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

from it. And that Interpretation (Ta'wil) is a false claim (1), for which there is no indication from the apparent sense nor from a report by which proof is established so as to yield to it.

The discourse regarding the Interpretation (Ta'wil) of the statement of Him Whose Remembrance is Exalted: {or like a rainstorm from the sky}

Abū Jaʿfar said: He said: And 'al-ṣayyib' is of the paradigm 'fayʿil' from your saying: 'ṣāba al-maṭaru yaṣūbu ṣawban', when it pours down and falls, just as the poet said:

For I am not for a human, but for an angel Who descended from the atmosphere of the sky, pouring down (2)

And as ʿAlqama ibn ʿAbada said:

As if a cloud poured down upon them, Whose thunderbolts caused their birds to creep (3)

(1) In the manuscript: "daʿwā nāẓir", and the correct reading is "daʿwā bāṭil" in an iḍāfa construct.
(2) This verse of poetry is attributed to ʿAlqama ibn ʿAbada, but it is not his, nor is it in his Dīwān. It will come in the tafsir of the verse in Sūrat al-Baqara: 30 (1: 155 Būlāq) with a different narration. It is among the verses cited by Sībawayh 1: 379, Sharḥ Shawāhid al-Shāfiya: 287, Lisān al-ʿArab (a-l-k), and others, unattributed. It is said to be by a Jahili man from ʿAbd al-Qays praising al-Nuʿmān. Al-Sīrāfī narrated that it is by Abū Wajza al-Saʿdī praising ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Zubayr. In the manuscript it appears as "walākin malʾakan". Before this verse is:
You are far exalted above having a human trait attributed to You,
while among mankind, whoever attributes [it] to You is a liar.
(3) His Dīwān: the first verse: 34, and the second before it: 19, Sharḥ al-Mufaḍḍaliyyāt: 784, 769; praising therewith al-Ḥārith ibn Jabala ibn Abī Shamir al-Ghassānī, who had captured his brother Shaʿs, so he traveled to him seeking his release. In this verse he mentions the Day of ʿAyn Abāgh, wherein al-Ḥārith al-Ghassānī raided al-Mundhir ibn al-Mundhir ibn Māʾ al-Samāʾ, so they met at ʿAyn Abāgh, and the army of al-Mundhir was defeated, and al-Mundhir was killed on that day. His statement "as though they" refers to al-Mundhir's army. And ṣāba al-maṭar: poured down and fell. His description of the defeated army in the verse preceding it was between one fallen and struck down, and one slain and destroyed. Thus he compared them to birds struck by heavy rain and overtaken by thunderbolts, so they panicked and could not rise and fly, crawling about seeking salvation. The pronoun in his saying "their birds" refers to the thunderbolts, i.e., the birds of the thunderbolts, meaning the birds that were frightened by the thunderbolts and matted down by the rain.

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Notes