Continuation of the discussion regarding the verse: “O mankind, fear your Lord, who created you from one soul…”
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
Continuation of the discussion regarding the verse: [An-Nisa 4:1].
The Shaykh : What is the connection in His saying between the command to fear Allah and the fact that they ask about Him?
The student: Because the fact that they ask about Him indicates that He is great in their estimation, and what is great must be feared.
The Shaykh : His saying: has two recitations?
The student: ,
The Shaykh : First, give us one recitation, and then we will look at the explanations? with the accusative case, with the genitive case,
The Shaykh : With the accusative recitation?
The student: Fear the kin.
The Shaykh : How do we fear them?
The student: It means that you do not sever them.
The Shaykh : And with the genitive recitation? What will the meaning be [An-Nisa 4:1]?The Shaykh : So it is a conjunction to what?
The student: To the pronoun in “by Him”
The Shaykh : Is that so? Good.
The Shaykh : His saying:[An-Nisa 4:1] “was” indicates the past. Was Allah, Mighty and Majestic, a Watcher and then His watchfulness ceased? The student: No, rather He was a Watcher and He continues to be a Watcher.
The Shaykh : So does it mean it is stripped of time?
The student: It is stripped of the indication of time.
The Shaykh : And the intended meaning is to establish His possessing this attribute. It has parallels such as:[An-Nisa 4:23]. The meaning is not that He was so in the past, but rather it is established that He is the All-Forgiving, the Most Merciful.
The verse presents a problem with the genitive recitation in terms of grammatical rules, because grammarians say that if you conjoin to a connected pronoun, you must use the separated pronoun, or repeat the preposition and say: “You ask about Him and about the kin.” Do we say that there is something in the Qur'an that deviates from the rules? No, we say that the Qur'an is the judge and not the judged. And when the grammarians say this is anomalous, we say: You are the anomalous ones. There is nothing anomalous in the Qur'an, ever. The Qur'an is in a clear Arabic language. And if this usage was rare among the Arabs, then with the revelation of the Qur'an containing it, will it become common or rare? It will become common, as people read it at all times and in all moments. For this reason, al-Razi and Muhammad Rashid Rida, and other scholars, strongly rejected the grammarians in this matter. They said: How can they say that there is something anomalous in the Qur'an? The Qur'an judges and is not judged. Rather, if a construction appears in the Qur'an that was not known in the Arabic language, the merit belongs to the Qur'an for reviving this construction. Ibn Malik (may Allah have mercy on him) said that it is not necessary to repeat the preposition, and he said:
And it is not necessary in my view, for it has been established in correct poetry and prose.
And this is the correct view. Based on this, we say: In every verse that the grammarians claim is anomalous, we say: You are the anomalous ones. There is nothing anomalous in the Qur'an. Everything in the Qur'an is in the eloquent language, a clear Arabic tongue. And the rules must be taken from the Qur'an to judge by them and upon them, not that the rules are taken as established by the terminology of a later occurrence and then it is said the Qur'an is anomalous.
O mankind, fear your Lord, who created you from one soul and created from it its mate and dispersed from both of them many men and women. And fear Allah, through whom you ask one another, and the wombs. Indeed Allah is ever, over you, an Observer.
يا أيها الناس اتقوا ربكم الذي خلقكم من نفس واحدة وخلق منها زوجها وبث منهما رجالا كثيرا ونساء واتقوا الله الذي تساءلون به والأرحام إن الله كان عليكم رقيباThe Shaykh : What is the connection in His saying between the command to fear Allah and the fact that they ask about Him?
The student: Because the fact that they ask about Him indicates that He is great in their estimation, and what is great must be feared.
The Shaykh : His saying:
and the kin
والأرحامThe student:
and the kin
والأرحامand the kin
والأرحامThe Shaykh : First, give us one recitation, and then we will look at the explanations?
and the kin
والأرحامand the kin
والأرحامThe Shaykh : With the accusative recitation?
The student: Fear the kin.
The Shaykh : How do we fear them?
The student: It means that you do not sever them.
The Shaykh : And with the genitive recitation
and the kin
والأرحامAnd fear Allah, through whom you ask one another, and the wombs
واتقوا الله الذي تساءلون به والأرحامThe student: To the pronoun in “by Him”
The Shaykh : Is that so? Good.
The Shaykh : His saying:
Indeed Allah is ever, over you, an Observer.
إن الله كان عليكم رقيباThe Shaykh : So does it mean it is stripped of time?
The student: It is stripped of the indication of time.
The Shaykh : And the intended meaning is to establish His possessing this attribute. It has parallels such as:
Indeed, Allah is ever Forgiving and Merciful.
إن الله كان غفورا رحيماThe verse presents a problem with the genitive recitation in terms of grammatical rules, because grammarians say that if you conjoin to a connected pronoun, you must use the separated pronoun, or repeat the preposition and say: “You ask about Him and about the kin.” Do we say that there is something in the Qur'an that deviates from the rules? No, we say that the Qur'an is the judge and not the judged. And when the grammarians say this is anomalous, we say: You are the anomalous ones. There is nothing anomalous in the Qur'an, ever. The Qur'an is in a clear Arabic language. And if this usage was rare among the Arabs, then with the revelation of the Qur'an containing it, will it become common or rare? It will become common, as people read it at all times and in all moments. For this reason, al-Razi and Muhammad Rashid Rida, and other scholars, strongly rejected the grammarians in this matter. They said: How can they say that there is something anomalous in the Qur'an? The Qur'an judges and is not judged. Rather, if a construction appears in the Qur'an that was not known in the Arabic language, the merit belongs to the Qur'an for reviving this construction. Ibn Malik (may Allah have mercy on him) said that it is not necessary to repeat the preposition, and he said:
And it is not necessary in my view, for it has been established in correct poetry and prose.
And this is the correct view. Based on this, we say: In every verse that the grammarians claim is anomalous, we say: You are the anomalous ones. There is nothing anomalous in the Qur'an. Everything in the Qur'an is in the eloquent language, a clear Arabic tongue. And the rules must be taken from the Qur'an to judge by them and upon them, not that the rules are taken as established by the terminology of a later occurrence and then it is said the Qur'an is anomalous.