Tafsir of Al-An'am 6:84

(And We bestowed upon him Isaac): That is, upon Abraham, peace be upon him. (Isaac): He is his son from Sarah. He lived one hundred and eighty years. It is mentioned in Nadim al-Farid that the meaning of Isaac in Arabic is "the laugher."

(And Jacob): He is the son of Isaac and lived one hundred and forty-seven years. The sentence is a conjunction to His saying, Exalted is He: "And that is Our argument..." and conjoining a verbal sentence to a nominal one is something whose permissibility is undisputed. It is also permissible, albeit remotely, that it is a conjunction to the sentence "We have given" on the basis that it has no place in grammatical inflection, which is one of the possibilities.

His saying, Exalted is He: (All [of them] We guided): The object of what follows it. Its advancement before the verb is for the purpose of restriction (hasr), not relative to others, but relative to one another; meaning: "Each one of them We guided," not one of them to the exclusion of the other. It is said: The intent is "each one of the three." Al-Tabarsi adopts this, while many of the investigators have chosen the first, because the guidance of Abraham, peace be upon him, is known from the speech with certainty, and the mention of the one guided to it was omitted due to the clarity that it is he who was given what Abraham was given, for they both are devoted to it.

Al-Juba’i said: The meaning is "We guided them by granting them reward and honors."

(And Noah): The Shaykh al-Islam said: It is in the accusative case by an implicit verb that is interpreted by (We guided) before it. Perhaps he did not make it a pre-posed object for the aforementioned verb so as not to separate between the conjunction and the conjoined with something, or because the pre-positioning would be devoid of benefit, namely the restriction; and it is not devoid of contemplation, meaning "before Abraham, peace be upon him."

Noah, as Al-Jawaliqi said, is a non-Arab name that has been Arabized. Al-Kirmani added that its meaning in Syriac is "the dweller." Al-Hakim said in Al-Mustadrak: He was only called Noah because of his intense weeping over himself, and his name is ‘Abd al-Ghaffar. The first is more established in my view, and the majority of the companions, may Allah be pleased with them, agree, as Al-Hakim said that he, peace be upon him, was before Idris, peace be upon him. The genealogists mentioned that he is the son of Lamech, the son of Methuselah, the son of Enoch—and he is Idris, as it is said. Al-Tabarani narrated from Abu Dharr, may Allah be pleased with him, who said: I said, "O Messenger of Allah, who were the first of the prophets?" He said: "Adam, peace be upon him." I said: "Then who?" He said: "Noah, peace be upon him." And between them are ten centuries. This is evident that Idris, peace be upon him, was not before him.

Ibn Jarir mentioned that his birth, peace be upon him, was one hundred and twenty-six years after the death of Adam, peace be upon him. He mentioned him here, it is said, because when He mentioned His favor upon His "Khaleel" (Friend) regarding his offspring, He followed it by mentioning His favor upon him regarding his origin, for the honor of the father extends to the son. It is also said: He mentioned him because his people worshipped idols, so he mentioned him so that he would have a model in him. As for him being mentioned because of what passed, there is no indication of a paternal relationship to be accepted, and the indication of "before" regarding that is not apparent, and some were satisfied with his fame regarding that.

(And from his descendants): The pronoun, according to a group, refers to Abraham, peace be upon him, because the drift of the glorious order is to explain his affairs and what Allah, Exalted is He, bestowed upon him of granting the argument, raising degrees, bestowing prophetic children, and preserving these honors in his progeny—all of this to bind those who belong to his religion among the polytheists and the Jews. Others chose it to be for Noah, peace be upon him, because it is closer, and because Lot, peace be upon him, is mentioned in the sentence, and he is not from the descendants of Abraham, but was rather his brother’s son, as will come, if Allah wills. He believed in him and emigrated with him to the Levant, so Allah, Exalted is He, sent him to the people of Sodom. Likewise, Jonah, peace be upon him, was not from his descendants, according to what Muhyi al-Sunnah mentioned. If the pronoun were for him, it would be restricted to those enumerated in this verse and the one following it. As for those mentioned in the third verse, they are conjoined to "Noah," and it is not mandatory that what is a condition in the conjoined-to be considered in the conjoined. The mention of Ishmael there does not harm, even if he is from the descendants of Abraham, peace be upon them, because silence about including him in the "descendants" does not necessitate that he is not one of them. He was not counted, as some investigators said, regarding his being gifted like Isaac, because the gifting of Isaac was in his old age and the old age of his wife, so it was at the peak of strangeness. Jacob was mentioned because the preservation of prophethood generation after generation is the ultimate blessing. "All We guided" was not conjoined because it emphasizes that it is a blessing.

Some people claimed that Jonah, peace be upon him, is from the descendants of Abraham, peace be upon him, and it is explicitly stated in Jami' al-Usul that he was from the tribes during the time of Isaiah. In that case, only Lot remains outside, and it is not left for one to attribute the pronoun back to Abraham and restrict it to those enumerated in the three verses. Because he was his brother’s son, believed in him, and emigrated with him, it is possible for him to be considered from his descendants by way of dominance (taghlib), as Al-Tibi said. It is narrated from Ibn Abbas, may Allah be pleased with them, that these prophets, peace be upon them, are all attributed to the descendants of Abraham, even if among them were those not joined to him by birth from a mother or father, for Lot is the son of Abraham’s brother, and the Arabs consider the paternal uncle as a father, just as Allah, Exalted is He, informed about the sons of Jacob that they "said, 'We will worship your God and the God of your fathers, Abraham, Ishmael, and Isaac,'" even though Ishmael is Jacob’s uncle. The prepositional phrase is connected to an implicit verb understood from what preceded. It is also said: [It is connected to] an omitted [predicate] that acts as a state (hal) for those mentioned in the verse. The first is chosen: "And We guided from his descendants (David)..." He is, as the Jalal al-Suyuti said, the son of Jesse, the son of Obed, the son of Boaz, the son of Salmon, the son of Nahshon, the son of Amminadab, the son of Ram, the son of Hezron, the son of Perez, the son of Judah, the son of Jacob. Ka’b said: He was red-faced, straight-haired, white-bodied, long-bearded with some curl, having a beautiful voice and character. Prophethood and kingship were combined for him. Al-Nawawi narrated from historians that he lived one hundred years, and the duration of his kingship was forty of them, and he had twelve sons.

(And Solomon): His son. Ka’b said: He was white, large-bodied, handsome, bright, beautiful, devout, and humble. His father used to consult him in many of his affairs in his youth due to the abundance of his intellect and knowledge. From Ibn Abbas, may Allah be pleased with them: He ruled the earth. From the historians: He became king when he was thirteen years old, and he began building the Holy House (Jerusalem) four years after his reign, and he died at fifty-three. The direct object was advanced for the importance of his status, along with the fact that the length of the objects might be disrupted if delayed in the response of the generous order.

(And Job): Ibn Jarir said: He is the son of Amos, the son of Rum, the son of Esau, the son of Isaac. It is said: The son of Amos, the son of Terah, the son of Rum, etc. Ibn ‘Asakir related that his mother was the daughter of Lot, peace be upon him, and that his father was among those who believed in Abraham, so he was before Moses, peace be upon him. Ibn Jarir said he was after Shu'ayb. Ibn Abi Khaythama said he was after Solomon. Al-Tabarani narrated that the duration of his life was ninety-three years.

(And Joseph): He is, according to the correct and famous opinion, the son of Jacob, the son of Isaac, the son of Abraham. The proof for this is what Ibn Hibban extracted in his Sahih from the hadith of Abu Hurayrah, attributed to the Prophet: "The noble, son of the noble, son of the noble, is Joseph, son of Jacob, son of Isaac, son of Abraham." He lived one hundred and twenty years. There are six linguistic forms for his name (Yusuf); the correct view is that it is non-Arab and has no derivation.

(And Moses): He is the son of Amram, the son of Izhar, the son of Kohath, the son of Levi, the son of Jacob. There is no dispute regarding his lineage, and it is a Syriac name. Abu al-Shaykh extracted through the path of ‘Ikrimah from Ibn Abbas, may Allah be pleased with them, who said: He was only called Moses because he was cast between trees and water; "water" in Coptic is mu, and "trees" is sha. In the Sahih, he is described as being brown-skinned, tall, and curly-haired, as if he were one of the men of Shanu'ah. He lived, as Al-Tha'labi said, one hundred and twenty years.

(And Aaron): His brother and full sibling. It is said: they were maternal brothers, and it is said: they were only paternal brothers; Al-Kirmani mentioned both in his ‘Aja’ib. He died before Moses, peace be upon them both, and he was born one year before him. In some hadiths of the Isra’ (Night Journey): "I ascended to the fifth heaven, and there I found Aaron, half of his beard was white and half was black; it almost touched his navel due to its length. I said: 'O Gabriel, who is this?' He said: 'The beloved among his people, Aaron, son of Amram.'" Some mentioned that the meaning of Aaron in Hebrew is "the beloved."

(And thus do We reward the good-doers): It is said: It means, we reward them just as We rewarded Abraham, peace be upon him, by raising his degrees, the multitude of his children, and prophethood among them. The intent is absolute similarity in rewarding good with good, and the equivalence between deeds and rewards without diminution, not identity in every aspect, because the uniqueness of Abraham, peace be upon him, in the abundance of prophethood in his progeny is a famous matter.

Some investigators chose the similarity to be of the nature of what preceded in His saying, Exalted is He: "(And thus We have made you a just community)" and its likes. The definite article (al-) in "the good-doers" is for generic reference (‘ahd), and the noun is stated in place of the pronoun to praise them for the goodness, which is the act of performing deeds in the manner worthy of them—that is, their descriptive goodness accompanying their intrinsic goodness. The Prophet, peace be upon him, explained it by saying: "That you worship Allah as if you see Him, for if you do not see Him, He sees you." The sentence is an intercalation confirming what is before it.