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

Volume 1 · Page 454

Translation · EN

AI translation

is not attained through physical strength or bodily power, as Iblīs, the enemy of Allah, imagined. And [this narration] explicitly states that their saying to their Lord (1): '{Will You place upon it one who causes corruption therein and sheds blood}', was a slip on their part and guessing at the unseen; and that Allah, exalted be His praise, made them aware of the blameworthy nature of what they uttered in that regard and brought them to stand upon it until they repented and turned back to Him from what they had said and uttered in guessing at the unseen based on conjectures, and declared before Him that none knows the unseen other than Him, and revealed to them what Iblīs harbored within himself of pride that had been hidden from them (2).

And another narration conflicting with this report has been narrated from Ibn ʿAbbās, which is what:

607- Mūsā ibn Hārūn narrated to me, saying: ʿAmr ibn Ḥammād narrated to us, saying: Asbāṭ narrated to us, from al-Suddī, in a report he mentioned, from Abū Mālik and from Abū Ṣāliḥ, from Ibn ʿAbbās — and from Murra, from Ibn Masʿūd, and from some people among the Companions of the Prophet ﷺ: 'When Allah finished creating what He wished, He ascended the Throne, and He placed Iblīs in charge of the kingdom of the lower heaven. He was from a tribe of angels called the jinn (3) — and they were only called jinn because they were the keepers of Paradise. And Iblīs, along with his kingdom, was a keeper. Then pride entered his chest, and he said: "Allah did not give me this except due to a special virtue in me" — thus said Mūsā ibn Hārūn, whereas another narrated it to me saying: "due to a special virtue in me over the angels" (4) — so when that pride fell into his heart,'

Notes

(1) In the printed edition: "and explicitly states" (wa-yuṣarriḥu). The context of the passage is: "indicates that the statement of God... is an address from God—exalted be His praise—to specific ones among the angels to the exclusion of all, ... and explicitly stating that their saying", in conjunction with the predicate of "that" (anna).
(2) This commentary on the report of Ibn ʿAbbās is evidence of what we maintained in explaining al-Ṭabarī's method of drawing inferences from reports and traditions; see pp. 453-454. For he did not narrate it relying on its authenticity, but rather narrated it to clarify that the statement of God—glorified be He: {And when your Lord said to the angels, "Indeed, I will make upon the earth a successive authority"} is an address containing general wording ("the angels") while meaning specific ones among the angels, as is well known in the speech of the Arabs; and that the statement of these angels: {Will You place upon it one who causes corruption therein...} was not from knowledge they possessed of the unseen, but rather a conjecture they entertained. There will follow later what clarifies al-Ṭabarī's methodology in drawing inference, as I will point out in its place.
(3) In the manuscript: "Al-Ḥinn" with the letter ḥāʾ, but its subsequent explanation indicates that it is with the letter jīm [Al-Jinn]. See what we wrote earlier on p. 455, footnote 1.
(4) The other person whom al-Ṭabarī left unspecified here is clarified by him in History (Tārīkh) 1:43, where he said: "Aḥmad ibn Abī Khaythama narrated it to me, on the authority of ʿAmr ibn Ḥammād."

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.