Tafsir of Saba' 34:52

{ And they said, "We have believed in it" } — that is, in Allah (Mighty and Majestic is He), according to what a group reported from Mujahid. A faction said: It refers to Muhammad (may Allah bless him and grant him peace), as mentioned in His (Glorified is He) saying, "Your companion is not mad." It is also said that the pronoun refers to the torment, and it is said to refer to the Resurrection. The view that it returns to Muhammad (upon him be peace and blessings) is preferred, because belief in him (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) encompasses belief in Allah (Mighty and Majestic is He) and in what has been mentioned of the torment and the Resurrection.

{ And how can they attain it } — al-tanawush is al-tanawul (attaining/reaching), as Al-Raghib said, and it is reported from Mujahid. Al-Zamakhshari said: It is an easy reaching for something near. It is said, "He nasha it, he yanushu it," and "The people tanawashu (fought/reached) in war," and they tanawashu one another with weapons. A rajaz poet said: "It reaches (tanushu) the basin, a reaching from above; a reaching by which it traverses the middle of the deserts." Retaining it in its general sense is better; that is, from where will they be able to attain faith { from a far place }? For it is in the realm of obligation, and they are far removed and distant from it.

It is reported in Al-Bahr from Ibn Abbas that al-tanawush is interpreted as "the return," meaning: How can they have a return to the world? Ibn al-Anbari recited: "She wished to return to Mayy, but there is no way for her to attain it (tanawushuha)." It is not hidden that this is not explicit in that meaning. The intent is to represent their state in seeking faith after it has escaped them and become distant, by the state of one who wants to attain a thing after it has become remote and lost, in terms of impossibility.

Hamza, Al-Kisa'i, Abu 'Amr, and Abu Bakr read it as al-tana'ush (with a hamza), which is explained as changing the waw into a hamza. Al-Zajjaj said: Every waw with an essential damma—you have the choice regarding it; if you wish, you keep it, and if you wish, you change it into a hamza. Thus, you say thalathu adwur without a hamza, and thalathu ad'ur with a hamza. Abu Hayyan critiqued this, saying it is not absolute; rather, it is not permitted if it is in the middle and something is assimilated into it, like ta'awwud and ta'awwudh as verbal nouns. This was explicitly stated in Al-Tashil. Nor is it permitted if it is sound in the verb, like tarahwuk (tarahwukan) and ta'awun (ta'awunan). On this basis, the aforementioned explanation is not valid because al-tanawush is like ta'awun in that its waw remains sound in the verb, for you say tanawasha, and it is not hamzated.

Al-Farra' said: It is from na'ashtu, meaning "I delayed." He cited the saying of Nahshal: "He wished for a delay (na'ishan) that he might have obeyed me, but matters have occurred after matters." The pronoun refers to the master in his saying: "And a master who disobeyed me and became self-opinionated, just as he did not obey in what I desired, a short one." Thus, the hamza in it is original, and the expression has come from two roots. Some said: It is from na'ashtu the thing, meaning "you sought it." Ru'bah said: "My father's neighbor, Al-Khabush, pushed me toward you; na'sh al-qadr al-nu'ush." Thus, the hamza is also original.

It is said that al-tana'ush, according to these two views, means "attaining from a distance," because the latter requires that, and one does not seek that which is near to him and present with him. Thus, its being from { a far place } is an emphasis, or al-tanawush is stripped to mean absolute attainment, and the "distance" in its restriction is interpreted as temporal distance. Al-Shihab researched this, stating it is not correct, because the source of the metaphor is spatial, and what has been mentioned are the conditions of the target of the metaphor.