Tafsir of Al-Isra 17:102

**(Musa, peace be upon him, said in response to his aforementioned statement:) "You have certainly known" — O Pharaoh — "that none has sent these down" — meaning the nine signs, or some of them. The reference to them by the aforementioned demonstrative pronoun follows the pattern of the saying, according to one of the two narrations: “And life after those days.”

It has already passed: "except the Lord of the heavens and the earth," meaning their Creator and Disposer. The result of the rebuttal is: Your knowledge that these signs are from Allah the Exalted — since none other than Him is capable of them — necessitates that I am neither bewitched nor a sorcerer, and that my speech is not deranged. However, the love of leadership drove you to obstinacy. He directed the address to the title of "Lordship" as an indication that his removal [from power] is among the effects of that [fact]. In Al-Bahr, [it is noted]: How excellent is the attribution of their sending down to the Lord of the heavens and the earth! When Pharaoh asked him at the beginning of their dialogue, saying to him, "And what is the Lord of the worlds?", he replied, "The Lord of the heavens and the earth," alerting him to his [Pharaoh's] deficiency and that he has no influence in existence; thus, his claim to Lordship is a claim to the impossible. He [Musa] silenced him and informed him that he knows the signs of Allah and who sent them down, but he is a denier and an obstinate person, as in the words of Allah the Exalted: "And they denied them, while their souls were certain thereof, out of injustice and haughtiness" (27:14). He addressed him with this by way of rebuke; meaning, you are in a state of someone who knows these, or they are of such clarity that you [must] know them. His address is not for the sake of informing him of his [Pharaoh’s] knowledge or the knowledge of his knowledge, so as to be an imparting of the necessary consequence of the report, like your saying to someone who has memorized the Torah: "You have memorized the Torah."

Ali, may Allah honor his face, Zayd ibn Ali, and Al-Kisa'i read it as “laqad ‘alimta” (You have known) with the ta (the second person pronoun) being vocalized with a damma. Thus, Musa, peace be upon him, would be informing [Pharaoh] about himself that he is not bewitched, as the enemy of Allah the Exalted and his enemy claimed, but rather that he [Musa] knows that none sent down those signs except the Creator of the heavens and the earth and their Disposer. It is narrated from the Commander [Ali], may Allah honor his face, that he said: "By Allah, the enemy of Allah did not know, but Musa, peace be upon him, is the one who knew." Abu Hayyan countered this by saying it is not authentic, because it was narrated by Kulthum al-Muradi, who is unknown. How could the Gate of the City of Knowledge, may Allah honor his face, say that? The aspect of attributing the knowledge to him [Musa] is clear.

Jalal al-Suyuti mentioned in Al-Durr al-Manthur that Sa'id ibn Mansur, Ibn al-Mundhir, and Ibn Abi Hatim recorded from Ali, may Allah honor his face, that he used to read it with the damma and say that, and he did not follow it up with any criticism. Perhaps this "unknown" person mentioned by Abu Hayyan is [present] in their chains of narration; and Allah the Exalted knows best.

The sentence "none sent down..." serves as the object of "you have known." The words of the Exalted, "as insights," constitute a state (hal) of "these," and the one who governs it is the aforementioned "sent down," according to Al-Hufi, Abu al-Baqa', and Ibn 'Atiyyah. What precedes illa (except) does not govern what follows it if it is the thing excepted from or a follower of it. However, Al-Akhfash and Al-Kisa'i have stated the permissibility of [saying] "Ma daraba Hindan illa Zaydun dahikatan" (None hit Hind except Zayd while she was laughing). The view of the majority is that this is not permissible; if a case appears as such, they interpret it as the omission of a verb indicated by what precedes it. The estimation here is: "He sent them down as insights," meaning clear, revealed proofs that show you my truthfulness. It is the plural of basirah, meaning "enlightening," i.e., clear. Basa'ir is also applied to arguments, treating them as if they were the insights of the intellects, i.e., He did not send them down except as arguments and proofs of my truthfulness. It may also be in the sense of "example/lesson," as Al-Raghib mentioned.

Furthermore, it is not hidden from you that if the intention by the nine signs is what the report of Safwan implies, then "these" may be a reference to what he [Musa] displayed of miracles. The display of that is considered in what the fa of consequence (fa al-fasihah) clarifies. If you refuse [to accept this] and insist on making it a reference to the aforementioned signs in that sense, due to the realization of all of them from the beginning and their establishment at the time of the dialogue, and the intense relevance of "sending down" to them, you will need to commit a kind of contrivance in what is not hidden from you.

"And indeed, I think you, O Pharaoh, are destroyed" (201), meaning perishing, as is narrated from Al-Hasan and Mujahid, on the basis that it is from thabara (intransitive), meaning "he perished." It is also used as a passive participle because it comes from both the intransitive and the transitive. Some interpreted it as "destroyed/ruined," which is clear. Al-Farra' said: It means "turned away from good, stamped/sealed upon evil," from their saying: "What deterred (mathabara) you from this?" i.e., what prevented you? To this returns what Al-Tustari recorded from Ibn 'Abbas: interpreting it as "cursed, withheld from good." Al-Shirazi in Al-Alqab and Ibn Mardawayh recorded via Maimun ibn Mihran from him, may Allah be pleased with him, the interpretation of it as "deficient in intellect." In the same meaning is the interpretation of Al-Dahhak as "bewitched." He said: Musa, peace be upon him, responded with the same as what Pharaoh said to him, with a difference in wording. Ibn Abi al-Dunya recorded in Dhamm al-Ghadab (Condemnation of Anger) from Anas ibn Malik that he was asked about "mathburan" in the verse, and he said: "Opposing." Then he said: "The Prophets, peace be upon them, are far from being cursed or insulted." You know that this is a metaphorical meaning for it, and likewise "deficient in intellect." There is no need to resort to it. What Imam Malik mentioned regarding it has what it has [of issues]. Yes, it is said: Its interpretation as "perishing" and the like, which contains harshness, contradicts the saying of the Exalted, addressing Musa and Harun, peace be upon them: "And speak to him with gentle speech" (20:44). Abu Hayyan pointed to the answer: Musa, peace be upon him, was initially expecting harm from Pharaoh, as he said: "We fear that he will hasten against us or that he will transgress" (20:45), so he was commanded to speak to him gently. When the Exalted [Allah] said to him: "Do not fear," he felt confident in the protection of Allah the Exalted and attacked him with the onslaught of one who is protected, confronting him with speech that he would not have confronted him with before that. There is more discussion on this which you will see, if Allah wills, in its proper place.

In summary, the first interpretation is the most apparent of the interpretations, and there is no harm in it, especially with Musa, peace be upon him, expressing it with "thought" (zann). Moreover, he pitted his "thought" against his [Pharaoh's] "thought," and what a difference between the two thoughts! Pharaoh's thought is a manifest falsehood, while the thought of Musa, peace be upon him, revolves around certainty. Ubayy and Ibn Ka'b read: "And I think you, O Pharaoh, are destroyed," using the lightened inna and the lam of differentiation (al-lam al-fariqah), and akhalu means "I think," with a kasra on the hamza in the eloquent dialect, though it may be opened in some dialects as in Al-Qamus.