Tafseer of The City · Al-Balad · 90:13
It is the freeing of a slave
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.
Ibn ʿAbd al-Aʿlā related to us, saying: Ibn Thawr related to us, on the authority of Maʿmar, on the authority of Qatāda: وَمَا أَدْرَاكَ مَا الْعَقَبَةُ ("and what makes you know what the steep pass is?"), then He gave tidings about the ascending of it and said: فَكُّ رَقَبَةٍ * أَوْ إِطْعَامٌ ("the freeing of a slave, or the feeding").
The reciters differed over the reading of this. Some of the reciters of Mecca and the majority of the reciters of Basra, on the authority of Ibn Abī Isḥāq, and of the Kūfans al-Kisāʾī, read it: فَكَّ رَقَبَةً أوْ أطْعَمَ ("he freed a slave, or he fed") (as verbs). And Abū ʿAmr ibn al-ʿAlāʾ used — according to what has reached me — to argue in this matter with His word: ثُمَّ كَانَ مِنَ الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا ("then he was among those who believed"), as though the meaning is: he had the capacity, but he did not free a slave and he did not feed, and then he was among those who believed. But the majority of the reciters of Medina, Kūfa, and Syria read it فَكُّ رَقَبَةٍ ("the freeing of a slave") as a genitive construction (iḍāfa), and أَوْ إِطْعَامٌ ("or the feeding") as a verbal noun (maṣdar).
And the correct of the statements concerning this is: that these are two well-known readings, each of which has been recited by scholars among the reciters, with a comprehensible explanation; with whichever of the two the reciter recites, he is correct. For when it is recited in the verbal form, the explanation of it is: he did not ascend the steep pass, he did not free a slave, and he did not feed, and then he was among those who believed; and وَمَا أَدْرَاكَ مَا الْعَقَبَةُ ("and what makes you know what the steep pass is?") then stands by way of wonderment and magnification. This reading has a better issuing in Arabic, because "the feeding" (al-iṭʿām) is a noun and His word ثُمَّ كَانَ مِنَ الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا ("then he was among those who believed") is a verb, and the Arabs prefer to conjoin nouns to nouns of the same kind, and verbs to verbs. Had the revelation come as "thumma in kāna mina lladhīna āmanū," that would have been more elegant and more in conformity with "the feeding" and "the freeing" than "thumma kāna." For this reason I have said that فَكَّ رَقَبَةً أوْ أطْعَمَ ("he freed a slave, or he fed") is more obvious in Arabic than the other reading, even though the other reading has a well-known issuing. The issuing of it is that one omits "an" by implying it, as Ṭarafa ibn al-ʿAbd said:
"O you who blame me for attending the battle and for partaking of the pleasures — will you then make me live forever?" (2)
in the meaning: "O you who blame me for (an) attending the battle." And in his word "an ashhada" ("that I attend") lies the clear proof that it is conjoined (by coordination) to another "an" of the same kind that preceded it — that is the manner in which it is permissible. And when the statement is taken in this manner, then His word فَكُّ رَقَبَةٍ * أَوْ إِطْعَامٌ ("the freeing of a slave, or the feeding") is an explanation of His word وَمَا أَدْرَاكَ مَا الْعَقَبَةُ ("and what makes you know what the steep pass is?"), as though it were said: and what makes you know what the steep pass is? It is the freeing of a slave, أَوْ إِطْعَامٌ فِي يَوْمٍ ذِي مَسْغَبَةٍ ("or feeding on a day of hunger"). As the Exalted — praised be His laud — said: وَمَا أَدْرَاكَ مَا هِيَهْ ("and what makes you know what it is?"), and then said: نَارٌ حَامِيَةٌ ("a blazing Fire"), as an explanation of His word فَأُمُّهُ هَاوِيَةٌ ("then his mother is the abyss"); and then He said: and what makes you know what the abyss is? It is a blazing Fire.
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The footnotes:
(2) The verse is from the Muʿallaqa of Ṭarafa ibn al-ʿAbd al-Bakrī (Mukhtār mina al-shiʿr al-jāhilī, with commentary by Muṣṭafā al-Saqqā, al-Ḥalabī edition, p. 317). It is said: "aḥḍura" — the Basrans transmitted it with a ḍamma on the rāʾ, and the Kūfans with a fatḥa on it, on the grounds of implying "an" outside the ten well-known positions. "Al-waghā": war, originally the sounds of the combatants. He says: O you man who reproaches me for attending the war and for obtaining the pleasures, will you then make me live forever in this world if I abstain from that? End.
