"Into a pit of no-return he journeyed unaware,"
and interpreting it as meaning: into a pit of return he journeyed—that is, in a pit of destruction—and that "not" ("lā") is redundant and serves as an extra particle. He also argues for this using the verse of Abū al-Najm:
"So I do not blame the fair ones for not ridiculing... when they saw the grizzled, thick-necked man,"
and he means: so I do not blame the fair ones for ridiculing; and using the statement of al-Aḥwaṣ:
"And they blame me regarding amusement for not loving it... while amusement has a constant caller that is not heedless,"
meaning: and they blame me regarding amusement for loving it; and using the statement of the Exalted: {What prevented you that you did not prostrate?} [Sūrat al-A'rāf: 12], meaning: that you prostrate. And it was reported from the holder of this view that he interpreted "not" ("ghayr") which is with "those who evoked anger" as meaning "other than" ("siwā"). Thus, the meaning of the speech according to him was as if: Guide us to the straight path, the path of those whom You have favored, who are other than those who evoked anger and those who are astray.
And some of the grammarians of Kufa denounced that statement of his, claiming that "not" ("ghayr")
Notes
- (1) His Dīwān: 16, Maʿānī al-Qurʾān by al-Farrāʾ 1: 8, Majāz al-Qurʾān by Abū ʿUbayda: 25, al-Khizāna 2: 95, Amālī al-Shajarī 2: 231, and al-Aḍdād by Ibn al-Anbārī: 186. The one among the Basrans who said it is extra is Abū ʿUbayda.
- (2) The commentator on al-Qāmūs attributed it, on the authority of al-Ṣāghānī, to Abū al-Najm, and said: His narration is: "When she sees the white-haired, ugly-headed man..."
And they vocalized "al-shamaṭ" with a fatḥa on the mīm, meaning grayness of hair, and it is permissible that Abū al-Najm said it as "al-shamiṭ" with a kasra on the mīm on the pattern of fariḥ, dropping the alif of "ashmaṭ", as they did in ashʿath and shaʿith, aḥdab and ḥadib, atʿas and taʿis, aḥwal and ḥawil, among the assimilative adjectives denoting apparent defects and adornments. See al-Fāʾiq by al-Zamakhsharī 2: 326, as he enumerated other words as well. It is as if al-Ṣāghānī refused the narration with two fatḥas, because al-qafandar is the one with a small head and ugly appearance.
The verse, in the narration of al-Barrī, is in Majāz al-Qurʾān by Abū ʿUbayda: 26, al-Aḍdād by Ibn al-Anbārī: 185, al-Lisān (q-f-n-d-r), and see Amālī al-Shajarī 2: 231, among others.
- (3) Al-Kāmil 1: 49, al-Aḍdād by Ibn al-Anbārī: 186; and laḥāhu yalḥāhu laḥyan: criticized him and blamed him.
- (4) He is Abū ʿUbayda, as we previously mentioned at the beginning of this paragraph. Al-Farrāʾ pointed to him in Maʿānī al-Qurʾān: 8 in his statement: "And some of those who do not know Arabic said...", and al-Ṭabarī similarly did so previously in several places. See al-Lisān (gh-y-r).
- (5) Meaning al-Farrāʾ al-Kūfī in his book Maʿānī al-Qurʾān: 8, or another of his books.
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