Tafseer of The Pen · Al-Qalam · 68:25
And they went early in determination, [assuming themselves] able.
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.
His word: And they went out early upon ḥard, capable, he said: people of capability.
Yaʿqūb ibn Ibrāhīm related to me, saying: Hushaym related to us, saying: Ḥajjāj reported to us, on the authority of someone who related it to him, on the authority of Mujāhid, concerning Allah's word: upon ḥard, capable, he said: resolutely capable within themselves.
He said: Ibn ʿUlayya related to us, on the authority of Abū Rajāʾ, on the authority of al-Ḥasan, concerning His word: And they went out early upon ḥard, capable, he said: with effort — or he said: with resolve.
Bishr related to us, saying: Yazīd related to us, saying: Saʿīd related to us, on the authority of Qatāda: And they went out early upon ḥard, capable: the people went out in the morning while they were resolute toward their garden, capable concerning it within themselves.
Ibn ʿAbd al-Aʿlā related to us, saying: Ibn Thawr related to us, on the authority of Maʿmar, on the authority of Qatāda: And they went out early upon ḥard, capable, he said: with resolve in their affair.
Yūnus related to me, saying: Ibn Wahb reported to us, saying: Ibn Zayd said, concerning His word: upon ḥard, capable: with resolve, capable within themselves.
And others said: no, the meaning of it is: and they went out early toward an affair which they had unanimously decided upon among themselves, which they kept secret and concealed within themselves.
* Mention of who said that:
Ibn Ḥumayd related to us, saying: Mihrān related to us, on the authority of Sufyān, on the authority of Ibrāhīm ibn al-Muhājir, on the authority of Mujāhid: And they went out early upon ḥard, capable, he said: it was the field of their father, and they were brothers, and they said: we shall feed no needy person from it until we know what it yields. And they went out early upon ḥard, capable: upon an affair which they had settled among themselves.
Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr related to us, 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 — all on the authority of Ibn Abī Najīḥ, on the authority of Mujāhid, concerning His word: upon ḥard, he said: upon a unanimously decided affair.
Hannād related to us, saying: Abū al-Aḥwaṣ related to us, on the authority of Simāk, on the authority of ʿIkrima: And they went out early upon ḥard, capable, he said: upon a unanimously decided affair.
And others said: no, the meaning of it is: and they went out early in poverty and need.
* Mention of who said that:
Ibn ʿAbd al-Aʿlā related to us, saying: Ibn Thawr related to us, on the authority of Maʿmar, saying: al-Ḥasan said, concerning His word: And they went out early upon ḥard, capable, he said: in poverty.
And others said: no, the meaning of it is: in anger.
* Mention of who said that:
Ibn Ḥumayd related to us, saying: Mihrān related to us, on the authority of Sufyān: And they went out early upon ḥard, capable, he said: in anger. And it appears that Sufyān, in this interpretation of his, relied upon something like the saying of al-Ashhab ibn Rumayla:
Lions of Sharā met lions of Khaffiyya and they toasted one another in anger with the blood of the black serpents.
He means: in wrath. And one of the people who had knowledge of the speech of the Arabs from Basra interpreted it thus: and they went out early with withholding.
He traced it back to their expression: "the year withheld (ḥāradat al-sana)," when no rain falls in it, and "the she-camel withheld (ḥāradat al-nāqa)," when she has no milk, as the poet said:
And when she then withholds or gives little milk, then the clay of the stopper of another [jug] is rubbed off it.
And this is a view for which we know none of the earlier scholars who expressed it, even though it has a basis. Since that is so, and it is not permissible for us to disregard that upon which the authoritative consensus (al-ḥujja) agrees, none of the views concerning it is valid except one of the views which we have mentioned on the authority of the people of knowledge. And since that is so, and the well-known meaning of "al-ḥard" in the speech of the Arabs is "the aiming, the intending" — derived from their expression: "so-and-so aimed at the intent of so-and-so (ḥarada ḥarda fulān)," when he aims at his direction; and to this belongs the saying of the rajaz-poet:
And there came a flood that was from the decree of Allah, which aimed at the direction of the fruit-bearing garden —
that is to say: it aims at its direction — thus it is valid that the view most fitting for the interpretation of the verse is the view of him who said: the meaning of His word And they went out early upon ḥard, capable is: and they went out early toward an affair which they had aimed at and taken upon themselves, which they kept secret among themselves, capable concerning it within themselves.
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Footnotes:
(6) The verse belongs to the evidentiary verses of Abū ʿUbayda in Majāz al-Qurʾān (folio 179) concerning His word, the Exalted: And they went out early upon ḥard, capable. He said: the figurative meaning of it is "with withholding," from "the she-camel withheld (ḥāradat al-nāqa)" — she had no milk. And "upon ḥard" also means "with intent," the first [poet] said:
There came a flood that was from the decree of Allah, which aimed at the direction of the fruit-bearing garden.
And another said: "upon ḥard" means "in anger." Al-Ashhab ibn Zumayla, who used to satirize al-Farazdaq, said: "Lions of Sharā..." the verse. End of citation. Sharā and Khaffiyya are two well-known lions' dens. And al-asāwid is the plural of aswad, which is a name for the serpent; therefore it is pluralized in this manner as names on the pattern fāʿil are pluralized, like arānib; and had it been an adjective, it would have been pluralized as sūd.
(7) In (al-Lisān: ḥrd): "the camels withheld (ḥāradat al-ibil ḥirādan)," that is to say: their milk dried up or became little. And in (al-Lisān: bkʾ): "the she-camel and the ewe gave little milk (bakaʾat... wa-bakuʾat)," and she is bakīʾ and bakīʾa: her milk became little — and one says: dried up. And al-fatt is the rubbing fine; "he rubbed the thing fine (fatta al-shayʾa yafuttuhu fattan)" and "fattatahu" (with doubling): he crushed it, and one says: "fattahu": he broke it. And the author of al-Lisān cited the verse under ḥrd together with another verse before it, and he said: al-ḥārid is the milk-poor among the she-camels, and al-ḥarūd among the she-camels is the milk-poor. And "the year withheld (ḥāradat al-sana)": it became poor in water and rain — and that was transferred to the vessels when their drink is exhausted. He said:
And we have a large bowl, filled, a great jug, followed by its birzīn; and when she then withholds or gives little, then the clay of the stopper of another [jug] is rubbed off it.
And al-birzīn is a vessel made from the spathe of the male date-palm's blossom-sheath, from which one drinks. End of citation. And the verse is a proof that the meaning of "the year withheld," "the she-camel withheld," and "the large bowl withheld" is: its rain became little, its milk became little, and its wine became exhausted. End of citation. And the transmission of the first verse in (al-Lisān: brzn) is: "indeed our milch she-camel is a large bowl..." and so forth.
(8) These are two verses of mashṭūr-rajaz, which are not attributed to a known poet. And as the transmission of al-Farrāʾ in Maʿānī al-Qurʾān and as the transmission of the first verse in (al-Lisān: ḥrd): "and there came a flood (wa-jāʾa sayl)," as the transmission of the author here. And in Majāz al-Qurʾān: "there came (qad jāʾa)." And in al-Kāmil of al-Mubarrad, volume 1: 50, edition of Muṣṭafā al-Bābī al-Ḥalabī and sons: "there came in a path there came (qad jāʾa fī sabīl jāʾa)." Al-Mubarrad said in al-Kāmil: as for the word of Allah, mighty and exalted is He: And they went out early upon ḥard, capable — in it are two views: one is what we have mentioned of the meaning "intent" — the poet said: "there came a flood, there came..." the two verses. And they said: "upon ḥard" means "with withholding," from their saying: "the year withheld (ḥāradat al-sana)," when it withholds its rain, and "the she-camel withheld (ḥāradat al-nāqa)," when she withholds her milk. End of citation. And al-Farrāʾ said in Maʿānī al-Qurʾān: "upon ḥard" means "with resolve and capability within themselves." And al-ḥard is also "the intent," as the man says: "I turned toward you (aqbaltu qibalak), and I aimed at your direction (qaṣadtu qaṣdak), and I aimed at your intent (ḥaradtu ḥardak)." And someone recited to me: "and there came a flood that was..." the two verses. And he means: aiming at its direction. End of citation.
