Tafsir of Ta-Ha 20:22

His saying, the Almighty: "And draw your hand to your side," is a command to him, upon him be peace, after he had taken hold of the serpent and it had reverted to being a staff as it was before. Ad-damm (drawing) means gathering. Al-janah (the side/wing), as stated in al-Qamus, means the hand, the upper arm, the armpit, the flank, and the thing itself; it is pluralized as ajniha and ajunuh. In al-Bahr, it is stated that al-janah is literally the wing of a bird or an angel, then it was used figuratively and applied to the hand, the upper arm, and the flank of a man.

It is said: Those flanking the army are called janahan (two wings) by way of metaphor, and the bird's wing is called by that name because it yajnahuhu—that is, it inclines it during flight. The intended meaning is: "Insert your right hand into the collar of your tunic and place it under your left armpit, or under its upper arm near the armpit, or beneath it at that place," so there is no contradiction between this and His saying: "Insert your hand into your bosom."

"It will emerge white" (takhruj bayda'a): Some consider it jussive as a response to the aforementioned command, based on the meaning of "insertion" within it. Abu Hayyan and others said that it is jussive in response to an implied command; the original structure of the speech was "Draw your hand, it shall be drawn; and bring it out, it shall come out," then what was deleted from the first and second parts was omitted, leaving behind what points to it. This is a conciseness (ijaz) called al-ihtibak.

Bayda'a (white) is in the accusative case as a state (hal) from the pronoun in takhruj (it emerges). The prepositional phrase (min ghayr su') relates to an omitted element which is a state from the pronoun in bayda'a, or it is an adjective for bayda'a as al-Hufi said, or it relates to it as Abu Hayyan said—as if it were said: "It has whitened without fault." Or it relates to takhruj, as many have permitted.

As-su' (evil/fault) is badness and ugliness in all things; it is used as a metonymy for leprosy, just as the private parts are referred to as as-saw'ah, because natural dispositions recoil from it and ears loathe it, and it is the most detestable thing to the Arabs. For this reason, they used metonymy for Jadhima, the owner of az-Zabba'—who was leprous—calling him "the spotted" or "the bright one." The benefit of mentioning this negation is precaution (ihtiras); for if He had confined the speech to His saying "It will emerge white," it might have caused the illusion—even if remote—that this was leprosy. It is also possible that the precaution is against the illusion of a defect resulting from a departure from the original constitution, meaning it emerges white without any defect or ugliness in that emergence, or against the illusion of any defect at all. It is narrated that it emerged white, having rays like the rays of the sun that dazzled the sight, and he, upon him be peace, was of a dark complexion.

"Another sign" (ayatan ukhra): that is, another miracle besides the staff. Its accusative case is as a state from the pronoun in takhruj. The correct view is the permissibility of multiple states for a single subject. It could also be from the pronoun in bayda'a, or from the pronoun in the prepositional phrase as has been said, or as a substitute for bayda'a, which returns to being a state from the pronoun in takhruj. It is also permissible for it to be in the accusative case due to an implied verb, meaning: "Take another sign," deleted due to the indication of the speech.

The manifest view of az-Zamakhshari is the permissibility of estimating duna-ka (take/behold) as the operator. This is based on what is apparent from Sibawayh’s view regarding the permissibility of a verbal noun functioning while deleted. Abu Hayyan rejected this, because it is a deputy for the verb, and a deputy and that for which it stands cannot be deleted. He refuted this with ya an-nida'iyyah (the vocative 'ya'), for it is deleted even though it is a deputy for "I call." It is said: It is a second object for a deleted verb along with its first object, meaning: "We have made it" or "We have brought you another sign," and this speaker made His saying...