Tafsir of Yunus 10:78

Thirdly, the saying of the Almighty, "They said: 'Have you come to us...'" is marshaled to demonstrate that he, peace be upon him, had silenced them with a rebuttal, such that they were cut off from offering any speech relevant to his, let alone a valid answer. They were compelled to cling to the tail of imitation, which is the habit of every helpless, defeated person and the custom of every obstinate disputant. It is an initial clause that occurred as a response to what preceded it from his speech, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, in the manner of "Moses said," as has been indicated. It is as if it were said: "What did they say to Moses, peace be upon him, when he said to them what he said?" It is then said: "They said, being unable to argue: 'Have you come to us to turn us away'—meaning to divert us." There is a conceptual and etymological connection between al-laft (turning) and al-fatl (twisting); more than one authority has affirmed that they are siblings and that neither is a transposition of the other, as al-Azhari stated. "From what we found our fathers upon"—meaning, from the worship of other than Allah the Almighty. There is no doubt that this is only feasible if what was mentioned is a continuation of his speech, peace be upon him, in the way that has been explained. For if it were regarded as being narrated from them, his response, peace be upon him, would be devoid of the rebuking that forced them to deviate from the methods of debate. Unquestionably, there is no relationship between their saying, "Have you come to us..." and his denial of what was narrated from them that would justify it being an answer to it; this is manifest to everyone except those veiled from perceiving self-evident truths. In sum, the truth is that there is no basis for that allowance [of it being their speech], and defending it is an idle pursuit, as is hidden to no one.

"And that for you two might be greatness" (i.e., sovereignty/kingship, as narrated from Mujahid; it is an instance of mentioning the necessitated and intending the necessary). Al-Zajjaj said it is only called kibriya (greatness) because it is the greatest thing sought in worldly affairs. It has been said: it means grandeur and arrogance over the people by making them followers. Hammad bin Yahya from Abu Bakr, and Zayd from Ya’qub read it as "yakuna" with a ya, because the feminine gender is not real [the subject is not a human female] while a separator exists.

"In the land" (i.e., the land of Egypt; it is also said that the generic [land] is intended). The prepositional phrase is connected to takuna (being), or to kibriya (greatness), or to istiqrar (establishment) in "for you two," because it acts as the predicate, or it refers to an omitted element acting as an adverbial state from kibriya or from the pronoun in "for you two," as it carries it.

"And we are not believers in you two" (i.e., we will not believe in what you have brought at all). This contains an emphasis on what is understood from the previous denial. The dual pronoun refers to Moses and Aaron, peace be upon them. They did not single out Moses, peace be upon him, in the address here, as they did in what preceded, because he is the one who directly rebuked and denied them; this is to magnify the matter of what is one of the two causes of their turning away in meaning, and as an exaggeration in provoking Moses, peace be upon him, and causing him to despair of them believing in what he brought. In Irshad al-Aql al-Salim, it is stated that the dualization of the pronoun in these two places—after having used the singular in the two preceding contexts—is in consideration of the fact that the greatness encompasses both of them, and that belief in one of them necessitates belief in the other. As for the "turning away" and the "coming" to it, since these were specific to the bearer of the Law, they were attributed exclusively to Moses, peace be upon him. Reflect upon this.