from your light!' It will be said, 'Go back behind you and seek light.' So a wall will be placed between them with a door, its interior containing mercy and its exterior towards the punishment. They will call out to them, 'Were we not with you?' They will say, 'Yes, but you tempted yourselves and waited and doubted and wishful thinking deluded you until the command of Allah came, and the Deceiver deluded you concerning Allah. So today no ransom will be taken from you, nor from those who disbelieved. Your refuge is the Hellfire; it is your proper place, and wretched is the destination.} [Surah al-Hadīd: 13–15].
If a questioner says to us: "You mentioned that the meaning of the statement of Allah, exalted be His mention, {Like the example of one who kindled a fire, but when it illuminated what was around him} is: 'it went out and was extinguished,' yet that is not present in the Qur'an. What then is your evidence that this is its meaning?"
It is said: We have already stated that it is the custom of the Arabs to use conciseness and brevity whenever that which they speak contains sufficient indication of what they have omitted and left out, just as Abū Dhuʾayb al-Hudhalī said:
I disobeyed my heart regarding her, for to her command ... I am attentive, so I know not whether pursuing her is right guidance! (1)
He meant by that: "So I know not whether pursuing her is right guidance or error," thus omitting the mention of "or error," since what he spoke contained the indication of it; and just as Dhū al-Rimma said in describing wild asses:
So when they put on the night, or when, she erected ... for him [her ears] from the sides of her ears while he was leaning (2)
Notes
- (1) Dīwān al-Hudhaliyyīn 1: 71, and it will come in the tafsir of the verse in Āl ʿImrān: 113 (4: 34 Būlāq). Al-Ṭabarī's narration of the verse in both places yields no coherent meaning, and the narration in his Dīwān is: "My heart disobeyed me regarding her, for indeed I am to its command..."
It is also narrated as "called me regarding her...", and both are authentic narrations. The full meaning of the verse is completed in the following one: "So I said to my heart: 'May goodness be yours! Rather, its bubbling surface is merely dangling you toward fresh death.'"
Thus he consults his heart, but he obeyed it.
- (2) His Dīwān: 108, and it will come in the tafsir of the verse in Yūnus: 77 (11: 101 Būlāq), and the verse in Sūrat al-Nabaʾ: 10 (30: 3 Būlāq). He describes a herd of wild donkeys standing to watch the setting of the sun, until when it set, they set off hastily toward the water source they intended. And his statement: "They dressed in the night" refers to the wild donkeys when night enveloped them while they were awaiting the setting of the sun. And naṣabat means: raised and erected their ears. And the ear drooped (khadhīat al-udhun khadhan): relaxed from its base, coming forward over the cheeks, and that afflicts wild donkeys in the summer from the heat of the sun and thirst. And they erected the droopiness of their ears in preparation to run to the water. And janaha al-layl, so it is jāniḥ: approached; it comes from the leaning (janāḥ) of a bird when it breaks its wings and then approaches like one settling and taking refuge in a place. It is a good description of the approach of darkness from the edge of the horizon. And al-Ṭabarī intended that Dhū al-Rumma intended to say: "Or when the night approached, they erected for it [their ears] out of the droopiness of their ears, while it was approaching." And there is no necessity requiring what he maintained regarding omission in this verse.
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.
