And the other aspect of them is: then my invoking the name of Allah upon you both, just as a person says to something he sees and admires: "The name of Allah be upon you," seeking protection for it thereby from evil. Thus, it is as though he said: "Then the name of Allah be upon you both from evil." And it is as if the first aspect is the more likely of the two meanings to Labīd's statement. (1)
And it is said to whoever directed this verse of Labīd to mean: "Then peace be upon you both": Do you consider what we have said—regarding these two aspects—to be permissible, or one of them, or something other than what you said regarding it?
If he says: "No!" he reveals his measure of knowledge regarding the various facets of the speech of the Arabs, and spares his opponent from debating him.
And if he says: "Yes!"
It is said to him: What is your proof for the correctness of the interpretation you claimed to be right, to the exclusion of what I mentioned it could potentially mean—from the aspect we would be obliged to concede to you? And there is no way to achieve that.
As for the report which:—
140 - Ismāʿīl ibn al-Faḍl narrated to us, saying: Ibrāhīm ibn al-ʿAlāʾ ibn al-Ḍaḥḥāk [and he was nicknamed Zibriq] narrated to us, saying: Ismāʿīl ibn ʿAyyāsh narrated to us, from Ismāʿīl ibn Yaḥyā, from Ibn Abī Mulayka, from whoever narrated to him, from Ibn Masʿūd—and Misʿar ibn Kidām, from ʿAṭiyya, from Abū Saʿīd—who said: The Messenger of Allah, Peace and blessings of God be upon him, said: "Indeed, ʿĪsā ibn Maryam was delivered by his mother to the schoolmaster to teach him. The teacher said to him: Write 'Bism' (In the name of). ʿĪsā said to him: And what is 'Bism'? The teacher said to him: I do not know! So ʿĪsā said: The Bāʾ is the splendor of Allah, the Sīn is His radiance, and the Mīm is His kingdom." (2)
Notes
- (1) Without doubt, the first of the statements is the most worthy of being correct. For he had commanded his two daughters—as we have previously shown in his preceding verses—to stand and wail over him with what he commanded them of lamenting, eulogizing, and mourning him, and to do so from the time he died until a full year had passed over him. Thus, there is no meaning after that in him extending greetings of peace to them—that is, the farewell greeting—after the year, for he had parted from them a full year ago. It would be more fitting for him to pray for them, or to ask them to desist from what he had commanded them, since they had fulfilled what he commanded them in the manner he desired: "And whoever weeps for a full year has fulfilled his duty," as if he said: "Desist then from what I commanded you, for whoever weeps for a year has reached the utmost limit of excuse." The context of the poetry decisively favors what al-Ṭabarī generally held, and leads to the certainty that the meaning of "Then the name of peace be upon you both" is: adhere to the remembrance of Allah, and leave off remembering me, weeping over me, and grieving for me.
- (2) Hadith 140—This is a fabricated hadith; it has no basis. It is longer than this, and part of it will come under numbers 145 and 147, as al-Ṭabarī separated each part of it in its place. In it there is another addition explaining the words "Abjad Hawwaz", etc. It was narrated in full by Ibn Ḥibbān, the Hadith master, in Kitāb al-Majrūḥīn, in the biography of Ismāʿīl ibn Yaḥyā ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-Taymī, no. 44, p. 85. He said concerning this Ismāʿīl: "He was among those who narrated fabrications on the authority of trustworthy narrators, and baseless reports on the authority of reliable ones; it is not permissible to narrate from him or to use his reports as proof under any circumstances." Then he gave an example of his lies, narrating the hadith in full, from Muḥammad ibn Yaḥyā ibn Razīn al-ʿAṭṭār from Ibrāhīm ibn al-ʿAlāʾ ibn al-Ḍaḥḥāk, via the second chain of transmission given here, from the hadith of Abū Saʿīd al-Khudrī.
And Ibn Kathīr mentioned it in the Tafsīr (1/35), citing Ibn Mardawayh, from the hadith of Abū Saʿīd alone, combining in it the three parts that were separated here. Then he pointed out al-Ṭabarī's narration of it. Then he said: "And this is very singular; it may be authentic up to someone below the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of God be upon him), and it may be from the Isrāʾīliyyāt, not from the Marfūʿ reports!" I do not know how it escaped the Hadith master Ibn Kathīr that in its chain of transmission is this liar, so his narration collapses entirely, and there is no need for this hesitation.
As for al-Suyūṭī, he mentioned it in al-Durr al-Manthūr (1/8) and attributed it to Ibn Jarīr, Ibn ʿAdī in al-Kāmil, Ibn Mardawayh, Abū Nuʿaym in al-Ḥilya, Ibn ʿAsākir in Tārīkh Dimashq, and al-Thaʿlabī, and he did not overlook its flaw; he mentioned that it is "with a very weak chain of transmission."
And al-Dhahabī provided a biography in al-Mīzān (1/117), followed by Ibn Ḥajar in Lisān al-Mīzān (1/441–442), for this Ismāʿīl ibn Yaḥyā. In his biography: "Ṣāliḥ ibn Muḥammad Jazara said: He used to fabricate hadith. Al-Azdī said: A pillar among the pillars of falsehood; it is not permissible to narrate from him... And Abū ʿAlī al-Naysābūrī, the Hadith master, al-Dāraquṭnī, and al-Ḥākim said: A liar." Ibn Ḥajar said: "There is consensus on abandoning him." Both he and al-Dhahabī mentioned this hadith as an example of his lies.
Furthermore, its first chain of transmission, which Ismāʿīl ibn Yaḥyā narrated from Abū Mulayka, also contains an unidentified narrator, namely "the one who narrated to him from Ibn Masʿūd." And its second chain of transmission, which this Ismāʿīl narrated from Misʿar ibn Kidām, also contains "ʿAṭiyya ibn Saʿd ibn Junāda al-ʿAwfī", who is weak (da'if); Aḥmad, Abū Ḥātim, and others declared him weak.
The addition between brackets in the title of Ibrāhīm ibn al-ʿAlāʾ is from the manuscript. And "Zibriq": with a kasra on the zāʾ and the rāʾ, with a silent yāʾ between them. It is the nickname of Ibrāhīm, according to what was said. What is correct is that it is his father's nickname, for al-Bukhārī said in his biography in al-Kabīr (1/1/307): "Ibrāhīm claimed that his father used to be called Zibriq." And Ibn Abī Ḥātim said in al-Jarḥ wa-l-Taʿdīl (1/1/121): "Ibrāhīm ibn al-ʿAlāʾ... is known as Ibn al-Zibriq."
This translation was produced with AI assistance and is part of an ongoing human-review process. Found a mistake? Use the feedback option in the reader menu.
