Tafsir of Sad 38:21

The interrogative here is intended to express astonishment and to arouse interest in hearing what follows it, as it signifies that this is among the remarkable accounts that ought to be spread among all who are present and all who are absent. It has been said that this sentence is a conjunction to [the verse] "We subjected the mountains," in the sense of one story being conjoined to another; others say it is conjoined to "Remember [the servant Dawood]."

The word al-khasm (litigants/opponent) is originally an infinitive meaning to contend with someone or to overcome them, and it is intended here to mean the "disputants." It is used for the singular, the masculine, and their derivations. It has come here in the plural form, according to those who point to the plural pronouns [that follow]. It is sometimes dualized, and its plurals are khusum and ikhsam. The origin of mukhasama (disputation), as al-Raghib states, is that each party clings to the khasm (side/flank) of the other, meaning their side, or that each one pulls the corner of the saddlebag from their own side.

That is, they climbed its wall and descended into it. The form tafa'ala is used here for "ascending," according to its original root, similar to tasannama al-jamal (he ascended the hump of the camel), meaning he climbed its hump, and tadhara al-jabal (he ascended the mountain), meaning he climbed its peak. The sur (wall) is the surrounding elevated wall, and the mihrab is the chamber, which is the upper room. The mihrab of a mosque is derived from this, either due to its separation from everything else or because of its nobility, which is accorded the status of elevation; this was stated by al-Khafaji.

Al-Raghib said: "Regarding the mihrab of the mosque, it is said it was named as such because it is a place for warring against Satan and [base] desires. It is also said it is because the person within it ought to be in a state of 'war' against the preoccupations of the world and the scattering of the mind. It is also said that the origin of the mihrab of a house is the front of the gathering place, then it was adopted for mosques; then the front [of the house] was named a mihrab by comparison to the mihrab of the mosque. This is the soundest view." End quote.

Al-Jalal al-Suyuti explicitly stated that the mihrabs in mosques, in the form known today, did not exist during the time of the Prophet (peace be upon him), and he has a treatise verifying this.

The [word] idh (when) is connected to a deleted term that is in a genitive relationship with the khasm; that is: "The news of the litigation of the litigants [occurred] when they scaled the wall." Or, it is connected to naba' (the news), on the understanding that it refers to the event that took place during the time of Dawood (peace be upon him), and the attribution of "coming" to the news is based on the deletion of a genitive; that is: "The story of the news of the litigants." Some permitted its connection to it without deletion by treating the attribution of "coming" to it as metaphorical. Or, it is connected to al-khasm (the litigants)—and it is originally an infinitive—while the adverbial phrase suffices with the scent of the verb it contains. Al-Hufi claimed it is connected to ata (come), but this is barely sound, because the arrival of the news of the litigants did not occur at the time they scaled the wall.