Tafseer of The Most High · Al-A'laa · 87:5
And [then] makes it black stubble.
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: ( فَجَعَلَهُ غُثَاءً أَحْوَى ) "and then made it dark-brown debris." The Exalted, whose mention is high, says: and He made that pasture-grass into ghuthāʾ, which is that of the plants which has withered and dried up, so that the wind carries it away. What is meant here is that He made it into withered, dried-up matter inclining toward the ḥuwwa, which is the blackness after whiteness or greenness, on account of the severity of the drought.
And in accordance with what we have said about that, the exegetes have spoken.
* Mention of who said that:
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: ( غُثَاءً أَحْوَى ) "dark-brown debris," he says: withered and discolored.
Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr related to me, saying: Abū ʿĀṣim related to us, saying: ʿĪsā related to us; and al-Ḥārith related to me, saying: al-Ḥasan related to us, saying: Waraqāʾ related to us, both on the authority of Ibn Abī Najīḥ, on the authority of Mujāhid, concerning his word: ( غُثَاءً أَحْوَى ) "dark-brown debris," he said: the debris of the torrent-flood, dark-brown, he said: black.
Bishr related to us, saying: Yazīd related to us, saying: Saʿīd related to us, on the authority of Qatāda, concerning his word: ( غُثَاءً أَحْوَى ) "dark-brown debris," he said: it becomes dry after having been green.
Yūnus related to me, saying: Ibn Wahb informed us, saying: Ibn Zayd said, concerning his word: ( فَجَعَلَهُ غُثَاءً أَحْوَى ) "and then made it dark-brown debris," he said: it was vegetation and a green plant, then it withered and dried up, and became dark-brown debris which the winds and the torrent-floods carry away. And some of the scholars of the language of the Arabs were of the opinion that this belongs to that which is placed later but whose meaning is one of being placed first, and that the meaning of the statement is: and He who brought forth the pasture-grass, dark-brown, that is, green inclining toward blackness, then made it into debris. And he supports that with the words of Dhū al-Rumma:
Dark-green, with a white spot in its middle, rained upon by the Sharaṭ-stars, upon which the rains poured down and the flower-buds bordered it.
And this statement, although it cannot be denied that the Arabs sometimes call what is intensely green of the plants "black," is in my view incorrect, contrary to the interpretation of the exegetes, because one only has recourse to explaining the meaning of a word by fronting and postponement when it has no comprehensible meaning except through the transposition of its position. But when it has a valid meaning in its place, there is no reason to seek a contrived explanation of its meaning by fronting and postponement.
