Tafsir of Al-Qasas 28:76

"Indeed, Qārūn" — Qārūn is a non-Arabic name, prevented from being fully declinable due to its status as a proper noun and its foreign origin.

"was from the people of Moses" — that is, from the Children of Israel, as is the apparent meaning. Ibn ‘Aṭiyyah cited a consensus on this. There is a difference of opinion regarding his kinship to Moses, peace be upon him. It is narrated from Ibn ‘Abbās (may Allah be pleased with them both), Ibn Jurayj, Qatādah, and Ibrāhīm that he was the paternal cousin of Moses. Thus, Moses is the son of ‘Imrān, son of Qāhith, son of Lāwī, son of Ya‘qūb, peace be upon him; and Qārūn is the son of Yaṣhar, son of Qāhith.

In Majma‘ al-Bayān, it is cited from ‘Aṭā’ on the authority of Ibn ‘Abbās that he was the maternal cousin of Moses, and this is also narrated from Abū ‘Abd Allāh (may Allah be pleased with him). It is also narrated from Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq that he was the paternal uncle of Moses, which is consistent with the view of those who say Moses is the son of ‘Imrān, son of Yaṣhar, son of Qāhith, and that Qārūn is the son of Yaṣhar, son of Qāhith.

He was called al-Munawwar (the radiant) because of his handsome appearance, and he was the one among the Children of Israel who had memorized the Torah the most and was the most proficient in reciting it. However, he acted with hypocrisy, just as the Samiri acted with hypocrisy. He said, "If the prophethood belongs to Moses and the altar and the sacrifice to Aaron, then what is left for me?" It is narrated that when Moses led them across the sea, and the message and the priesthood were given to Aaron—so that he would offer the sacrifice and be a leader among them—the sacrifice was assigned to Moses, who then passed it to his brother Aaron. Qārūn felt slighted and envied them both. He said to Moses, "The authority belongs to you both, and I have nothing; how long must I endure this?" Moses replied, "This is the work of Allah, the Exalted." Qārūn said, "By Allah, I will not believe you until you bring forth a sign." Moses ordered the leaders of the Children of Israel to each bring his staff. He gathered them, tied them together, and placed them in the tent where the revelation used to descend upon him. They guarded their staffs at night, and in the morning, Aaron's staff was found vibrating and possessed of green leaves, as it was made of almond wood. Qārūn said, "This is no more amazing than the magic you perform."

"He acted insolently toward them" — meaning, he sought superiority over them and wanted them to be under his command, or he acted arrogantly toward them. Part of his arrogance was that he lengthened his garments by a span, or he oppressed them and sought what was not his right. It is said that this occurred when Pharaoh made him a ruler over the Children of Israel. Others say he envied them and sought the removal of their blessings; this refers to what has been mentioned regarding his behavior toward Moses and Aaron, peace be upon them. The fā’ (in fa-baghā) is explanatory, meaning: he went astray, and thus he acted insolently. It is permitted that it be understood in its literal sense, for kinship often provokes insolence.

"And We gave him of the treasures" — meaning, stored wealth. It is a metaphor, treating stored items as buried ones if the treasure was specific to him. In al-Baḥr, it is mentioned that his wealth was called "treasures" because Zakat was not paid from it. Moses, peace be upon him, had ordered him to pay it, but he refused, and this was one of the reasons for his enmity toward him. It is also said that the "treasures" here refer to buried riches; it is narrated from ‘Aṭā’ that Allah had granted him a great treasure from the treasures of Joseph, peace be upon him.

"that the keys of which" — that is, the keys to his chests; it is a construction involving an omitted possessor or an addition for a minor association. It is the plural of miftaḥ, which is that with which one opens. Al-Suddī said: "It means his vaults (khazā’in)." In the same vein, al-Ḍaḥḥāk said: "It means his containers and vessels." Something similar is narrated from Ibn ‘Abbās and al-Ḥasan. By analogy, the singular should be miftāḥ (with a fatha), as it is a noun of place. The reading of al-A‘mash, mafātīḥahu (with a ya’), representing the plural of miftāḥ, supports the aforementioned. Ma (in mā inna) is a relative pronoun, serving as the second object of "We gave him," and mafātīḥahu is the subject of inna. The saying of the Exalted, "would surely burden a company of strong men," is its predicate. The sentence is a connective (ṣilah) for mā, and the return pronoun is the genitive-marked pronoun.

The Kufans prohibited the possibility of a sentence introduced by inna serving as a connective for a relative pronoun. Al-Naḥḥās said: "I heard ‘Alī ibn Sulaymān—meaning al-Akhfash al-Ṣaghīr—say: 'How ugly is what the Kufans say regarding the connectives, that it is not permissible for [a sentence starting with] inna to be a connective for alladhī or for mā... and in the Qur'an there is mā inna mafātīḥahu.'" It is not hidden that if the prohibitor is the lack of precedent, the refutation of them is incomplete unless accompanied by evidence that admits no other interpretation. Ma in the verse could potentially be an indefinite noun described by the following clause. If the prohibition is based on the idea that inna cannot begin a statement—and thus the clause starting with it would not be linked to what precedes it—then the refutation using the aforementioned verse is complete, because the mentioned barrier, just as it prevents the sentence from being a connective, also prevents it from being an attribute. Reflect on this.

"would burden" — from nā’a bi-l-ḥaml, meaning it weighed him down until it made him lean. The bā’ is for causation/transitivity, as in dhahabtu bihi (I took it away).

"a company (ʿuṣbah)" — a large group without a specific numerical limit, according to what al-Rāghib mentioned. Some linguists have specified a quantity for it, though they differed: some say from ten to fifteen (narrated here from Mujāhid); some say between fifteen and forty (narrated from al-Kalbī); some say between three and ten; some say from ten to forty (narrated from Qatādah); some say forty (narrated from Ibn ‘Abbās); and some say seventy (narrated from Abū Ṣāliḥ, the freed slave of Umm Hāni’). Al-Khafājī said: It may be said that its original meaning is simply a group, as the etymology suggests, and then convention assigned a number to it, or it varies according to context. Abū Zayd said: tanū’u comes from nawat bi-l-ḥaml if it rose with the load. The poet said: "It struggles with its hind parts, and it does not... its rising, and it walks slowly for a while, then it becomes exhausted." In the verse, according to Abū ‘Ubaydah and his followers, this involves an inversion (qalb), and the origin is tanū’u bihā (it rises with them). It is said that there might be no inversion, because the keys "rise" in association with the company when the company rises with them. The first view is what we presented earlier; it is reported from al-Khalīl, Sībawayh, and al-Farrā’, and favored by al-Naḥḥās. Its meaning is reported from Ibn ‘Abbās, Abū Ṣāliḥ, and al-Suddī. Badīl ibn Maysarah read li-tanū’a (with a ya’); Abū Ḥayyān explained this by positing an omitted masculine noun to which the pronoun refers, meaning "that the carrying of his keys..." or "the weight of them..." or similar.

"When his people said to him" — Al-Zamakhsharī said: This is connected to tanū’u, but it was weakened because the burdening of the company by the keys is not restricted to the time of his people's speech. Ibn ‘Aṭiyyah said: It is connected to baghā (he acted insolently), which was also weakened for similar reasons. Abū al-Baqā’ said: It is connected to ātaynāhu (We gave him). It is also permissible for it to be an adverbial modifier for an implied element indicated by the speech—that is, "he acted insolently toward them when his people said to him." Both have the aforementioned issues. Al-Ḥūfī stated it is accusative because of an omitted "Remember," and it is also possible for it to be connected to what follows, from the Exalted's saying: "He said, 'I was only given it...'" The sentence confirms his insolence. It is more likely that it is connected to an omitted element, the meaning being: he displayed pride and joy in what he was given when his people said to him,

"Do not exult" — do not behave with insolence. Exultation over the worldly life for its own sake is blameworthy because it is a result of loving it, being content with it, and being heedless of its passing. Indeed, the knowledge that the pleasure in it is bound to depart necessitates grief inevitably, as Abū al-Ṭayyib said: "The greatest sorrow, in my view, is in a joy whose possessor is certain of its transition." Ibn Shams al-Khilāfah said: "When you look, you will see that a departing misery for a person is better than a departing luxury." For this reason, the Almighty said: "And do not rejoice in what He has given you." The Arabs praise the abandonment of exultation when prosperity arrives. The poet said: "I am not one to exult when time brings me joy, nor one to panic when it changes its course." Another said: "If you encounter prosperity, do not find us exulting in the wealth, and we do not stumble in hardship." The Exalted explained the prohibition here by stating that exultation prevents His love, saying: "Indeed, Allah does not love the exultant."

This is proof that exultation over worldly life is blameworthy by Sharia. We said that exultation over it for its own sake is blameworthy because exultation over it as a means to a matter of the Hereafter is not blameworthy. According to many, the "love of Allah" is an attribute of action; it means that He, the Exalted, does not honor the exultant with the vanities of the world, nor does He bestow favors upon them, nor does He draw them near. The meaning is that He, the Exalted, detests them, humiliates them, and distances them from His presence. Some have said that the negation of His love for them contains a warning that the absence of His love is sufficient to deter from what He has forbidden, so what then of His wrath and punishment? This is sound. ‘Īsā ibn Sulaymān al-Ḥijāzī reported that it was read as al-fāriḥīn (the joyful ones).