Tabari (1 passage)

1. Full Dutch translation of Tabari's text

   The explanation of His statement: لا تَعْتَذِرُوا قَدْ كَفَرْتُمْ بَعْدَ إِيمَانِكُمْ إِنْ نَعْفُ عَنْ طَائِفَةٍ مِنْكُمْ نُعَذِّبْ طَائِفَةً بِأَنَّهُمْ كَانُوا مُجْرِمِينَ (66) (Make no excuses; you have disbelieved after your belief. If We pardon a group of you, We shall punish another group, because they were criminals. (66))

   Abū Jaʿfar said: The Exalted, whose mention is exalted, says to His Prophet Muḥammad, may Allah bless him and grant him peace: Say to these whose characteristic I have described to you: (Make no excuses) with falsehood, so that you say: (we were only chattering and playing) = (you have disbelieved). He says: you have denied the truth by what you said about the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, and the believers in him = (after your belief). He says: after you held him to be true and acknowledged him = (if We pardon a group of you, We shall punish another group).

   * * *

   And it was mentioned that by "the group" (al-ṭāʾifa) in this place one man is intended.

   And Ibn Isḥāq used to say concerning this, in what:-

   16919 – Ibn Ḥumayd related to us, saying: Salama related to us, on the authority of Ibn Isḥāq, who said: The one who was pardoned was — according to what has reached me — Makhshī ibn Ḥumayyir al-Ashjaʿī, an ally of the Banū Salima, and that was because he disapproved of some of what he had heard from them.

   16920 – Ibn Wakīʿ related to us, saying: Zayd ibn Ḥabbān related to us, on the authority of Mūsā ibn ʿUbayda, on the authority of Muḥammad ibn Kaʿb: (If We pardon a group of you), he said: "a group" means: one man.

   * * *

   And the exegetes differed concerning the explanation of that.

   Some of them said: Its meaning is: (If We pardon a group of you), because of his disapproval of what he had earlier, before the disbelief, disapproved of among you = (We shall punish another group), because of his disbelief (kufr) and his mockery of the signs of Allah and His Messenger.

   * Mention of who said that:

   16922 – Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Aʿlā related to us, saying: Muḥammad ibn Thawr related to us, on the authority of Maʿmar, who said: Some of them said: There was among them a man who did not join them in the conversation, who kept himself apart from them, and then it was revealed: (If We pardon a group of you, We shall punish another group). Thus he was called "a group" while he was one person.

   * * *

   And others said: Its meaning is rather: If a group of you repents and Allah pardons him, Allah will punish a group of you because of the failure to repent.

   * * *

   And as for His statement: (because they were criminals), its meaning is: We punish a group of them because of their committing the crime, and that is disbelief in Allah and their reviling of the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace.

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   Footnotes:

   (18) In the manuscript it reads: "he says: the flesh of the truth", which is illegible; and what is in the printed edition is close to the correct, so I have left it unchanged.

   (19) See the explanation of "al-ʿafw" (pardoning) in the earlier linguistic indexes (ʿafā).

   (20) See the explanation of "al-ṭāʾifa" in what preceded, 13:398, note 1, and the references there.

   (21) In the Sīra of Ibn Hishām it reads in this place "Makhshan ibn Ḥumayyir", and Ibn Hishām pointed out this difference in what preceded of his Sīra, Ibn Hishām 4:168. But I have held to what is in the manuscript.

   (22) The narration 16919 – Sīra of Ibn Hishām 4:195, and it is a continuation of the preceding narration no. 16910.

   (23) In the printed edition it reads "fa-yasīr" with the fāʾ; I have held to what is in the manuscript.

   (24) See the explanation of "al-ijrām" in what preceded, 13:408, note 2, and the references there.

   Show original Arabic

   القول في تأويل قوله : لا تَعْتَذِرُوا قَدْ كَفَرْتُمْ بَعْدَ إِيمَانِكُمْ إِنْ نَعْفُ عَنْ طَائِفَةٍ مِنْكُمْ نُعَذِّبْ طَائِفَةً بِأَنَّهُمْ كَانُوا مُجْرِمِينَ (66) قال أبو جعفر: يقول تعالى ذكره لنبيه محمد صلى الله عليه وسلم: قل لهؤلاء الذين وصفت لك صفتهم: (لا تعتذروا)، بالباطل, فتقولوا: (كنا نخوض ونلعب) =(قد كفرتم)، يقول: قد جحدتم الحق بقولكم ما قلتم في رسول الله صلى الله عليه وسلم والمؤمنين به (18) =(بعد إيمانكم)، يقول: بعد تصديقكم به وإقراركم به =(إن نعف عن طائفة منكم نعذب طائفة). (19) * * * وذكر أنه عُنِي: بـ " الطائفة "، في هذا الموضع، رجلٌ واحد. (20) وكان ابن إسحاق يقول فيما:- 16919- حدثنا به ابن حميد قال، حدثنا سلمة, عن ابن إسحاق قال: كان الذي عُفِي عنه، فيما بلغني مَخْشِيّ بن حُمَيِّر الأشجعي، (21) حليف بني سلمة, وذلك أنه أنكر منهم بعض ما سمع. (22) 16920- حدثنا ابن وكيع قال، حدثنا زيد بن حبان, عن موسى بن عبيدة, عن محمد بن كعب: (إن نعف عن طائفة منكم)، قال: " طائفة "، رجل. * * * واختلف أهل التأويل في تأويل ذلك. فقال بعضهم: معناه: (إن نعف عن طائفة منكم)، بإنكاره ما أنكر عليكم من قبل الكفر =(نعذب طائفة)، بكفره واستهزائه بآيات الله ورسوله. * ذكر من قال ذلك: 16922- حدثنا محمد بن عبد الأعلى قال، حدثنا محمد بن ثور, عن معمر قال، قال بعضهم: كان رجل منهم لم يمالئهم في الحديث, يسير مجانبًا لهم, (23) فنـزلت: (إن نعف عن طائفة منكم نعذب طائفة)، فسُمِّي " طائفةً" وهو واحدٌ. * * * وقال آخرون: بل معنى ذلك. إن تتب طائفة منكم فيعفو الله عنه, يعذب الله طائفة منكم بترك التوبة. * * * وأما قوله: (إنهم كانوا مجرمين)، فإن معناه: نعذب طائفة منهم باكتسابهم الجرم, وهو الكفر بالله, وطعنهم في رسول الله صلى الله عليه وسلم. (24) --------------------- الهوامش : (18) في المخطوطة : " يقول : لحم الحق " ، وهي لا تقرأ ، والذي في المطبوعة مقارب للصواب ، فتركته على حاله . (19) انظر تفسير "العفو" فيما سلف من فهارس اللغة (عفا). (20) انظر تفسير "الطائفة" فيما سلف 13 : 398، تعليق : 1 ، والمراجع هناك. (21) في سيرة ابن هشام في هذا الموضع "مخشن بن حمير" ، وقد أشار ابن هشام إلى هذا الاختلاف فيما سلف من سيرته، ابن هشام 4 : 168 . ولكني أثبت ما في المخطوطة. (22) الأثر : 16919 - سيرة ابن هشام 4 : 195 ، وهو تابع الأثر السالف رقم : 16910. (23) في المطبوعة : "فيسير"، بالفاء، أثبت ما في المخطوطة. (24) انظر تفسير " الإجرام " فيما سلف 13 : 408 ، تعليق : 2 ، والمراجع هناك.