Tabari (1 passage)

1. Full Dutch translation of Tabari's text

   The statement concerning the explanation of His saying, the Exalted: فَهُوَ فِي عِيشَةٍ رَاضِيَةٍ (21) ("Then he is in a contented mode of living") (69:21).

   He — exalted be His mention — says: The one whose condition I have described, namely he who received his book in his right hand, is in a pleasing mode of living, that is, a mode of living in which contentment prevails. He described the mode of living as "contented" (rāḍiya) while it is [in fact] "pleasing" (marḍiyya, an object of contentment), because this conveys a praise of the mode of living. The Arabs do this in praising and in blaming; thus they say: "a sleeping night" (laylun nā-im), "a concealing secret" (sirrun kātim), and "flowing water" (mā-un dāfiq), ascribing the action to the thing itself, while in origin it is said of that which is intended by the praise or the blame. Yet whoever speaks thus may not say that the striker (al-ḍārib) is "struck" (maḍrūb), nor that the struck one (al-maḍrūb) is "striking" (ḍārib), because therein lies neither praise nor blame.

   Show original Arabic

   القول في تأويل قوله تعالى : فَهُوَ فِي عِيشَةٍ رَاضِيَةٍ (21) يقول تعالى ذكره: فالذي وصفت أمره، وهو الذي أوتي كتابه بيمينه، في عيشة مرضية، أو عيشة فيها الرضا، فوصفت العيشة بالرضا وهي مرضية، لأن ذلك مدح للعيشة، والعرب تفعل ذلك في المدح والذّم فتقول: هذا ليل نائم، وسرّ كاتم، وماء دافق، فيوجهون الفعل إليه، وهو في الأصل مقول لما يراد من المدح أو الذّم، ومن قال ذلك لم يجز له أن يقول للضارب مضروب، ولا للمضروب ضارب، لأنه لا مدح فيه ولا ذمّ.