and its moon and its stars, and other such benefits that He created as benefits for them and for the rest of the children of Adam alongside them. Thus, in the statement of Him Whose remembrance is Exalted: {How can you disbelieve in God when you were dead and He gave you life, then He will cause you to die, then He will bring you to life, then to Him you will be returned}, lies the meaning: Remember My favor that I bestowed upon you, when I created you when you were nothing, and created for you all that is on earth, and fashioned for you what is in the heaven. Then He joined conjunctionally with His statement: "And when your Lord said to the angels", onto the meaning implied by His statement: {How can you disbelieve in God}, since it implied what I described of His statement: Remember My favor when I did such and such for you, and remember My action regarding your father Adam when I said to the angels, {Indeed, I am placing a successor upon the earth} (1).
If someone were to say: Is there a parallel to that in the speech of the Arabs by which we may know the correctness of what you said? It is said: Yes, more than can be counted. Among that is the statement of the poet:
'Is it truly that you will never see at Thuʿaylibāt, nor at Baydān, a swift, fast-pacing camel, (2)
Nor overtake, while the sun is a child, in some tributaries of the valley, camel-borne litters?' (3)
He said: "Nor overtake (wa-lā mutadārakin)", while no verb preceded it with a wording onto which it could be conjunctionally joined (4), nor a particle
Notes
- (1) This which Abū Jaʿfar—may Allah encompass him with His forgiveness—said is among the finest examination in the interpretation of the Book of Allah, and demonstrates his fine insight into Arabic and the secrets of its conciseness, its reliance on sufficiency with few words indicating much meaning, and its taking particles as connectors for comprehensive meanings, not merely to return a particle to a preceding particle.
- (2) It is by al-Murār ibn Saʿīd al-Faqʿasī, Maʿānī al-Qurʾān by al-Farrāʾ 1: 171, Majālis Thaʿlab: 159, al-Lisān (b-y-d), (ṭ-f-l), (n-sh-gh), and Muʿjam al-Buldān (Thuʿaylibāt). Thuʿaylibāt and Baydān are two places. And al-nājiya: the fast she-camel, from al-najāʾ: which is speed of travel. And al-dhamūl: the she-camel that travels with a swift, smooth pace, dhamalat dhamīlan wa-dhamalānan.
- (3) It is narrated as "wa-lā mutalāfiyan" in the accusative case. And tadāraka al-qawma (transitive) means he caught up with them or attempted to catch up with them. And talāfāhu: he caught up with him as well. And "the sun is an infant (ṭifl)": meaning here: at its rising—not at its setting—derived from a young child (ṭifl). And nawāshigh al-wādī is the plural of nāshigha: which is the watercourse leading to the valley. Al-ḥamūl: the camel-litter carrying women, borne by camels. Camels and what is upon them are called ḥamūl because they carry camel-litters upon them for departure. He says: You will not catch up with them, for they departed early in the morning.
- (4) In the printed edition: "it is conjugated with it (yaʿṭifu ʿalayhi)". In the manuscript: "it is conjugated with it (yaʿṭifu bihi)", and his statement "bihi" is attached directly to the fāʾ of "yaʿṭifu".
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.
