Tafsir of Al-A'raf 7:132

"And they said: No matter what sign you bring us..."

This begins the explanation of another facet of the forms of punishment with which they were seized—punishments that were, in themselves, clear signs—and their failure to desist from their state of disbelief and obstinacy. That is, they said, after having seen what they saw of the staff, the years of drought, and the deficiency in fruits: "No matter what sign you bring us..."

Regarding the word mahma (whatever), there is disagreement. It is said that it is a word in its own right, coined for the purpose of extreme generalization. It is also said that it is compounded of meh, a verbal noun for "cease" (either retaining its meaning or stripped of it), and ma, the conditional particle. Al-Khalil said: Its origin is ma-ma, where the first is conditional and the second is indefinite, attached to it to increase generalization; the alif of the first ma was changed to a ha to avoid the repulsiveness of repetition. The soundest of these views, as more than one scholar has stated, is the view that it is a simple, uncompounded term. In the marginalia of at-Tashil, Ibn Hisham states that whoever holds it to be simple should write mahma with a ya (ya), and whoever holds it to be ma-ma should write it with an alif. In the commentary, the same applies if it is said to be meh-ma. Al-Shumni countered this by stating that those who hold either of these two origins agree that mahma is a distinct, final root, so what is appropriate for the end of the word according to the first view should also be appropriate for the second. This is a matter for consideration.

It is a conditional noun, not a particle, according to the correct opinion. Its grammatical place here is nominative as an initial subject (mubtada'), and its predicate is either the condition, the consequence, or both, according to the scholarly disagreement. Or, it may be in the accusative place as a circumstantial adverb (zarfiyyah). Al-Zamakhshari vehemently rejected the latter opinion in al-Kashshaf, and Ibn al-Munir mentioned that the one who held it to be an adverb was deceived by the words of Al-Khalil or by comparing it to mata-ma. Ibn Malik disagreed with this and said: It is heard from the Arabs, such as the saying: "And you, mahma (whenever/whatever) you grant your belly its desire and your private parts, you will attain the ultimate blame." This is supported, as Al-Shihab said, by the usage of the logicians who employ it in the sense of "whenever" (kullama) and make it a quantifier of universality, for it indicates generality, as they have explicitly stated. It is not one of their inventions, as some have imagined. You know that to consider it an adverb here is something one should not rush to do in any way, because the words of the Exalted, "from a sign," reject it, for it is an explanation for mahma, and it is not a time.

Their naming it a "sign" is a matter of mimicking Moses, peace be upon him, and mocking it, while conveying that this title has no effect on them. Otherwise, they deny that it is a sign in reality and claim it is magic, as their words indicate: "to enchant us therewith." The two pronoun suffixes (in biha and nas-harana biha) refer to mahma. The masculine gender of the first pronoun (biha—referring back to the noun mahma) observes the verbal form due to its indefiniteness, while the feminine gender of the second pronoun (biha—referring to ayah) maintains the side of the meaning, because it only refers back to it after it was clarified by "a sign" (ayah). Ibn Hisham claimed that the first pronoun also refers to "a sign." Perhaps he observed proximity, while he who holds to the first view observed that "a sign" is presented for the purpose of explanation; therefore, it is more fitting for the pronoun to refer to the defined object intended in essence, even if the result is the same. That is: "to enchant our eyes with that sign and make things appear doubtful to us."

"And we are not going to be believers in you" — meaning, we will not be those who deem you truthful and believe in your prophethood at all.