Tafseer of Those who drag forth · An-Naazi'aat · 79:15
Has there reached you the story of Moses? -
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.
Exposition of the explanation of His word, the Exalted: هَلْ أتَاكَ حَدِيثُ مُوسَى (15) ("Has the account of Mūsā reached you? (15)").
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The footnotes:
(14) The verse is by Umayya ibn Abī al-Ṣalt (his dīwān: 52, and al-Lisān: s-h-r), and it is among the testimonia of Abū ʿUbayda in Majāz al-Qurʾān (184). He said: "al-sāhira": that is the wilderness and the surface of the earth. Umayya ibn Abī al-Ṣalt said: "And upon it is the flesh of the sāhira…" — the verse. "Wa-fāhamū": they spoke. And al-Farrāʾ said in Maʿānī al-Qurʾān (456) concerning His word: فإذا هم بالساهرة ("and behold, they are upon the sāhira"), and that is the surface of the earth; it appears as though it was called by this name because upon it are the living creatures: their sleep (nawm) and their wakefulness (sahar). And with his isnād to Ibn ʿAbbās that he said: "al-sāhira": that is the earth. And he recited: "Upon it is the flesh of the sāhira…" — the verse. End. And he describes the paradise (janna), [namely] that therein they are fed the flesh of game and the flesh of the sea, and everything that their mouths utter they find present with them.
(15) These are five verses of the mashṭūr type of the rajaz metre; the author of al-Lisān (s-n-kh-r) attributes them to al-Hamdānī. Ibn Barrī said: and al-Hamdānī said [them] on the day of al-Qādisiyya, and the transmission of the first two verses diverges somewhat, and it runs:
"Advance forward, O brother of Nahm, against the aswāwira [horsemen], and let not the heads that have been struck off make you take fright."
And after these two [comes] the rest of the verses, as in the author's transmission. And "Muḥājj" in the author's transmission, with fatḥa on the mīm and with kasra: that is the name of a horse; but according to Ibn Barrī's transmission he is addressing a man. And "al-asāwira": that is the plural of "uswār" with ḍamma on the hamza and with kasra; it was said, as in Tāj al-ʿArūs: it is the commander of the Persians, at the level of the commander (amīr) among the Arabs. And it was said: he is the greatest king. And it was said: he is the skilled archer with arrows. And it was said: he is the one who holds firm upon the back of the horse. And "al-nādira": that which has leapt off the body and departed from it. And "qaṣruka": the end of your affair and its goal. And "al-sāhira": the earth or the wilderness, as has already been mentioned. And "al-ḥāfira": the first [state], before death. And "al-nākhira" has the meaning of "al-nakhira", that is the decayed. And in al-Lisān (n-kh-r), concerning His word, the Exalted: أئذا كنا عظاما نخرة ("when we have become decayed bones") — and it was also read: "nākhira". He said: and "nākhira" is the better of the two readings, because the verses [end] in the alif; do you not see that "nākhira" accords better with "al-ḥāfira" and "al-sāhira" with the run of the exegesis? He said: and "al-nākhira" and "al-nakhira" are equivalent in meaning, at the level of "al-ṭāmiʿ" and "al-ṭamiʿ". Ibn Barrī said: he said: al-Hamdānī said on the day of al-Qādisiyya: "Advance forward, O brother of Nahm…" — the five verses. End.
(16) This is an utterance that is not metrical, and the verse of Umayya ibn Abī al-Ṣalt has already been mentioned above, and we repeat it here as we found it in his dīwān (52):
"And upon it is the flesh of the sāhira and of the sea, and what they uttered remains in existence forever."
