Tafseer of The Announcement · An-Naba · 78:28
And denied Our verses with [emphatic] denial.
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 statement: "And they utterly denied Our signs (kidhdhāban)." The Exalted — praised be His mention — says: and these unbelievers (kuffār) denied Our proofs and Our indications with a complete denial. It is said "kidhdhāban" and not "takdhīban," formed as a verbal noun according to its verb.
One of the grammarians of Basra used to say: it is said thus because its verb consists of four letters, and one wished to make it according to the pattern of the chapter of "afʿaltu," whose verbal noun is "ifʿālan"; therefore one said "kidhdhāban," making it correspond to the number of letters of its verbal noun. He said: and by this analogy you say: "qātala qitālan." He said: and it belongs to the speech of the Arabs. And one of the grammarians of Kufa said: this is an eloquent Yemeni idiom; they say: "kadhdhabtu bihi kidhdhāban" and "kharraqtu al-qamīṣa khirrāqan," and of every verb on the pattern "faʿʿaltu" the verbal noun in their idiom is "fiʿʿāl" with doubling. He said: and a bedouin once said to me at al-Marwa, while asking me for a legal ruling: "Is the shaving of the head (al-ḥalq) dearer to you, or the shortening (al-qiṣṣār)?" He said: and a man of the Banū Kilāb recited to me this verse:
Long has she detained me, away from my companions, and away from needs whose fulfillment (qiḍḍāʾuhā) would be my cure.
The Qurʾān reciters (qurrāʾ) are unanimously agreed upon the doubling of the dhāl in "al-kidhdhāb" in this place. But al-Kisāʾī in particular used to soften the second [one], namely in His statement: لا يَسْمَعُونَ فِيهَا لَغْوًا وَلا كِذَّابًا ("They hear therein no idle talk nor lying"), and he says: it is derived from their saying "kādhabtuhu kidhdhāban wa-mukādhabatan"; and this one [in verse 28] he doubles, and he says: His statement "kadhdhabū" (they denied) binds the word "al-kidhdhāb" to the verbal noun.
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The footnotes:
(9) This verse belongs to the evidentiary verses of al-Farrāʾ in Maʿānī al-Qurʾān (folio 355). He said: and His statement وكذبوا بآياتنا كذابا: ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib softened it ("kidhāban"), while ʿĀṣim, al-Aʿmash, the people of Medina, and al-Ḥasan al-Baṣrī doubled it; it is an eloquent Yemeni idiom; they say: "kadhabtu bihi kidhdhāban" and "kharraqtu al-qamīṣa khirrāqan," and of every verb "faʿaltu" (with doubling of the middle letter) the verbal noun in their idiom is "fiʿāl" with doubling, and a man of the Banū Kilāb recited to me: "Long has she detained me ..." — the verse. And al-Kisāʾī used to soften لا يسمعون فيها لغوا ولا كذابا, because it is not bound to a verb that makes it a verbal noun, and he doubles in وكذبوا بآياتنا كذابا, because "kadhabū" binds "al-kidhdhāb" to the verbal noun; and what he said is good, and its meaning is: لا يسمعون فيها لغوا — he says: nothing idle — ولا كذابا: they do not deny one another mutually. And in (al-Lisān, under "qaḍā") there is concerning his statement, recited by Abū Zayd: "Long has she held me fast ..." — the verse. Ibn Sīda said: it is, in my judgment, derived from "qaḍḍā" (with doubling), as "kidhdhāb" is from "kadhdhaba." He said: and it is possible that he means "iqtiḍāʾuhā," so that it belongs to the chapter "qitāl" (with doubling of the tāʾ), as Sībawayh transmitted it with "iqtitāl." End.
