Al-A'raf: (160) "And We divided them into twelve..."
(And We divided them)—meaning the people of Moses, peace be upon him, not the nation previously mentioned, as the proximity might suggest. (Divided) is recited both with the shaddah (intensified) and with the takhfif (lightened); the former is the mutawatir (recurrently transmitted) reading. It is transitive to one object, but it may be implied with the meaning of "to cause to become," thereby becoming transitive to two. Thus, His saying, (twelve), is a hal (state) or a second object, meaning: We divided them, numbering them with this count, or: We caused them to become twelve nations, distinct from one another.
His saying, Exalted is He, (tribes)—as Ibn al-Hajib stated in Sharh al-Mufassal—is a badal (substitute) for the number, not a tamyiz (specifier) for it; otherwise, they would be thirty-six [tribes]. Based on this, the tamyiz is elided, meaning: twelve groups or the like. Al-Hawfi stated: "The quality of the specifier was elevated to take its place, and the original was 'a group of tribes'." It is permissible that it is a tamyiz because it is singular in interpretation; they have mentioned that al-sibt (the tribe/descendant), as a singular noun, refers to the grandchild, the daughter’s child, the offspring, or a piece of a thing—these are varying opinions mentioned by Ibn al-Athir. Then, it was used for every group of the Children of Israel, like "the tribe" among the Arabs. Perhaps it is a naming of them after the name of their progenitor, like [the tribe of] Tamim. It is also applied to every tribe among them as "tribes" (asbat), just as al-Ansar (the Helpers) became the predominant name for a specific group. It is, therefore, in the sense of a clan or a tribe. Hence, it took the place of the singular in the tamyiz. This is like the dualization of a collective noun in the words of Abu al-Najm, describing a mare accustomed to war: "It blossomed in the early blooming, between the spears of Malik and Nahshal."
The feminine form of ithnatay (twelve), despite the counted object being masculine, follows the principle that numbers before three follow the rule of gender reversal, based on the interpretation of that [word, i.e., asbat] as a feminine [noun, like firqah (group)]. This is evident from what we have established. Al-A’mash and others recited (ten) with a kasrah on the shin, and it is also narrated from him with a fathah. The kasrah is the dialect of Tamim, and the sukūn is the dialect of the Hijaz.
His saying, Exalted is He, (nations) is a badal after a badal from "twelve," not from "tribes," on the assumption that it is a badal, since one does not provide a badal for a badal. It is permissible for it to be a badal if it [the previous word] was not a badal, or an adjective if it was such or was not.
(And We inspired Moses when his people asked him for water)—when thirst overcame him in the wilderness—(that "Strike with your staff the stone")—an explanation of the act of inspiration. (So it gushed)—meaning, it burst forth, as Ibn Abbas said. Al-Tabrisi claimed that al-inbijas (gushing) is the exit of water in small amounts, while al-infijar (bursting/exploding) is its exit in large amounts, and the expression varies between the two based on the beginning of the exit and its end. The conjunction is based on an elided element that the discourse encompasses, meaning: "So he struck, and it gushed." The conjoined element was elided to avoid confusion and to indicate the speed of compliance, such that the inspiration and his striking were as one event, and that the gushing was by the command of Allah, the Exalted, as if the action of Moses, peace be upon him, had no part in it. Some researchers mentioned that this fa (so) is "eloquent," while others assume a conditional in the discourse: "If you strike, it will gush forth."
(From it twelve springs)—[the order of the verse] is not fit for the Majestic Composition [if taken differently]. (Every people knew)—meaning every tribe; the expression for them as such is to indicate the multitude of each of the tribes. Anas (people) is either a plural or a collective noun. Al-Sa’d mentioned that linguists call the collective noun a "plural." (Knew) is in the sense of "recognized," taking one object: (their watering place)—their own specific spring. The validity of the plural is evident.
(And We shaded them with clouds)—meaning, We made that [cloud] such that it cast its shade upon them to protect them from the heat of the sun, and it would move with their movement and remain with their dwelling. (And We sent down to them manna and quails)—meaning, taranjabin (manna) and the summani (quail). Each one of them would take what sufficed him of that. (Eat)—meaning, We said, or we were saying to them: Eat (of the good things We have provided you)—its delicious things. (What) is a relative pronoun or a descriptive one, referring to the manna and the quails.
(And they wronged Us not)—conjoined to an elided element for conciseness and to signify that it is a confirmed matter, independent of explicit statement: "So they wronged by disbelieving in these majestic blessings, and they wronged Us not by that, (but they used to wrong themselves) by [the act of] disbelief, as its harm does not go beyond them. The fronting of the object is to indicate the restriction (hasr) required by the preceding negation. The discourse contains irony and an indication of their persistence in what they were upon, which is not hidden.
