَفْعًا (or intends benefit for you), for it is known that the opposite of benefit (al-nafʿ) is harm (al-ḍarr), even though the other [recitation] is correct in its meaning.

   Show original Arabic

   القول في تأويل قوله تعالى : سَيَقُولُ لَكَ الْمُخَلَّفُونَ مِنَ الأَعْرَابِ شَغَلَتْنَا أَمْوَالُنَا وَأَهْلُونَا فَاسْتَغْفِرْ لَنَا يَقُولُونَ بِأَلْسِنَتِهِمْ مَا لَيْسَ فِي قُلُوبِهِمْ قُلْ فَمَنْ يَمْلِكُ لَكُمْ مِنَ اللَّهِ شَيْئًا إِنْ أَرَادَ بِكُمْ ضَرًّا أَوْ أَرَادَ بِكُمْ نَفْعًا بَلْ كَانَ اللَّهُ بِمَا تَعْمَلُونَ خَبِيرًا (11) يقول تعالى ذكره لنييه محمد صَلَّى الله عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّم: سيقول لك يا محمد الذين خلفهم الله في أهليهم عن صحبتك, والخروج معك في سفرك الذي سافرت, ومسيرك الذي سرت إلى مكة معتمرا, زائرا بيت الله الحرام إذا انصرفت إليهم, فعاتبتهم على التخلف عنك, شغلتنا عن الخروج معك معالجة أموالنا, وإصلاح معايشنا وأهلونا, فاستغفر لنا ربنا لتخلُّفنا عنك, قال الله جل ثناؤه مكذبهم في قيلهم ذلك: يقول هؤلاء الأعراب المخلَّفون عنك بألسنتهم ما ليس في قلوبهم, وذلك مسألتهم رسول الله صَلَّى الله عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّم الاستغفار لهم, يقول: يسألونه بغير توبة منهم ولا ندم على ما سلف منهم من معصية الله في تخلفهم عن صحبة رسول الله صَلَّى الله عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّم والمسير معه ( قُلْ فَمَنْ يَمْلِكُ مِنَ اللَّهِ شَيْئًا ) يقول تعالى ذكره لنبيه: قل لهؤلاء الأعراب الذين يسألونك أن تستغفر لهم لتخلفهم عنك: إن أنا استغفرت لكم أيها القوم, ثم أراد الله هلاككم أو هلاك أموالكم وأهليكم, أو أراد بكم نفعا بتثميره أموالكم وإصلاحه لكم أهليكم, فمن ذا الذي يقدر على دفع ما أراد الله بكم من خير أو شرّ, والله لا يعازّه أحد, ولا يغالبه غالب. وقوله ( بَلْ كَانَ اللَّهُ بِمَا تَعْمَلُونَ خَبِيرًا ) يقول تعالى ذكره: ما الأمر كما يظن هؤلاء المنافقون من الأعراب أن الله لا يعلم ما هم عليها منطوون من النفاق, بل لم يزل الله بما يعملون من خير وشرّ خبيرا, لا تخفى عليه شيء من أعمال خلقه, سرّها وعلانيتها, وهو محصيها عليهم حتى يجازيهم بها، وكان رسول الله صَلَّى الله عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّم فيما ذُكر عنه حين أراد المسير إلى مكة عام الحُديبية معتمرا استنفر العرب ومن حول مدينته من أهل البوادي والأعراب ليخرجوا معه حذرا من قومه قريش أن يعرضوا له الحرب, أو يصدّوه عن البيت, وأحرم هو صَلَّى الله عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّم بالعمرة, وساق معه الهدي, ليعلم الناس أنه لا يريد حربا, فتثاقل عنه كثير من الأعراب, وتخلَّفوا خلافه فهم الذين عَنَى الله تبارك وتعالى بقوله ( سَيَقُولُ لَكَ الْمُخَلَّفُونَ مِنَ الأعْرَابِ شَغَلَتْنَا أَمْوَالُنَا وَأَهْلُونَا )... الآية. وكالذي قلنا في ذلك قال أهل العلم بسير رسول الله صَلَّى الله عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّم ومغازيه, منهم ابن إسحاق. حدثنا ابن حميد, قال: ثنا سلمة عن ابن إسحاق بذلك. حدثنا محمد بن عمرو, قال: ثنا أبو عاصم, قال: ثنا عيسى; وحدثني الحارث, قال: ثنا الحسن, قال: ثنا ورقاء جميعا, عن ابن أبي نجيح, عن مجاهد, في قوله ( سَيَقُولُ لَكَ الْمُخَلَّفُونَ مِنَ الأعْرَابِ شَغَلَتْنَا أَمْوَالُنَا وَأَهْلُونَا ) قال: أعراب المدينة: جهينة ومزينة, استتبعهم لخروجه إلى مكة, قالوا: نذهب معه إلى قوم قد جاءوه, فقتلوا أصحابه فنقاتلهم ! فاعتلوا بالشغل. واختلفت القرّاء في قراءة قوله ( إِنْ أَرَادَ بِكُمْ ضَرًّا ) فقرأته قرّاء المدينة والبصرة وبعض قرّاء الكوفة ( ضَرًّا ) بفتح الضاد, بمعنى: الضّر الذي هو خلاف النفع. وقرأ ذلك عامة قرّاء الكوفيين ( ضُرّا ) بضم الضاد, بمعنى البؤس والسَّقم. وأعجب القراءتين إليّ الفتح في الضاد في هذا الموضع بقوله ( أَوْ أَرَادَ بِكُمْ نَفْعًا ) , فمعلوم أن خلاف النفع الضرّ, وإن كانت الأخرى صحيحا معناها.