Tafsir of Ash-Shu`ara' 26:3

{ La‘allaka bākhi‘un nafsaka } (It is as if you are killing yourself): that is, slaying it out of intensity of anguish, as al-Layth said, citing the words of al-Farazdaq:

O you who are killing yourself with anguish For a matter that the decrees have removed from your hands.

Al-Akhfash and al-Farra’ stated: It is said, bakha‘a yabkha‘u bakh‘an, meaning he destroyed it due to the intensity of anguish. Its root is exertion (jahd). From this is the statement of ‘A’ishah regarding ‘Umar—may Allah be pleased with both of them—"He bakha‘a the earth," meaning he exerted it until he extracted what was within it of the treasures of the kings. Al-Kisa’i said: "He bakha‘a the earth with cultivation," meaning he made it weak due to continuous plowing. Al-Zamakhshari, followed by al-Mutarrizi, said: The root of bakh‘ is to reach by slaughtering the bukhā‘—with a kasrah on the bā’—which is a vein concealed within the vertebrae, and that is the furthest extent of slaughter. Ibn al-Athir, despite his extensive research, did not come across this, but there is no harm in that.

Zayd ibn ‘Ali and Qatadah—may Allah the Exalted have mercy on them—read bākhi‘u nafsika with the genitive construction (idafah), which is contrary to the base rule. For the base rule for an active participle (ism al-fa‘il), when it fulfills the conditions for governance, is that it should act upon its object, as Sibawayh indicated in al-Kitāb. Al-Kisa’i said: Governance and the genitive construction are equivalent. Abu Hayyan leaned toward the view that the genitive construction is more excellent. Perhaps in such a position, it is due to the compassion of the speaker; and when it (the act of killing oneself) was impossible for Him—sublime is He—they considered it directed toward the addressee. And since it was also not occurring from him, they said the intent is the command of it, due to the indication of denial derived from the flow of the discourse toward it. It is as if it were said: "Show compassion for yourself," or "Are you killing yourself in anguish and regret over what you have missed of the Islam of your people?" Al-‘Askari said: It is placed in such a position in the sense of a prohibition; the meaning is: "Do not kill yourself." It is also said: It is placed in the position of an interrogation, and the estimation is: "Are you one who will kill yourself?" Similar to this is narrated from Ibn ‘Atiyyah, except that he said: The intent is denial, meaning: "Do not be one who kills yourself."

{ Allā yakūnū mu’minīn } (That they might not be believers): This is a justification for the bakh‘. Since it is not valid for the non-existence of their belief in the future—as the outward appearance of the speech implies—to be the cause for this, due to the lack of simultaneity (and the cause should be simultaneous with the effect), they estimated "fear" (khīfah), saying: "For fear that they will not believe in that clear Book." Some of the eminent scholars did not estimate this, based on the fact that the intent is their persistence in refusing to accept belief in that Book, because the word kāna indicates continuity, and the future tense form is for its emphasis; the intent is the continuity of negation. It is also permitted that the verb "to be" (kawn) is in the sense of possibility, and the meaning is: "Because of the impossibility of their belief." The claim that the verb kawn was brought merely for the sake of the verse ending (fāṣilah) is of no consequence.