Translator’s Note
The Arabic text used is: Abu Ja‘far
Muhammad Ibn. Jarir Tabari (224-310/839-923), Jami‘al-Bayan fi Tafsir
al-Qur’an (30 vols. In 12: Beiruit: Daru’l-Ma‘rifah, 1406/1906;
reprint of 1323 H. Bulaq edition). The reference under the title of each
selection is to the volume and page number(s) of the Arabic text. The Qur’anic
material cited by Tabari is identified – if an exact quote –
in the translation, in brackets, by chapter and verse; otherwise in a footnote.
The blessing customarily invoked upon the Prophet Muhammad (sws) when his
name is mentioned, salla llahu ‘alayhi wa-sallam, is not translated.
In the passage preceding the one
here translated, Tabari, after making a few general remarks about the excellence
of speech (Fadlu’l-Bayan), establishes several premises: (1) one who is
eloquent has greater merit than one who is not; (2) God’s speech is more
eloquent than any other speech; and (3) it is inconceivable that God would
send a message to a nation in a language other than the nation’s own. In
the following passage, he argues that, for it to be comprehensible to its
Arab addressees, the Qur’an had to employ the modes of expression the Arabs
were familiar with.
Text
Now if the difference in the degrees
of excellence of speech or the distinction between the levels of discourse
depends on what we have already stated, and if God, mention of Him is exalted
and His names holy, is the wisest of all those who are wise and the most
judicious,1
it follows that the most eloquent speech is His speech and the most excellent
discourse His discourse, and that the superiority of His speech, mention
of Him is exalted, to the speech of the entire creation is as great as
His superiority to all His servant-creatures. This being so, and it being
a fact that one of us humans2
who addresses someone else in such a way that the addressee fails to understand
him would be called inarticulate, it follows that it would be inconceivable
that God, mention of Him is exalted, would address any of His creation
except in such a way as to be understood by the addressee, and that He
would not send to any of them a messenger with a message unless it be in
a language and in a discourse that would be understood by the one the message
is sent to. For if the person who has been addressed and to whom the messenger
has been addressed and to whom the messenger has been sent does not understand
the address made to him and the message sent to him, then he will be no
better off after the address and after the coming of the message than he
previously was, for the address and the message have added to his knowledge
nothing he was previously ignorant of – and God, mention of Him is exalted,
is far above making an address or sending a message that is of no use to
the one who is addressed or to whom the message is sent, for that would
be considered, even among us, to be the work of those who are inept3
and whose acts are devoid of purpose, and God, He is exalted, is far above
that. It is for this reason that He, His praise is high, has said in His
Firm Revelation:
And We have not sent any messenger except in the language
of his people, that he may explain matters to them. (14:4)
And He said to His Prophet, Muhammad:
And we have not sent down the Book upon you except that
you may explain to them what they have differed about, and as a guidance
and mercy for a people who believe. (16:64)
It is, therefore, not possible for a person
to be guided by means of it when he happens to be ignorant of what he is
being guided to.
It is thus plain from the argument
we have presented that every messenger of God, His praise is high, whom
He sent to a nation He sent only in the language of those he was sent to;
that every book He sent down upon a Prophet He sent down in the language
of those to whom He sent it down; and that every message He sent to a nation
He sent in the language of those He sent it to.4
And it is clear from what we have said that the Book which God sent down
to our Prophet Muhammad, was in the language, of Muhammad. And since the
language of Muhammad was Arabic, it is obvious that the Qur’an,
too, is in Arabic. Of this, too, the Firm Revelation of our Lord speaks,
and so God, His name is exalted, says:
And He says:
And Trustworthy Spirit has brought it down upon your
heart so that you may become one of the warners, in clear Arabic language.
(26:195)
Now that, on the strength of the proofs
we have adduced and the arguments we have presented, the validity of what
we have said has been established, it follows that the ideas and meanings
of the Book of God sent down upon our Profit, Muhammad, must be in accord
with the ideas and meanings of the speech of the Arabs, and that the outer
form of the Book must conform with the outer form of that speech, even
though the Book of God would be distinguished from the latter by virtue
of the excellence which makes it superior to all other speech or discourse,
as already explained by us.
This being so, it is clear that since5
the following features are found in the speech of the Arabs:
terseness and brevity;
suppression6
in lieu of expression, and laconism in lieu of prolixity in certain situations,
but use of periphrasis and prolixity, repetition and reiteration, and explicit
statement of the meanings intended through the use of names in preference
to allusion to them or suppression of them.
the reporting of something particular
in import by means of something ostensibly general, and of something general
in import by means of something ostensibly particular; of something in
the form of an allusion when something explicitly known is intended; of
a qualifying attribute when the one qualified by that attribute is intended;
and of the qualified when the qualifying attribute is intended;
the preposing of something that is postposed in the sequence
of though, and postposing7
of something that is preposed in the sequence of thought;
the being content with citing part of something, leaving
the rest unmentioned; with what is obviously indicated when something is
left unexpressed;8
and with expressing what is normally suppressed – there9
have to be, in the Book of God sent down upon His Prophet, Muhammad, features
similar, comparable, and analogous to every single feature of it.10
And We shall, if God wills and gives help and strength, explain all of
that in suitable places.
(Translated by Dr Mustansir Mir)
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