Tafseer of The Cattle · Al-An'aam · 6:55
And thus do We detail the verses, and [thus] the way of the criminals will become evident.
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 discourse on the explanation of His statement: And thus do We expound the signs, so that the way of the criminals may become clear (6:55)
Abū Jaʿfar said: The Exalted, whose praise is exalted, means by His statement "And thus do We expound the signs": and just as We have expounded for you in this surah, from its beginning and its opening, O Muḥammad, up to this place, Our proof against the polytheists (mushrikīn) among the idol-worshippers, and Our indications, and just as We have distinguished and clarified them for you, thus do We expound for you Our signs and Our indications in every truth which the adherents of falsehood among the remaining religious communities besides them deny, and We clarify them for you, until its truth becomes clear from its falsehood, and its sound part from its diseased part.
* * *
The Qurʾān-reciters differed concerning the reading of His statement "so that the way of the criminals may become clear."
Most of the reciters of the People of Medina read this: (wa-li-tastabīna) with the tāʾ, (sabīla l-mujrimīna) with the naṣb (accusative) of "al-sabīl" (the way), on the basis that "tastabīn" is an address to the Prophet ﷺ, as if the meaning according to them is: so that you, O Muḥammad, may make clear the way of the criminals.
* * *
Ibn Zayd explained this thus: so that you, O Muḥammad, may make clear the way of the criminals who asked you to drive away that group of people who asked him to drive them away from him, namely from among his companions.
13299 - Yūnus related to me, saying: Ibn Wahb informed us, saying: Ibn Zayd said concerning "so that the way of the criminals may become clear," he said: those who command you to drive these away.
* * *
Some of the Meccans and some of the reciters of Basra read this: (wa-li-tastabīna) with the tāʾ, (sabīlu l-mujrimīna) with the rafʿ (nominative) of "al-sabīl," on the basis that the "becoming clear" is directed at the way, but they make it [grammatically] feminine — and as if the meaning of the statement according to them is: and thus do We expound the signs, so that for you and for the believers the way of the criminals may become clear.
* * *
Most of the reciters of the People of Kufa read this: (wa-li-yastabīna) with the yāʾ, (sabīlu l-mujrimīna) with the rafʿ of "al-sabīl," on the basis that the action belongs to the way, but they make it [grammatically] masculine. And the meaning of these in this statement, and the meaning of whoever read this with the tāʾ in "wa-li-tastabīna" with the rafʿ of "al-sabīl," is one and the same; the difference between them concerns only the making of "al-sabīl" masculine and feminine.
* * *
Abū Jaʿfar said: And the more correct of the two readings according to me regarding "al-sabīl" is the rafʿ (nominative), for Allah, the Exalted whose praise is exalted, has expounded His signs in His Book and His revelation, so that all to whom it is addressed might thereby distinguish the truth from the falsehood, not some to the exclusion of others.
And whoever reads "al-sabīl" with the naṣb (accusative) has restricted the making clear of it to the Prophet ﷺ alone.
And as for the reading in His statement "wa-li-tastabīna": it is the same whether it is read with the tāʾ or with the yāʾ, for some of the Arabs make "al-sabīl" masculine — those are the [tribe of] Tamīm and the people of Najd — and some of them make "al-sabīl" feminine — those are the people of the Ḥijāz. They are both widespread readings among the reciters of the regions, and two well-known dialects among the dialects of the Arabs, and there is in reading it one way no contradiction with reading it the other way, and there is no reason to prefer the one over the other — after one has placed "al-sabīl" in the rafʿ — for the reason which we have mentioned.
* * *
And in agreement with what we have said concerning the explanation of His statement "We expound the signs" spoke the exegetes.
13300 - Al-Muthannā related to me, saying: Isḥāq related to us, saying: ʿAbd al-Razzāq related to us, saying: Maʿmar informed us, on the authority of Qatāda: "And thus do We expound the signs," [means] We clarify the signs.
13301 - Yūnus related to me, saying: Ibn Wahb informed us, saying: Ibn Zayd said concerning "We expound the signs": We clarify.
