Tabari (1 passage)

1. Full Dutch translation of Tabari's text

   The statement concerning the interpretation of His word: Those who associated partners will say: "Had Allah willed, we would not have associated partners, nor would our forefathers, and we would not have forbidden anything." Likewise did those before them deny, until they tasted Our might (6:148).

   Abū Jaʿfar said: He, whose praise is exalted, says: Those who associated partners will say — and they are those who equate to Allah the idols and the false deities, of the polytheists of Quraysh — Had Allah willed, we would not have associated partners. He says: They said this, repelling [from themselves] submission to the truth, with false argumentation, when the truth had become clear to them and they knew the falsity of that to which they clung — their associating of partners (shirk), and their forbidding of what they forbade of crops and cattle, in accordance with what the Exalted, whose praise is exalted, has set forth in the verses preceding it: And they assigned to Allah a share of what He has produced of crops and cattle, and what comes after it: Had Allah willed of us belief in Him, and devoting worship to Him alone without the idols and the deities, and the permitting of what we forbade of the baḥāʾir and the sawāʾib and other of our possessions, then we would not have associated any partner with Allah, nor would our forefathers before us have associated [any partner] with Him, nor would we have forbidden what we forbid of these matters that we hold forbidden, for He is able to intervene between us and that, so that we would have no way at all to the doing of anything thereof: either by His compelling us to belief and to abandoning the associating of partners with Him, and to declaring permissible what we forbade — or by His being gracious to us with His granting of success, so that we would come to the acknowledgment of His oneness, and the abandoning of the worship of what is besides Him of rivals and idols, and to declaring permissible what we forbade. But He accepted from us that to which we clung, namely the worship of the idols and the false deities, and the taking of a partner besides Him in worship and rivals, and He willed what we forbid of crops and cattle, and thus He did not intervene between us and that to which we clung.

   Allah said, giving them the lie in their claim: "That Allah accepted from us that to which we clung of shirk and the forbidding of what we forbid" — and refuting the falsity of the argument that they advanced therein — Likewise did those before them deny. He says: Just as these polytheists, O Muḥammad, have denied that which you brought them of truth and clear exposition, so likewise did those before them deny, of the corrupt ones among the nations who rebelled against their Lord — that which their prophets brought them of the signs of Allah and the clear proofs — and they refuted their counsels, until they tasted Our might. He says: until they angered Us, whereupon We became wrathful with them, and We let Our might descend upon them, and they tasted it, and they perished through their tasting of it, and thus they were brought to disappointment and lost this world and the hereafter. He says: And with these latter ones their way shall be trodden, if they do not turn back in repentance and believe and give faith to what you have brought them from their Lord.

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   And in accordance with what we have said concerning this, the people of interpretation have spoken.

   * Mention of who said that:

   14129 — Al-Muthannā related to me, saying: ʿAbdallāh ibn Ṣāliḥ related to us, saying: Muʿāwiya ibn Ṣāliḥ related to me, on the authority of ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭalḥa, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, concerning His word: Had Allah willed, we would not have associated partners, nor would our forefathers, and he said: Likewise did those before them deny, then He said: And had Allah willed, they would not have associated partners, for they said: "Our worship of the deities brings us nearer to Allah." Then Allah informed them that those do not bring them nearer. And His word: And had Allah willed, they would not have associated partners, Allah, glorified be He, says: Had I willed, I would have united them all together upon guidance.

   14130 — Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr related to us, saying: Abū ʿĀṣim related to us, on the authority of ʿĪsā, on the authority of Ibn Abī Najīḥ, on the authority of Mujāhid: and we would not have forbidden anything, he said: It is the statement of Quraysh — that is to say: that Allah forbade this baḥīra and sāʾiba.

   14131 — Al-Muthannā related to me, saying: Abū Ḥudhayfa related to us, saying: Shibl related to us, on the authority of Ibn Abī Najīḥ, on the authority of Mujāhid: and we would not have forbidden anything, it is the statement of Quraysh without certainty: that Allah forbade this baḥīra and sāʾiba.

   * * *

   If someone were to say: And what is your proof that Allah, the Exalted, gave the lie only to the statement of these polytheists — their saying: "Allah accepted from us the worship of the idols, and willed of us the forbidding of what we forbade of crops and cattle" — and that His giving them the lie did not pertain to their saying: Had Allah willed, we would not have associated partners, nor would our forefathers, nor would we have forbidden anything, and to their describing Him as having willed their shirk and the shirk of their forefathers, and their forbidding of what they forbade?

   He is answered: The indication thereof is His word: Likewise did those before them deny. He, whose praise is exalted, informed concerning them that they, in their denial of their prophet Muḥammad ﷺ — in that which he brought them from Allah, of the prohibition of the worship of anything other than Allah, the Exalted whose mention is exalted, and the forbidding of anything other than what Allah has forbidden in His Book and upon the tongue of His messenger — trod the way of their predecessors of the bygone nations who denied Allah and His messenger. And the denial on their part concerned only something that was denied. Had it been an informing from Allah concerning their lying in their saying: Had Allah willed, we would not have associated partners, nor would our forefathers, then He would have said: "Likewise did those before them lie" (kadhaba), with lightening of the "dhāl" (that is, without doubling), and He would have ascribed them in that saying of theirs to the lie against Allah, not to denial — alongside many indications the mention of which would lengthen the Book, and in what we have mentioned is sufficiency for whoever is enabled to the understanding of it.

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   The statement concerning the interpretation of His word: Say: "Have you any knowledge, that you might bring it forth for us? You follow nothing but conjecture, and you do nothing but guess" (6:148).

   Abū Jaʿfar said: The Exalted, whose praise is exalted, says to His prophet Muḥammad ﷺ: Say, O Muḥammad, to these equaters [of others] to their Lord, of the idols and the false deities, who forbid what they forbid of crops and cattle, who say: Had Allah willed, we would not have associated partners, nor would our forefathers, nor would we have forbidden anything, but He accepted from us that to which we clung of shirk and the forbidding of what we forbid: "Have you" — with your claim of what you claim against Allah, namely that He is pleased with your associating of partners with Him in His worship, and with your forbidding of what you forbid of your possessions — "any knowledge of certainty, from a report of one whose report cuts off the excuse, or a proof that furnishes us the certainty of knowledge, that you might bring it forth for us?" He says: that you might make that public for us and clarify it, just as we have clarified for you the places of the error of your statement and your action, and the contradiction thereof and its impossibility in the rational and the transmitted. You follow nothing but conjecture, He says to him: Say to them: You say nothing of what you say, O polytheists, and you worship nothing of the idols and the false deities that you worship, and you forbid nothing of the crops and the cattle that you forbid, except only out of conjecture and guessing that it is true, and that you are upon the truth, while it is false and you are upon falsity. And you do nothing but guess, He says: "And you are not", and you are in all of that nothing "but guessing", He says: except only that you fabricate falsehood against Allah, out of conjecture without certainty of knowledge nor clear proof.

   Show original Arabic

   القول في تأويل قوله : سَيَقُولُ الَّذِينَ أَشْرَكُوا لَوْ شَاءَ اللَّهُ مَا أَشْرَكْنَا وَلا آبَاؤُنَا وَلا حَرَّمْنَا مِنْ شَيْءٍ كَذَلِكَ كَذَّبَ الَّذِينَ مِنْ قَبْلِهِمْ حَتَّى ذَاقُوا بَأْسَنَا قال أبو جعفر: يقول جل ثناؤه: (سيقول الذين أشركوا)، وهم العادلون بالله الأوثان والأصنام من مشركي قريش=(لو شاء الله ما أشركنا)، يقول: قالوا احتجازًا من الإذعان للحق بالباطل من الحجة، لما تبين لهم الحق, وعلموا باطل ما كانوا عليه مقيمين من شركهم, وتحريمهم ما كانوا يحرّمون من الحروث والأنعام, على ما قد بيَّن تعالى ذكره في الآيات الماضية قبل ذلك: وَجَعَلُوا لِلَّهِ مِمَّا ذَرَأَ مِنَ الْحَرْثِ وَالأَنْعَامِ نَصِيبًا ، وما بعد ذلك: لو أراد الله منا الإيمان به، وإفراده بالعبادة دون الأوثان والآلهة، وتحليل ما حرم من البحائر والسوائب وغير ذلك من أموالنا, ما جعلنا لله شريكًا, ولا جعل ذلك له آباؤنا من قبلنا, ولا حرمنا ما نحرمه من هذه الأشياء التي نحن على تحريمها مقيمون، لأنه قادر على أن يحول بيننا وبين ذلك, حتى لا يكون لنا إلى فعل شيء من ذلك سبيل: إما بأن يضطرنا إلى الإيمان وترك الشرك به، وإلى القول بتحليل ما حرمنا= وأما بأن يلطف بنا بتوفيقه، فنصير إلى الإقرار بوحدانيته، وترك عبادة ما دونه من الأنداد والأصنام, وإلى تحليل ما حرمنا ، ولكنه رضي منا ما نحن عليه من عبادة الأوثان والأصنام, واتخاذ الشريك له في العبادة والأنداد, وأراد ما نحرّم من الحروث والأنعام, فلم يَحُلْ بيننا وبين ما نحن عليه من ذلك . قال الله مكذبًا لهم في قيلهم: " إن الله رضي منا ما نحن عليه من الشرك، وتحريم ما نحرّم "= ورادًّا عليهم باطلَ ما احتجوا به من حجتهم في ذلك= (كذلك كذب الذين من قبلهم)، يقول: كما كذب هؤلاء المشركون، يا محمد، ما جئتهم به من الحق والبيان, كذب من قبلهم من فسقة الأمم الذين طَغَوا على ربهم ما جاءتهم به أنبياؤهم من آيات الله وواضح حججه, وردُّوا عليهم نصائحهم =(حتى ذاقوا بأسنا)، يقول: حتى أسخطونا فغضبنا عليهم, فأحللنا بهم بأسنا فذاقوه, فعطبوا بذوقهم إياه, فخابوا وخسروا الدنيا والآخرة. (5) يقول: وهؤلاء الآخرون مسلوك بهم سبيلهم, إن هم لم ينيبوا فيؤمنوا ويصدقوا بما جئتهم به من عند ربهم . * * * وبنحو الذي قلنا في ذلك قال أهل التأويل . * ذكر من قال ذلك: 14129- حدثني المثنى قال، حدثنا عبد الله بن صالح قال، حدثني معاوية بن صالح, عن علي بن أبي طلحة, عن ابن عباس قوله: (لو شاء الله ما أشركنا ولا آباؤنا)، وقال: (كذلك كذب الذين من قبلهم) , ثم قال: وَلَوْ شَاءَ اللَّهُ مَا أَشْرَكُوا ، فإنهم قالوا: " عبادتنا الآلهة تقرّبنا إلى الله زلفى ", فأخبرهم الله أنها لا تقربهم, وقوله: وَلَوْ شَاءَ اللَّهُ مَا أَشْرَكُوا ، يقول الله سبحانه: لو شئت لجمعتهم على الهدى أجمعين . 14130- حدثنا محمد بن عمرو قال، حدثنا أبو عاصم, عن عيسى, عن ابن أبي نجيح, عن مجاهد: (ولا حرمنا من شيء)، قال: قول قريش= يعني: إن الله حرم هذه البحيرة والسائبة . 14131- حدثني المثنى قال، حدثنا أبو حذيفة قال، حدثنا شبل, عن ابن أبي نجيح, عن مجاهد: (ولا حرمنا من شيء)، قولُ قريش بغير يقين: إن الله حرّم هذه البحيرة والسائبة . * * * فإن قال قائل: وما برهانك على أن الله تعالى إنما كذب من قيل هؤلاء المشركين قولهم: " رضي الله منا عبادة الأوثان, وارأد منا تحريم ما حرمنا من الحروث والأنعام ", دون أن يكون تكذيبه إياهم كان على قولهم: (لو شاء الله ما أشركنا ولا آباؤنا ولا حرمنا من شيء)، وعلى وصفهم إياه بأنه قد شاء شركهم وشرك آبائهم, وتحريمهم ما كانوا يحرمون؟ قيل له: الدلالة على ذلك قوله: (كذلك كذب الذين من قبلهم)، فأخبر جل ثناؤه عنهم أنهم سلكوا في تكذيبهم نبيهم محمدًا صلى الله عليه وسلم فيما آتاهم به من عند الله = من النهي عن عبادة شيء غير الله تعالى ذكره, وتحريم غير ما حرّم الله في كتابه وعلى لسان رسوله = مسلكَ أسلافهم من الأمم الخالية المكذبة اللهَ ورسولَه . والتكذيبُ منهم إنما كان لمكذَّب, ولو كان ذلك خبرًا من الله عن كذبهم في قيلهم: (لو شاء الله ما أشركنا ولا آباؤنا)، لقال: " كذلك كذَبَ الذين من قبلهم "، بتخفيف " الذال ", وكان ينسبهم في قيلهم ذلك إلى الكذب على الله، لا إلى التكذيب = مع علل كثيرة يطول بذكرها الكتاب, وفيما ذكرنا كفاية لمن وُفِّق لفهمه . * * * القول في تأويل قوله : قُلْ هَلْ عِنْدَكُمْ مِنْ عِلْمٍ فَتُخْرِجُوهُ لَنَا إِنْ تَتَّبِعُونَ إِلا الظَّنَّ وَإِنْ أَنْتُمْ إِلا تَخْرُصُونَ (148) قال أبو جعفر: يقول تعالى ذكره لنبيه محمد صلى الله عليه وسلم: قل، يا محمد، لهؤلاء العادلين بربهم الأوثان والأصنام، المحرِّمين ما هم له محرِّمون من الحُروث والأنعام, القائلين: لَوْ شَاءَ اللَّهُ مَا أَشْرَكْنَا وَلا آبَاؤُنَا وَلا حَرَّمْنَا مِنْ شَيْءٍ ، ولكنه رضي منا ما نحن عليه من الشرك وتحريم ما نحرم: " هل عندكم "، = بدعواكم ما تدعون على الله من رضاه بإشراككم في عبادته ما تشركون، وتحريمكم من أموالكم ما تحرمون = علمُ يقينٍ من خبر مَنْ يقطع خبره العذر, أو حجة توجب لنا اليقين، من العلم =" فتخرجوه لنا "، يقول: فتظهروا ذلك لنا وتبينوه, كما بينا لكم مواضع خطأ قولكم وفعلكم, وتناقض ذلك واستحالته في المعقول والمسموع (6) =(إن تتبعون إلا الظن)، يقولُ له: قل لهم: إن تقولون ما تقولون، أيها المشركون، وتعبدون من الأوثان والأصنام ما تعبدون، وتحرمون من الحروث والأنعام ما تحرّمون، إلا ظنًّا وحسبانًا أنه حق, وأنكم على حق، وهو باطلٌ, وأنتم على باطل =(وإن أنتم إلا تخرصون)، يقول: " وإن أنتم ", وما أنتم في ذلك كله =" إلا تخرصون ", يقول: إلا تتقوّلون الباطل على الله، ظنًّا بغير يقين علم ولا برهان واضح . (7) --------------- الهوامش : (5) انظر تفسير (( ذاق )) فيما سلف : 11 : 420 ، تعليق : 1 ، والمراجع هناك . (6) انظر تفسير (( الإخراج )) فيما سلف 2 : 228 . (7) انظر تفسير (( التخرص )) فيما سلف ص 65 .