Tafsir at-Tabari: Jami' al-Bayan - Dar al-Tarbiyah wa al-Turath Edition

Since the matter—as we have described regarding the Arabs forming verbal nouns on patterns other than their own verbs—is frequent, and their deriving them according to the forms of nouns is widespread and prevalent, (1) then the correctness of what we have said regarding the Interpretation of the speaker's phrase "In the name of God" (Bismi Allāh) is clear: that its meaning when embarking upon an action or speech is: "I begin by naming God, before my action or before my speech."

Likewise, the meaning of the speaker's statement when beginning the recitation of the Qur'an: "In the name of God, the All-Merciful, the Most Merciful" (Bismi Allāhi al-Raḥmāni al-Raḥīm), is only: "I recite, starting by naming God," or "I begin my recitation by naming God." Thus, "the name" (al-ism) was used in place of "naming" (al-tasmiya), just as "speech" (al-kalām) was used in place of "speaking" (al-taklīm), and "gift" (al-ʿaṭāʾ) in place of "giving" (al-iʿṭāʾ).

And similar to the Interpretation that we have stated regarding that, a report was narrated on the authority of ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAbbās.

139 - Abū Kurayb narrated to us, he said: ʿUthmān ibn Saʿīd narrated to us, he said: Bishr ibn ʿUmāra narrated to us, he said: Abū Rawq narrated to us, from al-Ḍaḥḥāk, from ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAbbās, he said: "The first thing that Gabriel brought down to Muḥammad, Peace and blessings of God be upon him, he said: 'O Muḥammad, say: I seek refuge with the All-Hearing, the All-Knowing from the accursed Devil,' then he said: 'Say: In the name of God, the All-Merciful, the Most Merciful.'"

Ibn ʿAbbās said: "'In the name of God'—Gabriel said to him: O Muḥammad, recite with the Remembrance of God, your Lord, and stand and sit with the Remembrance of God." (2)

And this Interpretation from Ibn ʿAbbās indicates the correctness of what we have said—that what is intended by the speaker opening his recitation with "In the name of God, the All-Merciful, the Most Merciful" is: "I recite by naming God and remembering Him, and I open the recitation by naming God, with His Most Beautiful Names and High Attributes"—and it clarifies the invalidity of the statement of one who claimed that its meaning from the speaker is: "By God, the All-Merciful, the Most Merciful, [I begin] everything," (3) even though the servants

(1) By his statement: "their derivation as verbal nouns" (taṣdīruhā), he meant making them verbal nouns (maṣādir) from which verbs issue, such as your saying: dhahaba dhahāban (he went a going), so dhahaba issued from your statement dhahāb, and it then acts with the action of the verb. He meant that they produce the verbal noun on the morphological pattern of the noun, so it acts like it, just as your saying al-kalām (speech) is the noun for what you speak with, but they said: kallamtuhu kalāman (I spoke to him speech), putting it in the place of taklīm (speaking), and they derived from kallama a verbal noun on the pattern of the noun for what you speak with, which is al-kalām, so the verbal noun became kalāman.
(2) Hadith 139 - This report and its documentation (takhrīj) have preceded under number 137.
(3) His statement: "makes clear" (yuwaḍḍiḥu) is missing from the printed edition. In its place, instead of "the beginning of every...", it has "in every...".

Translation · EN

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