Tabari (1 passage)

1. Full Dutch translation of Tabari's text

   And His saying fa-ṣbir ṣabran jamīlā (So be patient with a beautiful patience). The Exalted in mention says: fa-ṣbir ṣabran jamīlā (So be patient with a beautiful patience), that is to say: a patience in which there is no disquiet. He says to him: be patient with the harm that these polytheists (mushrikīn) inflict upon you, and do not let the displeasure that you experience from them turn you away from conveying to them that which your Lord has commanded you to deliver of the message.

   Ibn Zayd used to say concerning this what Yūnus related to me about it, he said: Ibn Wahb informed us, he said: Ibn Zayd said concerning His saying fa-ṣbir ṣabran jamīlā (So be patient with a beautiful patience): he said: this was when He was still commanding him to pardon them and not to requite them; but when the jihād and severity against them was commanded to him, the harshness and the killing were commanded to him until they would desist, and this was abrogated (nasakha). And this which Ibn Zayd said — that he had been commanded by this āya to pardon and that this was subsequently abrogated — is a statement for which there is no basis, for there is no proof of the correctness of what he said by way of any of the paths by which assertions are made valid. And in Allah's command to His Prophet ﷺ to the beautiful patience at the harm of the polytheists there is nothing that necessitates that this would be a command from Him to him for only some of the circumstances; rather it was a command from Allah to him for all circumstances, for he ﷺ, from the moment that Allah sent him until the moment that He took him away, was continually amid harm from them, and he was throughout all of that patient with what he experienced of harm from them, both before Allah granted him permission to fight them and after His permission to that.

   Show original Arabic

   وقوله: ( فَاصْبِرْ صَبْرًا جَمِيلا )يقول تعالى ذكره: ( فَاصْبِرْ صَبْرًا جَمِيلا )يعني: صبرا لا جزع فيه. يقول له: اصبر على أذى هؤلاء المشركين لك، ولا يثنيك ما تلقى منهم من المكروه عن تبليغ ما أمرك ربك أن تبلغهم من الرسالة. وكان ابن زيد يقول في ذلك ما حدثني به يونس، قال: أخبرنا ابن وهب، قال، قال ابن زيد، في قوله: ( فَاصْبِرْ صَبْرًا جَمِيلا ) قال: هذا حين كان يأمره بالعفو عنهم لا يكافئهم، فلما أمر بالجهاد والغلظة عليهم أمر بالشدّة والقتل حتى يتركوا، ونسخ هذا، وهذا الذي قاله ابن زيد أنه كان أمر بالعفو بهذه الآية، ثم نسخ ذلك قول لا وجه له، لأنه لا دلالة على صحة ما قال من بعض الأوجه التي تصحّ منها الدعاوى، وليس في أمر الله نبيه صلى الله عليه وسلم في الصبر الجميل على أذى المشركين ما يوجب أن يكون ذلك أمرا منه له به في بعض الأحوال؛ بل كان ذلك أمرا من الله له به في كل الأحوال، لأنه لم يزل صلى الله عليه وسلم من لدن بعثه الله إلى أن اخترمه في أذى منهم، وهو في كل ذلك صابر على ما يلقى منهم من أذى قبل أن يأذن الله له بحربهم، وبعد إذنه له بذلك.