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

This statement from God, majestic is His praise, has clarified the soundness of what we said, that the One who expelled Adam from Paradise is God, majestic is His praise, and that God's attribution to Iblīs of what He attributed to him regarding their expulsion was in the manner we described. It also indicates thereby that the descent of Adam, his wife, and their enemy Iblīs occurred at the same time, due to God combining them in the report about their descent, after what occurred of the sin of Adam and his wife, and Iblīs causing that for them (1), according to what our Lord, majestic is His mention, described about them.

Abū Jaʿfar said: The scholars of interpretation have differed regarding who is intended by His statement, {Descend}, despite their consensus that Adam and his wife are among those intended by it.

754 - Sufyān b. Wakīʿ narrated to us, he said: Abū Usāma narrated to us, from Abū ʿAwāna, from Ismāʿīl b. Sālim, from Abū Ṣāliḥ: {Descend, being enemies to one another}, he said: Adam, Eve, Iblīs, and the snake (2).

755 - Ibn Wakīʿ and Mūsā b. Hārūn narrated to us, they said: ʿAmr b. Ḥammād narrated to us, he said: Asbāṭ narrated to us, from al-Suddī: {Descend, being enemies to one another}, he said: So He cursed the snake, cut off its legs, left it to walk on its belly, and made its sustenance from the dust. And Adam, Eve, Iblīs, and the snake were sent down to the earth (3).

756 - Muḥammad b. ʿAmr narrated to me, he said: Abū ʿĀṣim narrated to us, he said: ʿĪsā b. Maymūn narrated to us, from Ibn Abī Najīḥ, from Mujāhid regarding the statement of God: {Descend, being enemies to one another}, he said: Adam, Iblīs, and the snake (4).

(1) Perhaps the better reading is: "and Iblīs causing that for both of them," and in the manuscript it is unpointed.
(2) The report (athar): 754 — In al-Durr al-Manthūr 1: 55.
(3) The report (athar): 755 — In Tārīkh al-Ṭabarī 1: 56. It appears that something was dropped from its chain of transmission (isnād) here; its completion in al-Tārīkh is: "...from al-Suddī — in a report he mentioned from Abū Mālik, and from Abū Ṣāliḥ, from Ibn ʿAbbās — and from Murrah al-Hamdānī, from Ibn Masʿūd, and from some of the Companions of the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings of God be upon him: 'Get down...'". This is the chain of transmission through which al-Ṭabarī narrates frequently.
(4) The report (athar): 756 — In Tārīkh al-Ṭabarī 1: 56.

Translation · EN

Notes