. And Umayya ibn Abī al-Ṣalt said:
A man and a bull beneath his right foot ... and the eagle for the other, and a watchful lion.
449- al-Ḥusayn ibn Muḥammad narrated to us, he said: ʿAlī ibn ʿĀṣim narrated to us, from Ibn Jurayj, from Mujāhid, from Ibn ʿAbbās: Lightning is an angel.
450- al-Qāsim narrated to us, he said: al-Ḥusayn narrated to us, he said: Ḥajjāj narrated to me, from Ibn Jurayj, he said: Thunderbolts are an angel who strikes the clouds with instruments, striking therewith whomsoever he wills.
Abū Jaʿfar said: It is possible that what was said by ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib, Ibn ʿAbbās, and Mujāhid has one and the same meaning. Namely, that the instruments mentioned by ʿAlī (may God be pleased with him) as being lightning are the whips of light with which the angel drives the clouds, as Ibn ʿAbbās said. And the angel's driving the clouds with them is his striking them. That is because al-miṣāʿ among the Arabs originally means fighting with swords, and then it is used for anything fought with in war or otherwise, as al-Aʿshā of Banū Thaʿlaba said, describing young girls playing with their jewelry and striking with it:
Notes
- (1) Narration 448: Wahb ibn Sulaymān al-Jandī—with a fatḥa on the jīm and the nūn—al-Yamānī. al-Bukhārī said in al-Kabīr 4/2/169–170: "From Shuʿayb al-Jubaʾī, his statement; Ibn Jurayj narrated from him." I did not find a biography for him in any other source.
Shuʿayb al-Jubaʾī: with a fatḥa on the jīm and an unpointed bāʾ without doubling, a gentilic attributed to "Jubaʾ", on the pattern of "jabal", which is a mountain in Yemen near al-Jand, as Yāqūt and others stated. And this Shuʿayb was given a biography by al-Bukhārī in al-Kabīr 2/2/219. Ibn Abī Ḥātim also gave him a biography in 2/1/353, stating: "Shuʿayb al-Jubaʾī: A Yemeni, he narrates from the books [meaning the books attributed to the People of the Book consisting of legends], and Salama ibn Wahrām narrated from him." Then Ibn Abī Ḥātim asserted with certainty that he is "Shuʿayb ibn al-Aswad", and then narrated with his chain of transmission from Zamʿa, from Shuʿayb ibn al-Aswad, who said: "I find in the Book of Allah." He also has a biography in Lisān al-Mīzān 3:150, where he stated: "An annalist who is abandoned." Then he mentioned some of his speech that reason cannot accept, and said: "Ibn Ḥibbān mentioned him in al-Thiqāt, saying: 'He used to read the books.'"
- (2) His Dīwān: 25, and it will come in the Tafsir of the verse in al-Raʿd: 35 (13:109 Būlāq ed.).
And the narration of his Dīwān is: "Under the right of his foot, and the eagle is for the left." al-Ṭabarī said in the other locus: "It is as though he said: under his foot, or under his right foot." The pronoun in his statement "his foot" refers to Isrāfīl, and he mentioned him in his poetry prior to this. In his Dīwān, and in the other locus of al-Ṭabarī, it reads "Zuḥal", as if he meant the constellations, but al-Ṭabarī's inference here is clear, indicating that his narration is "rijl" (foot).
- (3) Reports 439–450: They were not mentioned in Ibn Kathīr, nor in al-Durr al-Manthūr. See al-Baghawī 1:99–100, and al-Qurṭubī 1:188.
- (4) In the printed edition: "The angel's driving of the cloud, his striking it therewith."
- (5) Al-Mujālada: Striking one another with swords and other weapons in combat and fighting, derived from jald.
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