88- Abū Kurayb narrated to us, saying: Abū Bakr ibn ʿAyyāsh mentioned: Al-Aʿmash said: Abū Wāʾil said: Ibn ʿAbbās was placed in charge of the pilgrimage season; he addressed the people and recited Surah al-Nūr on the pulpit, and by God, if the Turks had heard it, they would have embraced Islam! So it was said to him: Narrate it to us from ʿĀṣim? But he remained silent (1).

89- And Abū Kurayb narrated to us, saying: Ibn Idrīs narrated to us, saying: I heard al-Aʿmash, from Shaqīq, who said: I was present with Ibn ʿAbbās when he was placed in charge of the pilgrimage season; he recited Surah al-Nūr on the pulpit and explained it—if the Romans had heard it, they would have embraced Islam (2)!

Abū Jaʿfar said: In God Almighty and Majestic's urging His servants to take heed from the admonitions and clear proofs in the verses of the Qur'an—by His statement, Exalted is His mention, to His Prophet Peace and blessings of God be upon him: {[This is] a blessed Book which We have revealed to you, that they might reflect upon its verses and that those of understanding would be reminded} [Surah Ṣād: 29], and His statement: {And We have certainly presented for the people in this Qur'an from every [kind of] example that they might remember * [It is] an Arabic Qur'an, without any crookedness, that they might become righteous} [Surah al-Zumar: 27, 28], and similar verses of the Qur'an in which God commanded His servants and urged them to take heed from the parables of the Qur'an's verses and to learn from its admonitions—there is proof indicating that it is obligatory upon them to know the interpretation (taʾwīl) of those of its verses whose interpretation has not been withheld from them.

For it is impossible that it should be said to one who does not understand what is being said to him nor comprehend its interpretation: "Take heed from that of which you have no understanding or knowledge among speech, clarification, and discourse"—except in the sense of an order to understand it and comprehend it, and then reflect upon it and take heed by it. As for before that, it is impossible to command him to reflect upon it while he is ignorant of its meaning. Just as it is impossible to say to some groups of nations who do not comprehend the speech of the Arabs nor understand it,