Tafsir of Ta-Ha 20:58

"Then we will surely bring you a magic like it..."

The term maw‘id (appointment) in the verse, "Appoint for us and for yourself an appointment," must be interpreted as either a time, a place, or a verbal noun (masdar).

If you interpret it as a time: Since the verse "Your appointment is the Day of Adornment" corresponds to it, you face two difficulties: you must treat the "time" as something that can be "broken" (as in the phrase "we will not break it"), and you must struggle to find a grammatical governor for the word "place" (makan) in the subsequent verse.

If you interpret it as a place: Because of the verse "a place of equality," you face the difficulty of applying the concept of "breaking" to a place, and it fails to correspond to the verse "Your appointment is the Day of Adornment."

Al-Hasan’s reading: His reading does not correspond to either time or place, as he read "Day of Adornment" in the accusative case (nasb).

The correct interpretation: It must be a verbal noun meaning "the promise." One should assume an omitted genitive construction: "a place of appointment." The pronoun in "we will not break it" refers to the appointment, and "a place" is a substitute for the omitted place.

If you ask: How does "Your appointment is the Day of Adornment" correspond to it, given that it must be a time, while the question was about a place? I say: It corresponds in meaning, even if not in wording. They had to gather on the Day of Adornment in a specific, well-known place; by mentioning the time, the place became known.

Regarding Al-Hasan’s reading, maw‘id is strictly a verbal noun. The meaning is: "The fulfillment of your promise is on the Day of Adornment." This also corresponds in meaning. It is also possible that no genitive is omitted, and the meaning is: "Make between us and you a promise that we will not break."

If you ask: What governs the accusative case of "a place"? I say: It is governed by the verbal noun, or by the verb implied by the verbal noun.

If you ask: How does the response correspond to it? I say: In Al-Hasan’s reading, it is clear. In the common reading, it is based on the estimation: "Your promise is the promise of the Day of Adornment."

In Al-Hasan’s reading, "Your appointment" can be an initial subject (mubtada') meaning "the time," and "mid-morning" (duha) is its predicate, intended as a definite reference to the mid-morning of that specific day.

Regarding "The Day of Adornment": It is said to be the day of Ashura, or Nowruz, or an annual festival they held, or a day they used for a market and adorned themselves.

Grammatical variants:

• Nukhlifuhu: Read in the nominative as an adjective for the appointment, or in the jussive as a response to the imperative.
• Suwan: Read with kasra or damma, with or without tanwin. It means "equidistant between us and you," according to Mujahid. It comes from istiwa' (equality), because the distance from the center to the two ends is equal. Those who do not use tanwin treat the connection as a pause.
• An tuhshara/yuhshara: Read with ta or ya. It means "that you, O Pharaoh, gather the people," or "that the people be gathered." It may contain a pronoun for Pharaoh, mentioned in the third person either due to the custom of addressing kings, or because he addressed the people saying "Your appointment" and assigned the gathering to Pharaoh.

The position of "that they be gathered" is either nominative or genitive, as a conjunction to "the day" or "the adornment."

He appointed that day for them so that the Word of God might be exalted, His religion might appear, the disbeliever might be suppressed, and falsehood might perish before the eyes of the witnesses and in a crowded assembly. This is so that the desire of those who wish to follow the truth may increase, the edge of the falsifiers and their followers may be blunted, and the news of this matter may spread widely in every desert and city, circulating among all the people of the tents and the houses.

"Moses said to them: 'Woe to you! Do not invent a lie against Allah, lest He destroy you with a punishment; and he who invents a lie has failed.'"