Tabari (1 passage)

1. Full Dutch translation of Tabari's text

   The explanation of His word: وَكَذَلِكَ فَتَنَّا بَعْضَهُمْ بِبَعْضٍ لِيَقُولُوا أَهَؤُلاءِ مَنَّ اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِمْ مِنْ بَيْنِنَا أَلَيْسَ اللَّهُ بِأَعْلَمَ بِالشَّاكِرِينَ (53) ("And thus have We tried some of them by means of others, that they might say: 'Are these the ones whom Allah has favored among us?' Is Allah not most knowing of the grateful?" (6:53)).

   Abū Jaʿfar said: The Exalted — exalted be His mention — means by His word "And thus have We tried some of them by means of others": and thus did We test them and try them, as the following:

   13289 — Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Aʿlā related to us, saying: Muḥammad ibn Thawr related to us, on the authority of Maʿmar — and al-Ḥusayn ibn Yaḥyā related to us, saying: ʿAbd al-Razzāq informed us, saying: Maʿmar informed us — on the authority of Qatāda: "And thus have We tried some of them by means of others", he says: We tried some of them by means of others.

   * * *

   We have already demonstrated earlier in this book of ours what the meaning of "the trial (al-fitna)" is, and that it means the testing and the trial, with that which exempts us from repeating it here.

   * * *

   The trial by Allah — exalted be His mention — of some of His creatures by means of others is merely His making a distinction among them in what He has apportioned to them of provision and of character traits: thus He made one rich and another poor, one strong and another weak, and made them dependent on one another, as a testing on His part of them thereby.

   * * *

   And in accordance with what we have said about this, a group of the people of interpretation (ahl al-taʾwīl) have spoken.

   * Mention of who said that:

   13290 — Al-Muthannā related to me, saying: ʿAbd Allāh 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: "And thus have We tried some of them by means of others" — He means that He made some of them rich and others poor, whereupon the rich said to the poor: "Are these the ones whom Allah has favored among us?", that is to say: Allah has guided them. And they said that only out of mockery and scorn.

   * * *

   As for His word "that they might say: are these the ones whom Allah has favored among us?", the Exalted says: We tried the people with wealth and poverty, with honor and humiliation, with strength and weakness, and with guidance and error, that he whom Allah has led astray and made blind to the path of the truth might say to those whom Allah has guided and made successful: "Are these the ones whom Allah has favored?" with the guidance and the right direction, while they are poor, weak and humiliated, "among us", while we are rich and strong? — in mockery of them, and out of enmity toward Islam and its people.

   The Exalted — exalted be His mention — says: "Is Allah not most knowing of the grateful?" And this is from Him — exalted be His mention — a reply to these polytheists (mushrikīn) who denied that Allah would have guided the people of neediness and weakness to the truth and deprived them of it while they were rich; and an affirmation to them: I am most knowing of which of My creatures was grateful for My favor, and who was ungrateful for it. My favoring, then, of the one among them whom I have favored with the guidance is the recompense for his gratitude toward Me for My favor, and My casting off of the one among them whom I have cast off from the path of the right direction is the punishment for his ingratitude toward Me for My favor — not because of the wealth of the rich one among them, nor because of the poverty of the poor one; for reward and punishment no one deserves except as recompense for his deed that he has performed, not for his wealth or his poverty, because wealth, poverty, incapacity and strength do not belong to the deeds of My creatures.

   Show original Arabic

   القول في تأويل قوله : وَكَذَلِكَ فَتَنَّا بَعْضَهُمْ بِبَعْضٍ لِيَقُولُوا أَهَؤُلاءِ مَنَّ اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِمْ مِنْ بَيْنِنَا أَلَيْسَ اللَّهُ بِأَعْلَمَ بِالشَّاكِرِينَ (53) قال أبو جعفر: يعني تعالى ذكره بقوله: " وكذلك فتنا بعضهم ببعض "، وكذلك اختبرنا وابتلينا، كالذي:- 13289 - حدثنا محمد بن عبد الأعلى قال، حدثنا محمد بن ثور, عن معمر = وحدثنا الحسين بن يحيى قال، أخبرنا عبد الرزاق قال، أخبرنا معمر = عن قتادة: " وكذلك فتنا بعضهم ببعض "، يقول: ابتلينا بعضهم ببعض. * * * وقد دللنا فيما مضى من كتابنا هذا على معنى " الفتنة ", وأنها الاختبار والابتلاء, بما أغنى عن إعادته في هذا الموضع. (1) * * * وإنما فتنة الله تعالى ذكره بعضَ خلقه ببعضٍ, مخالفتُه بينهم فيما قسم لهم من الأرزاق والأخلاق, فجعل بعضًا غنيًّا وبعضًا فقيرًا، وبعضًا قويًّا، وبعضًا ضعيفًا, فأحوج بعضهم إلى بعض, اختبارًا منه لهم بذلك. * * * وبنحو الذي قلنا في ذلك قال جماعة من أهل التأويل. * ذكر من قال ذلك: 13290 - حدثني المثنى قال، حدثنا عبد الله بن صالح قال، حدثني معاوية بن صالح, عن علي بن أبي طلحة, عن ابن عباس قوله: " وكذلك فتنا بعضهم ببعض " ، يعني أنه جعل بعضهم أغنياء وبعضهم فقراء, فقال الأغنياء للفقراء: " أهؤلاء منّ الله عليهم من بيننا "، يعني: هداهم الله. وإنما قالوا ذلك استهزاءً وسُخريًّا. (2) * * * وأما قوله: " ليقولوا أهؤلاء منّ الله عليهم من بيننا "، يقول تعالى: اختبرنا الناس بالغنى والفقر، والعزّ والذل، والقوة والضعف، والهدى والضلال, كي يقول من أضلّه الله وأعماه عن سبيل الحق، للذين هداهم الله ووفقهم: " أهؤلاء منّ الله عليهم "، بالهدى والرشد، وهم فقراء ضعفاء أذلاء (3) =" من بيننا "، ونحن أغنياء أقوياء؟ استهزاءً بهم, ومعاداةً للإسلام وأهله. يقول تعالى ذكره: " أليس الله بأعلم بالشاكرين " ، وهذا منه تعالى ذكره إجابة لهؤلاء المشركين الذين أنكروا أن يكون الله هدى أهل المسكنة والضعف للحق, وخذلهم عنه وهم أغنياء = وتقريرٌ لهم: أنا أعلم بمن كان من خلقي شاكرًا نعمتي، ممن هو لها كافر. فمنِّي على من مَنَنْتُ عليه منهم بالهداية، جزاء شكره إياي على نعمتي, وتخذيلي من خذلت منهم عن سبيل الرشاد، عقوبة كفرانه إياي نعمتي، لا لغنى الغني منهم ولا لفقر الفقير، لأن الثواب والعقاب لا يستحقه أحدٌ إلا جزاءً على عمله الذي اكتسبه، لا على غناه وفقره, لأن الغنى والفقر والعجز والقوة ليس من أفعال خلقي. ----------------- الهوامش : (1) انظر تفسير"الفتنة" فيما سلف ص: 297 ، تعليق: 2 ، والمراجع هناك. (2) في المطبوعة: "سخرية" ، وأثبت ما في المخطوطة. (3) انظر تفسير"المن" فيما سلف 7: 369/9 : 71.