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

The discourse on the interpretation of the statement of Him whose mention is exalted: ﴿O Children of Israel﴾

Abū Jaʿfar said: He means by His statement, exalted be His praise, "O Children of Israel", the children of Jacob, son of Isaac, son of Abraham, the intimate friend of the Most Merciful. (1) And Jacob was called "Israel", meaning the servant of God and His chosen one among His creation. "Īl" is God, and "Isrā" is servant, just as it is said: "Jibrīl", meaning servant of God. And as:-

798- Ibn Ḥumayd narrated to us, saying: Jarīr narrated to us, from al-Aʿmash, from Ismāʿīl ibn Rajāʾ, from ʿUmayr, the freed slave of Ibn ʿAbbās, from Ibn ʿAbbās: That "Israel" is like your saying: Servant of God. (2)

799- And Ibn Ḥumayd narrated to us, saying: Jarīr narrated to us, from al-Aʿmash, from al-Minhāl, from ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Ḥārith, who said: "Īl" is God in Hebrew. (3)

(1) In the printed edition: "O children of Jacob...", with the addition of the vocative particle.
(2) Report: 798- In Ibn Kathīr 1: 149, and al-Durr al-Manthūr 1: 63. This is an authentic chain of transmission. Ismāʿīl ibn Rajāʾ ibn Rabīʿa: trustworthy, Muslim transmitted from him in his Ṣaḥīḥ. ʿUmayr, the freedman of Ibn ʿAbbās: he is ʿUmayr ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-Hilālī, freedman of Umm al-Faḍl; he is sometimes attributed to the patronage of her husband "al-ʿAbbās", as occurred in the chain of transmission of another hadith in al-Musnad: 77, and sometimes attributed to the patronage of some of her children, as in this chain of transmission. He is a trustworthy Successor; Ibn Abī Ḥātim gave his biography in 3/1/380, and the two Shaykhs [al-Bukhārī and Muslim] and others transmitted from him.
(3) Tradition: 799- In al-Durr al-Manthūr 1: 63. "Al-Minhāl": he is Ibn ʿAmr al-Asadī. "ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Ḥārith": he is al-Anṣārī al-Baṣrī Abū al-Walīd, and he is a trustworthy Successor.

Translation · EN

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