Tafseer of The Moon · Al-Qamar · 54:9
The people of Noah denied before them, and they denied Our servant and said, "A madman," and he was repelled.
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 word of the Exalted: Vóór hen loochende het volk van Nūḥ; zij loochenden Onze dienaar en zeiden: een bezetene, en hij werd verstoten (9).
This is a threat from Allah, the Exalted, Whose praise is exalted, and a warning to the polytheists (mushrikīn) among the inhabitants of Mecca and all others to whom He sent His Messenger Muhammad, Allah's blessing and peace be upon him, on account of their denial of him; and it is an advance announcement to them that, if they do not repent of their denial of him, He will send down upon them what He sent down upon the communities whose histories He has recounted in this Surah — the destruction and the punishment (ʿadhāb) — and that He will save His Prophet Muhammad and the believers with him, just as before him He saved the messengers and their followers from the acts of His vengeance that He sent down upon their communities. Therefore He said, exalted is His praise, to His Prophet Muhammad, Allah's blessing and peace be upon him: before these who have denied you, O Muhammad — among your people, who, when they see a sign, turn away and say: persistent magic — the people of Nūḥ denied; they denied Our servant Nūḥ when We sent him to them, just as the Quraysh denied you when you came to them with the truth from Us, and they said: he is a man possessed, and he was driven off (wa-zdujira). This (uzdujira) is derived from the form iftaʿala of zajartu (I drove off); thus do the Arabs with the word when its first letter is a zāy: they make the tāʾ of iftiʿāl into a dāl, as in their expression izdajara from zajartu, and izdalafa from zalaftu, and izdāda from zidtu.
The people of interpretation differed over the meaning in which they drove him off. Some said: their driving him off consisted in their saying: he has become possessed by madness.
* Mention of who said that:
Ibn Bashshār related to us, saying: Yaḥyā related to us, on the authority of Sufyān, on the authority of Manṣūr, on the authority of Mujāhid, concerning en zij zeiden: een bezetene, en hij werd verstoten, he said: he has become possessed by madness.
Ibn Ḥumayd related to us, saying: Mihrān related to us, on the authority of Sufyān, on the authority of Manṣūr, on the authority of Mujāhid, the same.
Muhammad 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 en hij werd verstoten, he said: he has become possessed by madness.
Ibn al-Muthannā related to us, saying: Muhammad ibn Jaʿfar related to us, saying: Shuʿba related to us, on the authority of al-Ḥakam, on the authority of Mujāhid, concerning this verse en zij zeiden: een bezetene, en hij werd verstoten, he said: he has become overwhelmed by madness.
Mūsā ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Masrūqī related to me, saying: Zayd ibn al-Ḥubāb related to us, saying: and Shuʿba ibn al-Ḥajjāj informed me, on the authority of al-Ḥakam, on the authority of Mujāhid, the same.
And others said: no, their driving him off consisted of their threatening him with vilification and stoning-treatment through ugly words.
* Mention of who said that:
Yūnus related to me, saying: Ibn Wahb informed us, saying: Ibn Zayd said, concerning His word en zij zeiden: een bezetene, en hij werd verstoten, he said: they accused him and drove him off and threatened him that, if he did not desist, he would surely be among those stoned; and he recited Indien jij niet ophoudt, o Nūḥ, zul jij zeker tot de gestenigden behoren (26:116).
