Tafseer of The Heights · Al-A'raaf · 7:71
[Hud] said, "Already have defilement and anger fallen upon you from your Lord. Do you dispute with me concerning [mere] names you have named them, you and your fathers, for which Allah has not sent down any authority? Then wait; indeed, I am with you among those who wait."
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 explanation of His word: قَالَ قَدْ وَقَعَ عَلَيْكُمْ مِنْ رَبِّكُمْ رِجْسٌ وَغَضَبٌ أَتُجَادِلُونَنِي فِي أَسْمَاءٍ سَمَّيْتُمُوهَا أَنْتُمْ وَآبَاؤُكُمْ مَا نَزَّلَ اللَّهُ بِهَا مِنْ سُلْطَانٍ فَانْتَظِرُوا إِنِّي مَعَكُمْ مِنَ الْمُنْتَظِرِينَ (71) ("He said: Already there has fallen upon you from your Lord defilement (rijs) and wrath. Do you dispute with me over names which you and your fathers have given, for which Allah has sent down no authority? Then wait; verily, I am with you among those who wait.") (7:71)
Abū Jaʿfar said: The Exalted, whose mention is exalted, says: Hūd said to his people: Already there has descended upon you punishment and wrath from Allah.
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Abū ʿAmr ibn al-ʿAlāʾ — according to what has been related to us concerning him — claimed that "al-rijz" and "al-rijs" have one and the same meaning, and that it is a transposition (qalb): the sīn was changed into a zāy, just as "sitt" — which derives from "sudās" — was transposed with a sīn, and just as they said "qarabūs" and "qarabūt", and just as the rajaz-poet said:
Woe, may Allah curse the sons of al-Siʿlāt, ʿAmr ibn Yarbūʿ, the basest of men (al-nāt), they are neither chaste (aʿfāf) nor sharp-witted (akyāt).
He means "al-nās" (mankind) and "akyās" (the sharp-witted), wherein the sīn has been transposed into a tāʾ, just as Ruʾba said:
How many an enemy, numerous and overwhelming, have we seen, until we struck down his cunning with the "rijz".
It is related from Ibn ʿAbbās that he used to say: "al-rijs" is wrath (al-sakhṭ).
14808 — This al-Muthannā related to me; he said: ʿAbd Allāh ibn Ṣāliḥ related to us; he said: Muʿāwiya related to us, on the authority of ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭalḥa, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, concerning His word: "Already there has fallen upon you from your Lord defilement" — he says: wrath.
As for His word: "Do you dispute with me over names which you and your fathers have given" — He says thereby: do you contend with me over names which you have given to idols that neither harm nor benefit = "you and your fathers, for which Allah has sent down no authority" — He says: Allah has given you in your worship of them no proof by which you may argue, nor any excuse by which you may excuse yourselves, for worship is due only to Him who harms and benefits, who rewards for obedience and punishes for disobedience, who provides and withholds. But as for the inanimate thing — of stone, iron, and copper — in it there is no benefit and no harm, except that one makes of it a tool; and the worshipper who worships something other than Allah has no proof whatsoever for his worship of it, because Allah has given no permission for that, such that the one who worshipped it might excuse himself with the claim that he worships it in compliance with the command of Allah regarding his worship of it. Nor is it — since Allah has not permitted its worship — something from which benefit is hoped for or harm is feared, in the short or the long term, such that it might be worshipped in hope of its benefit or the averting of its harm. — "Then wait; verily, I am with you among those who wait" — He says: then await the judgement of Allah concerning us and concerning you = "verily, I am with you among those who wait" for His judgement and the decisive pronouncement of His verdict concerning us and concerning you.
