Tafseer of The Cloaked One · Al-Muddaththir · 74:51
Fleeing from a lion?
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.
And His word: فَرَّتْ مِنْ قَسْوَرَةٍ ("that fled from a qaswara"). The scholars of interpretation (ahl al-taʾwīl) differed concerning the meaning of "qaswara." Some of them said: it is the archers (al-rumāt).
* Mention of who said that:
Abū al-Sāʾib related to me, saying: Ḥafṣ ibn Ghiyāth related to us, on the authority of Ḥajjāj, on the authority of ʿAṭāʾ, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, concerning His word: فَرَّتْ مِنْ قَسْوَرَةٍ , he said: the archers.
Ibn Ḥumayd related to me, saying: Mihrān related to us, on the authority of Sufyān; and Abū Kurayb related to us, saying: Wakīʿ related to us, on the authority of Sufyān, on the authority of al-Aʿmash, on the authority of Abū Ẓabyān, on the authority of Abū Mūsā, [concerning] فَرَّتْ مِنْ قَسْوَرَةٍ , he said: the archers.
Ibn Ḥumayd related to us, saying: Mihrān related to us, on the authority of Sufyān, on the authority of Manṣūr, on the authority of Mujāhid, [concerning] فَرَّتْ مِنْ قَسْوَرَةٍ , he said: they are the archers.
He said: Wakīʿ related to us, on the authority of Sufyān, on the authority of Manṣūr, on the authority of Mujāhid, the same.
Abū Kurayb related to us, saying: Wakīʿ related to us, on the authority of Sufyān, on the authority of Manṣūr, on the authority of Mujāhid, the same.
Ibn Bashshār related to us, saying: ʿAbd al-Raḥmān related to us, saying: Sufyān related to us, on the authority of Manṣūr, on the authority of Mujāhid, the same.
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 — both on the authority of Ibn Abī Najīḥ, on the authority of Mujāhid, [concerning] his word: قَسْوَرَةٍ , he said: a band of hunters from the archers. Al-Ḥārith added in his narration, he said: and some of them said concerning the qaswara: it is the lion, and some: the archers.
Hannād ibn al-Sarī related to us, saying: Abū al-Aḥwaṣ related to us, on the authority of Simāk, on the authority of ʿIkrima, concerning His word: فَرَّتْ مِنْ قَسْوَرَةٍ , he said: the qaswara are the archers. A man said to ʿIkrima: it is the lion in the language of the Abyssinians. ʿIkrima said: the name of the lion in the language of the Abyssinians is "ʿanbasa."
Yaʿqūb ibn Ibrāhīm related to me, saying: Ibn ʿUlayya related to us, saying: Abū Rajāʾ informed us, on the authority of ʿIkrima, concerning His word: فَرَّتْ مِنْ قَسْوَرَةٍ , he said: the archers.
Abū Kurayb related to us, saying: Wakīʿ related to us, on the authority of Isrāʾīl, on the authority of Abū Isḥāq, on the authority of Sulaymān ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-Salūlī, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, he said: they are the archers.
Bishr related to us, saying: Yazīd related to us, saying: Saʿīd related to us, on the authority of Qatāda, [concerning] فَرَّتْ مِنْ قَسْوَرَةٍ : they are the hunting archers.
Ibn ʿAbd al-Aʿlā related to us, saying: Ibn Thawr related to us, on the authority of Maʿmar, on the authority of Qatāda, concerning His word: فَرَّتْ مِنْ قَسْوَرَةٍ , he said: the qaswara of the arrows.
And others said: they are the hunters (al-qunnāṣ).
* Mention of who said that:
Muḥammad ibn Saʿd related to me, saying: my father related to me, saying: my uncle related to me, saying: my father related to me, on the authority of his father, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, [concerning] فَرَّتْ مِنْ قَسْوَرَةٍ , that is to say: the men of the hunt.
Ibn Bashshār related to us, saying: Muḥammad ibn Jaʿfar related to us, saying: Shuʿba related to us, on the authority of Abū Bishr, on the authority of Saʿīd ibn Jubayr, concerning this verse فَرَّتْ مِنْ قَسْوَرَةٍ , he said: they are the hunters.
Abū Kurayb related to us, saying: Wakīʿ related to us, on the authority of Shuʿba, on the authority of Abū Bishr, on the authority of Saʿīd ibn Jubayr, he said: they are the hunters.
And others said: it is a band of men.
* Mention of who said that:
Ibn al-Muthannā related to us, saying: Muḥammad ibn Jaʿfar related to us, saying: Shuʿba related to us; and Abū Kurayb related to us, saying: Wakīʿ related to us, on the authority of Shuʿba, on the authority of Abū Ḥamza, he said: I asked Ibn ʿAbbās about the qaswara, and he said: I do not know it in the language of any of the Arabs to mean "the lion"; it is a band of men.
Ibn al-Muthannā related to us, saying: ʿAbd al-Ṣamad ibn ʿAbd al-Wārith related to us, [he said]: I do not know it in the language of any of the Arabs to mean "the lion"; it is a band of men.
Ibn al-Muthannā related to us, saying: ʿAbd al-Ṣamad ibn ʿAbd al-Wārith related to us, saying: I heard my father relate, saying: Dāwūd related to us, saying: ʿAbbās ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān, the freedman of the Banū Hāshim, related to me, saying: Ibn ʿAbbās was asked about the qaswara, [and] he said: a band of men. Have you not heard what a certain woman said in the pre-Islamic time (al-jāhiliyya):
"O daughter of Luʾayy, a noble one for a noble one, her circumstances in the tribe are like the qaswara."
And others said: they are the voices of the men.
* Mention of who said that:
Abū Kurayb related to us, saying: Ibn ʿUyayna related to us, on the authority of ʿAmr, on the authority of ʿAṭāʾ, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, [concerning] فَرَّتْ مِنْ قَسْوَرَةٍ , he said: the clamor of the people [with] their voices.
Abū Kurayb said: Sufyān said: هَلْ تُحِسُّ مِنْهُمْ مِنْ أَحَدٍ أَوْ تَسْمَعُ لَهُمْ رِكْزًا ("do you perceive of them anyone, or hear from them a [faint] sound?").
And others said: no, it is the lion.
Mention of who said that:
Abū Kurayb related to us, saying: Wakīʿ related to us, on the authority of Hishām ibn Saʿd, on the authority of Zayd ibn Aslam, on the authority of Abū Hurayra, [concerning] فَرَّتْ مِنْ قَسْوَرَةٍ , he said: it is the lion.
Yūnus related to me, saying: Ibn Wahb informed us, saying: Hishām ibn Saʿd informed me, on the authority of Zayd ibn Aslam, on the authority of Ibn Sīlān, that Abū Hurayra used to say concerning Allah's word: فَرَّتْ مِنْ قَسْوَرَةٍ , he said: it is the lion.
Muḥammad ibn Maʿmar related to me, saying: Hishām related to us, on the authority of Zayd ibn Aslam, concerning Allah's word: فَرَّتْ مِنْ قَسْوَرَةٍ , he said: the lion.
Yūnus related to me, saying: Ibn Wahb informed us, saying: Dāwūd ibn Qays informed me, on the authority of Zayd ibn Aslam, concerning Allah's word: فَرَّتْ مِنْ قَسْوَرَةٍ , he said: it is the lion.
Muḥammad ibn Khālid ibn Khidāsh related to me, saying: Salm ibn Qutayba related to me, saying: Ḥammād ibn Salama related to us, on the authority of ʿAlī ibn Zayd, on the authority of Yūsuf ibn Mihrān, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, that he was asked about His word: فَرَّتْ مِنْ قَسْوَرَةٍ , [and] he said: it is in Arabic: the lion, in Persian: "shār," in Nabataean: "aryā," and in Abyssinian: "qaswara."
ʿAlī related to me, saying: Abū Ṣāliḥ related to us, saying: Muʿāwiya related to me, on the authority of ʿAlī, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, [concerning] his word: فَرَّتْ مِنْ قَسْوَرَةٍ , he says: the lion.
Abū al-Sāʾib related to me, saying: Ḥafṣ ibn Ghiyāth related to us, on the authority of Hishām ibn Saʿd, on the authority of Zayd ibn Aslam, on the authority of Abū Hurayra, he said: the lion.
Yūnus related to me, saying: Ibn Wahb informed us, saying: Ibn Zayd said, concerning His word: فَرَّتْ مِنْ قَسْوَرَةٍ , he said: the qaswara is the lion.