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

Volume 1 · Page 158

Translation · EN

AI translation

{In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful} from the Opening of the Book is a verse—such that a questioner would have an issue for us, saying: What is the reason for repeating that in this place, when Allah, Mighty and Majestic, has already described Himself with it in His statement {In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful}, given the proximity of one of the two verses to the other and its adjacency to its companion? Rather, that is proof for us against the error of the claim of whoever claimed that {In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful} from the Opening of the Book is a verse. For if that were the case, it would be the repetition of a verse with one meaning and one wording twice without any separation dividing between them. And there does not exist in anything of the Book of Allah two adjacent, repeated verses with one wording and one meaning, with no separation between them of speech whose meaning differs from their meaning. Indeed, a whole verse is only brought as a repetition in a single surah with separations dividing between that, and speech that intervenes in the meaning of the repeated verses or other than their wordings, whereas there is no separation between the statement of Allah, Blessed be His Name, {The Most Gracious, the Most Merciful} in {In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful}, and the statement of Allah: {The Most Gracious, the Most Merciful} in {Praise be to Allah, Lord of the worlds}.

If he says: Then {Praise be to Allah, Lord of the worlds} is a separator from that. (1)

It is said: A group of the scholars of interpretation rejected that, and they said: This is among that which is placed later while its meaning is placed earlier, and it is only: Praise be to Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful, Lord of the worlds, Sovereign of the Day of Recompense. And they cited as evidence for the correctness of what they claimed His statement: "Sovereign of the Day of Recompense", and they said: His statement "Sovereign of the Day of Recompense" is an instruction from Allah to His servant to describe Him with sovereignty in the recitation of whoever recites Malik (Sovereign), and with ownership in the recitation of whoever recites Mālik (Owner). They said: So that which is more worthy of being adjacent to His description of sovereignty or ownership is that which is identical to that description; and that is His statement: "Lord of the worlds", which is an announcement of His ownership of all species of creation; and that adjacent to His description of greatness and divinity should be that which is identical to it in meaning of praise upon Him, and that is His statement: {The Most Gracious, the Most Merciful}.

So they claimed that this is evidence for them that His statement {The Most Gracious, the Most Merciful} is in the sense of being placed before "Lord of the worlds", even if it appears later in outward form. And they said: The counterparts of this—of placing earlier what is in meaning placed later, and placing later what is in meaning placed earlier—in the speech of the Arabs are more widespread and more frequent in their speech than can be counted. Among that is the statement of Jarīr ibn ʿAṭiyya:

Notes

(1) In the printed edition: "fāṣilun bayna dhālik", while what is in the manuscript is good Arabic.

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.

Arabic (Source)

"بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم" من فاتحة الكتاب - آيةٌ، فيكونَ علينا لسائلٍ مسألةٌ بأن يقول: ما وجه تكرير ذلك في هذا الموضع، وقد مضى وصفُ الله عز وجل به نفسه في قوله " بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم "، مع قرب مكان إحدى الآيتين من الأخرى، ومجاورتها صَاحِبتها؟ بل ذلك لنا حُجة على خطأ دعوى من ادَّعى أن "بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم" من فاتحة الكتاب آية. إذ لو كان ذلك كذلك، لكان ذلك إعادةَ آية بمعنى واحد ولفظ واحدٍ مرتين من غير فَصْل يَفصِل بينهما. وغيرُ موجودٍ في شيء من كتاب الله آيتان مُتجاورتان مكرّرتان بلفظ واحد ومعنى واحد، لا فصلَ بينهما من كلام يُخالف معناه معناهما. وإنما يُؤتى بتكرير آية بكمالها في السورة الواحدة، مع فُصولٍ تفصِل بين ذلك، وكلامٍ يُعترضُ به معنى الآيات المكررات أو غير ألفاظها، ولا فاصِلَ بين قول الله تبارك وتعالى اسمه " الرحمن الرحيم " من " بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم "، وقولِ الله: " الرحمن الرحيم "، من " الحمدُ لله ربّ العالمين ".فإن قال: فإن " الحمدُ لِله رَبِّ العالَمين " فاصل من ذلك. (١)قيل: قد أنكر ذلك جماعة من أهل التأويل، وقالوا: إن ذلك من المؤخَّر الذي معناه التقديم، وإنما هو: الحمد لله الرحمن الرحيم رَبّ العالمين مَلِك يوم الدين. واستشهدوا على صحة ما ادعوا من ذلك بقوله: "مَلِك يوم الدين"، فقالوا: إن قوله "ملِكِ يوم الدين" تعليم من الله عبدَه أنْ يصفَه بالمُلْك في قراءة من قرأ ملِك، وبالمِلْك في قراءة من قرأ " مالك ". قالوا: فالذي هو أولى أن يكونَ مجاورَ وصفه بالمُلْك أو المِلْك، ما كان نظيرَ ذلك من الوصف؛ وذلك هو قوله: "ربّ العالمين"، الذي هو خبر عن مِلْكه جميع أجناس الخلق؛ وأن يكون مجاورَ وصفه بالعظمة والألُوهة ما كان له نظيرًا في المعنى من الثناء عليه، وذلك قوله: (الرحمن الرحيم) .فزعموا أنّ ذلك لهم دليلٌ على أن قوله " الرحمن الرحيم " بمعنى التقديم قبل " رب العالمين "، وإن كان في الظاهر مؤخرًا. وقالوا: نظائرُ ذلك - من التقديم الذي هو بمعنى التأخير، والمؤخَّر الذي هو بمعنى التقديم - في كلام العرب أفشى، وفي منطقها أكثر، من أن يُحصى. من ذلك قول جرير بن عطية:

Notes

(١) في المطبوعة: "فاصل بين ذلك"، والذي في المخطوطة عربية جيدة.