Tafseer of The Heights · Al-A'raaf · 7:203
And when you, [O Muhammad], do not bring them a sign, they say, "Why have you not contrived it?" Say, "I only follow what is revealed to me from my Lord. This [Qur'an] is enlightenment from your Lord and guidance and mercy for a people who believe."
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 interpretation of His statement: And when you do not bring them a sign, they say: "If only you had chosen it yourself!"
Abū Jaʿfar said: The Exalted, whose praise is mentioned, says: and when you, O Muḥammad, do not bring these polytheists (mushrikīn) a sign from Allah — (they say: "If only you had chosen it!" — ijtabaytahā), he says: they say: if only you had picked it out and selected it — derived from the statement of Allah the Exalted: But Allah chooses from among His messengers whom He wills [Sūra Āl ʿImrān: 179], that is to say: He chooses and selects. And we have already expounded this in its proper places with its proofs.
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Then the people of interpretation differed concerning the explanation thereof.
Some of them said: its meaning is: if only you had invented and fabricated it from yourself? In the sense: if only you had chosen it by way of invention? As the Arabs say: "so-and-so has chosen and selected this matter by way of invention."
* Mention of who said that:
15571 — Bishr related to us, he said: Yazīd related to us, he said: Saʿīd related to us, on the authority of Qatāda, concerning His statement: (and when you do not bring them a sign, they say: "If only you had chosen it!"), that is to say: if only you had brought it to us from yourself? This is the statement of the disbelievers of Quraysh.
15572 — Al-Qāsim related to us, he said: al-Ḥusayn related to us, he said: Ḥajjāj related to me, on the authority of Ibn Jurayj, on the authority of ʿAbdallāh ibn Kathīr, on the authority of Mujāhid, concerning His statement: (and when you do not bring them a sign, they say: "If only you had chosen it!") they said: if only you had invented it unprepared! They said: you bring it forth out of yourself.
15573 — Yūnus related to me, he said: Ibn Wahb informed us, he said: Ibn Zayd said concerning His statement: (and when you do not bring them a sign, they say: "If only you had chosen it!") they said: if only you had invented it yourself and brought it forth from yourself?
15574 — Al-Muthannā related to me, he said: ʿAbdallāh related to me, he said: Muʿāwiya related to me, on the authority of ʿAlī, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, concerning His statement: ("If only you had chosen it!"), he says: if only you had received it — and another time he said: if only you had brought it about and produced it.
15575 — Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥusayn related to me, he said: Aḥmad ibn al-Mufaḍḍal related to us, he said: Asbāṭ related to us, on the authority of al-Suddī: (they say: "If only you had chosen it!"), he says: if only you had brought it about.
15576 — Al-Ḥasan ibn Yaḥyā related to us, he said: ʿAbd al-Razzāq informed us, he said: Maʿmar informed us, on the authority of Qatāda, concerning His statement: ("If only you had chosen it!") he said: if only you had brought it from yourself!
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And others said: the meaning thereof is: if only you had taken it from your Lord and accepted it from Him?
* Mention of who said that:
15577 — Muḥammad ibn Saʿd related to me, he said: my father related to me, he said: my uncle related to me, he said: my father related to me, on the authority of his father, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, concerning His statement: ("If only you had chosen it!"), he says: if only you had accepted it from Allah!
15578 — Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Aʿlā related to us, he said: Muḥammad ibn Thawr related to us, on the authority of Maʿmar, on the authority of Qatāda: ("If only you had chosen it!"), he says: if only you had received it from your Lord!
15579 — It was related to me on the authority of al-Ḥusayn ibn al-Faraj, he said: I heard Abū Muʿādh saying, he said: ʿUbayd ibn Sulaymān related to us, he said: I heard al-Ḍaḥḥāk saying concerning His statement: ("If only you had chosen it!"), he says: if only you had taken it yourself and brought it down from heaven.
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Abū Jaʿfar said: And the more fitting of the two interpretations in this matter is the interpretation of him who says that its interpretation is: if only you had brought it forth out of yourself! — because of the indication of Allah's statement: Say: "I follow only what is revealed to me by my Lord; these are insights from your Lord". This makes clear that Allah commanded His Prophet — may Allah bless him and grant him peace — only to answer them with the announcement about himself, that he follows only what his Lord sends down to him and reveals to him, and not that he brings about and produces a statement out of himself and calls people to it.
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And it is transmitted from al-Farrāʾ that he used to say: "ijtabaytu al-kalām" ("I chose the statement"), and "ikhtalaqtuhu" ("I fabricated it"), and "irtajaltuhu" ("I brought it forth unprepared"): when you invent it out of yourself.
15580 — Concerning that al-Ḥārith related to me, he said: al-Qāsim related to us on his authority.
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Abū ʿUbayda said: and Abū Zayd used to say: the Arabs say that only concerning the statement that a man begins, which he had not prepared beforehand within himself. Abū ʿUbayd said: and "ikhtaraʿtuhu" ("I devised it on the spot") is equivalent to it.
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The discourse on the interpretation of His statement: I follow only what is revealed to me by my Lord; these are insights from your Lord, and guidance and mercy for a people who believe (203).
Abū Jaʿfar said: The Exalted, whose praise is mentioned, says to His Prophet Muḥammad — may Allah bless him and grant him peace: say, O Muḥammad, to those who say to you, when you do not bring them a sign: "If only you had brought it about out of yourself!": that is not permitted to me, and it is not lawful for me to do it; for Allah has only commanded me to follow what is revealed to me from with Him. I therefore follow only what is revealed to me by my Lord, because I am His servant, and at His command I halt, and Him I obey. — (these are insights from your Lord), he says: this Qurʾān and the revelation (waḥy) which I recite to you — "insights from your Lord," he says: proofs against you, and a clarification for you from your Lord.
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— and the singular thereof is "baṣīra" ("insight"), as the Exalted, whose praise is exalted, said: These are insights for mankind, and guidance and mercy for a people who are certain [Sūra al-Jāthiya: 20].
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And "this" (hādhā) was mentioned in the singular in His statement: (these are insights from your Lord), because of what I have described, namely that thereby the Qurʾān and the revelation are intended.
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And His statement: (and guidance — hudā), he says: and a clarification that guides the believers to the straight path — (and mercy — raḥma), with which Allah has shown mercy to His believing servants, that He might thereby save them from misguidance and ruin — (for a people who believe), he says: it is insights from Allah and guidance and mercy for whoever believes, he says: for whoever holds the Qurʾān to be true as the sending-down of Allah and His revelation, and acts according to what is in it — unlike whoever denies it and rejects it and disbelieves in it; rather, for those who do not believe in it, it is blindness and disgrace.
