"So they both proceeded until, when they came to the people of a town, they asked its people for food, but they refused to offer them hospitality. Then they found in it a wall that was on the point of collapsing," meaning: falling.
Muhammad said: The wall [fol. 198] being described this way is by way of simile, and such usage is widespread in the speech of the Arabs and their poetry. Al-Ra'i said:
(In a desert where its summits were agitated ... like the agitation of axes when they seek to dislodge.)
His saying: "He said: If you had wished," Musa said it, "you could have taken for it a payment," meaning: something that would suffice us for the day.
﴿فَانْطَلَقَا حَتَّى إِذَا أَتَيَا أَهْلَ قَرْيَةٍ اسْتَطْعَمَا أَهْلَهَا فَأَبَوْا أَنْ يُضَيِّفُوهُمَا فَوَجَدَا فِيهَا جِدَارًا يُرِيدُ أَن ينْقض﴾ أَيْ: يَسْقُطَ.
قَالَ مُحَمَّدٌ: الْجِدَارُ (ل ١٩٨) يَكُونُ هَذَا عَلَى التَّشْبِيهِ، وَمِثْلُ هَذَا مُسْتَفِيضٌ فِي كَلَامِ الْعَرَبِ وَأَشْعَارِهَا؛ قَالَ الرَّاعِي:
(فِي مَهْمَةٍ قَلِقَتْ بِهِ هَامَاتُهَا … قَلَقَ الْفُئُوسِ إِذَا أَرَدْنَ نُصُولًا)
قَوْلُهُ: ﴿قَالَ لَو شِئْت﴾ مُوسَى قَالَهُ ﴿لاتَّخَذْتَ عَلَيْهِ أَجْرًا﴾ أَي: مَا يكفينا الْيَوْم
