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

along with similar reports to what we have mentioned (1), which we disliked lengthening the book by exhaustively citing.

The root meaning of glorification (tasbīḥ) of God among the Arabs is: declaring Him free from the attribution of what is not among His attributes, and exonerating Him from that, as Aʿshā Banī Thaʿlaba said:

I say—when his boasting reached me—: ... Glory be from ʿAlqama the boaster! (2)

He means: Glory be to God from the boasting of ʿAlqama, meaning declaring God free from the boasting that ʿAlqama brought forth, by way of denouncing him for that.

The scholars of interpretation have differed regarding the meaning of glorification (tasbīḥ) and sanctification (taqdīs) in this context. Some of them said: Their statement: "we glorify You with Your praise" means: we pray to You.

Mention of who said that:

619- Mūsā b. Hārūn narrated to me, he said: ʿAmr b. Ḥammād narrated to us, he said: 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, peace and blessings of God be upon him: "while we glorify You with Your praise and sanctify You," he said: They are saying: we pray to You.

And others said: "we glorify You with Your praise" (3) refers to the known glorification.

Mention of who said that:

620- Al-Ḥasan b. Yaḥyā narrated to us, he said: ʿAbd al-Razzāq narrated to us, he said: Maʿmar informed us, from Qatāda, regarding His statement: "while we glorify You with Your praise," he said: The glorification, the glorification (4).

(1) In the printed edition: "in every ambiguous for what we mentioned...", and "every" is inserted here without doubt.
(2) His Dīwān: 106, from his famous poem that he recited in satire of ʿAlqama ibn ʿUlātha, concerning the report of the dispute between ʿAlqama ibn ʿUlātha and ʿĀmir ibn al-Ṭufayl (al-Aghānī 15: 50–56). Ibn al-Shajarī mentioned in his Amālī (1: 348) from Abū al-Khaṭṭāb al-Akhfash that he said: "He omitted the tanwīn in 'Subḥān' and refrained from inflecting it because it became a proper noun among them." And he said in 2: 250: "He did not inflect it because it contains the extra alif and nūn, and because it is a proper noun for Glorification (Tasbih); if you make it indefinite, you inflect it." See p. 495 and comment no. 3.
(3) In the manuscripts: "we glorify You (nusabbiḥu laka)", and the correct text is what we have established, which is the exact Textual evidence of the verse.
(4) The two traditions: 619, 620 - In Ibn Kathīr (1: 129), al-Durr al-Manthūr (1: 46), and al-Shawkānī (1: 50).

Translation · EN

Notes