Tafsir of Al-Ahzab 33:11

"There were the believers tested..."

"There" (Hunālika) is an adverb of place, yet it is utilized for time. It has been said: it is metaphorical, which is more appropriate here. Regardless, it is an adverb for what follows, not for "you thought" (as has been suggested); meaning, in that momentous time or in that treacherous place.

"The believers tested" (Ibtuliya al-mu’minūn) means Allah Almighty tested them. The discourse is by way of representation (tamthīl), and the intent is that He—glory be to Him—dealt with them as one dealing with a subject of a test, so the sincere was distinguished from the hypocrite, and the firm from the wavering. Their testing, according to what is narrated from al-Dahhak, was through hunger; according to what is narrated from Mujahid, it was through the intensity of the siege; and as others have said, through endurance in faith.

"And shaken with a severe shaking" (Wa zulzilū zilzālan shadīdā) means they were agitated with a severe agitation due to the intensity of the terror and the multitude of the enemies. From al-Dahhak: they were shaken from their positions until they had no place left except the site of the trench. It is also said: they were moved toward tribulation but were preserved.

Ahmad ibn Musa al-Lu’lu’i narrated from Abu ‘Amr: (Zulzilu) with a kasrah on the zāy, as mentioned by Ibn Khalawayh. Al-Zamakhshari said: "From Abu ‘Amr is the ishmām (blending) of the zāy in zulzilū," and it is as if he meant the ishmām of it with a kasrah. The reasoning for the kasrah is that the vowel of the first zāy follows the vowel of the second, and the silent consonant (the first zāy) is not taken into account—just as it is not taken into account by those who say muntin (stinking), breaking the mīm in following of the vowel of the tā’, while it is an active participle from antana.

Al-Jahdari and ‘Isa read (Zalzalan) with a fathah on the zāy. It is the verbal noun of fa’lala from the reduplicated verb (al-muḍā‘af), in which both fathah and kasrah are permissible, such as qalqala/qalqalan. Sometimes the fathah is intended to signify the active participle, like salṣāl in the sense of muṣalṣil (ringing). If it is from a non-reduplicated verb, then there is nothing heard from it on the measure of fi‘lāl with a kasrah on the first letter, such as sarhafa/sarhāfan.