Tafseer of The Overthrowing · At-Takwir · 81:26
So where are you going?
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: ( فَأَيْنَ تَذْهَبُونَ ) ("Where then are you going?") (81:26). The Exalted, whose mention is exalted, says: where then are you going, away from this Qurʾān, and turning aside from it?
In accordance with what we have said about this, the people of interpretation (the exegetes) have spoken.
* Mention of who said that:
Bishr related to us, he said: Yazīd related to us, he said: Saʿīd related to us, on the authority of Qatāda: ( فَأَيْنَ تَذْهَبُونَ ) ("Where then are you going?"), he says: where do you turn aside, away from My Book and My obedience?
And it is said: ( فَأَيْنَ تَذْهَبُونَ ) ("Where are you going?") and He did not say: "fa-ilā ayna tadhhabūn" ("to where are you going?"), as one says: "I went Syria" (without a preposition) and "I went the market." And it is transmitted from the Arabs, heard: "he went off with it into the lowland," according to the meaning of omitting the preposition (the "ṣifa"). And sometimes it is recited for one of the Banū ʿUqayl:
Ḥanīfa calls out to us when she sees us:
and to which part of the earth do you go at the shouting? (12)
— in the meaning of: to which part of the earth do you go. And the omission of the preposition (the "ṣifa") was permitted in it because of usage.
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Footnotes:
(12) The verse is by one of the Banū ʿUqayl. Al-Farrāʾ said in Maʿānī al-Qurʾān (360): and His statement فأين تذهبون ("Where are you going?"): the Arabs say: "ilā ayna tadhhab?" ("to where are you going?") and "ayna tadhhab?" ("where are you going?"); and they say: "I went Syria" and "I went the market," and "I departed Syria" and "I departed the market," and "I set out Syria." We have heard this with these three verbs: "I set out," "I departed," and "I went." And al-Kisāʾī said: I heard the Arabs say: "I departed with it into the lowland," putting it in the accusative according to the meaning of omitting the "ṣifa" (the preposition, according to the Kufan grammarians); and one of the Banū ʿUqayl recited to me: "Ḥanīfa calls out to us..." — the verse. He means: to which part of the earth do you go? And they permitted the omission of "ilā" ("to") with these verbs because of their frequent use of it. I (the annotator) say: the grammarians forbid putting a place-name in the accusative as an adverbial qualifier when it is specific (when it has a definite form and bounded limits), and they require therein the genitive by means of the preposition, and they made an exception for these verbs that al-Farrāʾ mentioned, since transmission of them without a preposition has been related from the Arabs. And it is as he has said.
