Tafseer of The Mount · At-Tur · 52:37
Or have they the depositories [containing the provision] of your Lord? Or are they the controllers [of them]?
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: أَمْ عِنْدَهُمْ خَزَائِنُ رَبِّكَ أَمْ هُمُ الْمُسَيْطِرُونَ "Or do they possess the treasuries of your Lord, or are they the controllers?" (52:37).
The Exalted, whose praise is sublime, says: Do these deniers of the signs of Allah perhaps possess the treasuries of your Lord, O Muḥammad, so that — because they reckon themselves thereby independent of the signs of their Lord — they turn away? Or are they the controllers (al-musayṭirūn)?
The exegetes differed concerning the explanation of this. Some of them said: Its meaning is: or are they those who are invested with power.
* The mention of who said that:
ʿAlī related to me, saying: Abū Ṣāliḥ related to us, saying: Muʿāwiya related to me, on the authority of ʿAlī, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, concerning His saying: أَمْ هُمُ الْمُسَيْطِرُونَ "or are they the controllers" — he says: those who are invested with power.
Others said: No, the meaning of it is: or are they those who send down.
* The 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 saying: أَمْ عِنْدَهُمْ خَزَائِنُ رَبِّكَ أَمْ هُمُ الْمُسَيْطِرُونَ "Or do they possess the treasuries of your Lord, or are they the controllers?" — he said: He says: or are they those who send down.
Others said: No, the meaning of it is: or are they the masters. And one of those who said that is Maʿmar ibn al-Muthannā; he said: one says: sayṭarta ʿalayya, that is to say: you have made me into a servant for you.
And the correct of these statements, in my view, is the statement of the one who said: its meaning is: or are they the tyrants, the overpowerers, the ones who are arrogant toward Allah. For al-musayṭir means in Arabic the tyrant, the overpowerer, and of this is the saying of Allah: لَسْتَ عَلَيْهِمْ بِمُسَيْطِرٍ "You are not over them a controller." He says: you are not over them a tyrant having power over them.
