Tafsir of Ibraheem 14:15

"And they sought victory" (meaning, they sought the help of Allah, the Exalted, against their enemies, as in His saying: "If you seek victory, then the victory has come to you"). It is also permissible that it be derived from fatāḥah, meaning judgment—that is, they asked Allah, the Exalted, to judge between them, as in His saying: "Our Lord, judge between us and our people with the truth."

The pronoun refers to the Messengers, peace be upon them, as narrated from Qatadah and others, and the conjunction is linked to [the verb] "revealed." This is supported by the reading of Ibn Abbas, Mujahid, and Ibn Muḥayṣin, who read wastaftiḥū (imperative form) with a kasrah on the tā’, as a command to the Messengers, joined to "[We] shall surely destroy." Thus, it is included under that which was revealed, and the wāw is part of the reported speech, not the reporter's speech.

It has been said: [It is linked to] what precedes it as the initiation of a promise, so it is not necessary to link an initiation to a statement, even though some scholars permit this. In both readings, it is placed after His saying: "We shall surely destroy," or "[He] revealed to them," according to what is in al-Kashshāf, indicating that they did not cease in their supplication until the promised event of destroying the oppressors was realized. This is because "We shall surely destroy" is a promise, and the reality of the response is only at the time of the destruction. It is not a matter of delegating the sequence to the mind of the listener, nor is the context such, as some have mistakenly imagined.

Ibn Zayd said: The pronoun refers to the disbelievers, and the conjunction in that case is linked to "Those who disbelieved said," meaning: they said that and sought victory in the same manner as Quraysh said: "Hasten our portion for us." It is as if, when their denial and harm grew severe and they were not treated with punishment, they thought that what they had been told was false, so they sought victory by way of sarcasm and mockery, like the words of the people of Noah: "Bring us what you promise us," and the people of Shu'ayb: "Let fall upon us fragments," and so on.

It is also said: The pronoun refers to both the Messengers and their deniers, for both had asked Allah, the Exalted, to grant victory to the proponent of the truth and destroy the proponent of falsehood. Some have made the conjunction linked to "revealed" in this case as well; indeed, the explicit meaning of some scholars' words is that it is linked to it in the famous reading absolutely. Another possibility regarding the pronoun, mentioned by al-Zamakhshari, will be presented, God willing.

"And failed" (meaning, suffered loss and perished) "every tyrant" (arrogant toward the worship of Allah, the Exalted, and His obedience). Al-Raghib said: "Tyrant" (jabbār), in describing a human, is applied to one who compensates for his deficiency by claiming a status of superiority he does not deserve, and it is not used except in a derogatory sense.

"Stubborn" (‘anīd) (opposing the truth and boasting of what he possesses). The form fa‘īl often comes in the sense of mufā‘il, such as khalīṭ (intermingling) in the sense of mukhāliṭ, and raḍī‘ (suckling) in the sense of murāḍi‘ (nursing). Abu Ubaydah mentioned that its etymology is from al-‘and, which is the side; hence Mujahid said: "The ‘anīd is the one who turns away from the truth." It is said that the first description points to his blame regarding his psychological character, and the second points to his blame regarding the consequence stemming from that character—which is his being separate and deviant from the truth.

In the discourse, there is an elliptical elision of the fā’ of consequence and the conjunct, meaning: They sought victory, so it was granted to them, and they were triumphant in what they asked for and succeeded; and every stubborn tyrant failed. They are their stubborn people; thus "failure" here means absolute deprivation, not merely deprivation of the object sought, or it is considered from the perspective that they used to claim they were on the truth.

This is if the pronoun "they sought victory" refers to the Messengers, peace be upon them. As for if it refers to the disbelievers, then the conjunction, as in al-Baḥr, is linked to "they sought victory"—meaning, the disbelievers sought victory against the Messengers and failed and did not succeed. The phrase "every stubborn tyrant" was put in place of their pronoun to disparage them and record their tyranny and stubbornness against them, not because some of them were not like that and did not suffer failure.

If the pronoun refers to both the Messengers and the disbelievers, it is understood as: "They all sought victory, so the Messengers were granted aid, and every defiant rebel failed." In both interpretations, "failure" means deprivation after the request, and there is evident exaggeration in attributing failure to each one of them.