Tafsir of Ta-Ha 20:95

"He said: 'What is your affair [khaṭbuk]...?'"

• Al-Khaṭb: An infinitive derived from khaṭaba al-amr (he sought the matter). When one who is doing something is asked, "What is your khaṭbuk?" it means: "What is your objective in doing this?"
• "I perceived [baṣurtu] what they did not perceive": It was recited as baṣirtu (with a kasra), meaning: "I knew what you did not know, and I discerned what you did not discern."
• "A handful [qubḍah]": Al-Ḥasan recited it with a ḍamma on the qāf. It is a noun for the thing grasped, like ghurfah (a handful of water) or muḍghah (a morsel). As for qabḍah (with a fatḥa), it is the act of grasping once. Applying it to the object grasped is a case of naming the object (mafʿūl) with the infinitive (maṣdar), like the phrase "the prince’s striking."
• "I grasped a handful [qabṣatan]": He also recited it with a plain ṣād. The difference: ḍād is with the entire palm, while ṣād is with the fingertips. Similar to this are khaḍm and qaḍm: the former is with the entire mouth, the latter with the front teeth.
• "From the track of the Messenger’s horse": Ibn Masʿūd recited it as min athar faras al-rasūl.
  • If you ask: Why did he call him "the Messenger" rather than Gabriel or the Holy Spirit?
  • I say: When the appointed time to go to the Mount (al-Ṭūr) arrived, God sent Gabriel to Moses, riding the horse of Life, to take him there. The Sāmirī saw him and said, "This being has a significance." So, he took a handful of the soil from where the horse had stepped. When Moses asked him about his story, he said, "I took a handful from the track of the horse of the one sent to you on the day the appointment arrived." Perhaps he did not know it was Gabriel.

"He said: 'Go, for your [punishment] in this life is to say: "No contact," and you have an appointment that you will not fail to keep. And look at your god to which you remained devoted; we will surely burn it, then we will surely scatter it into the sea, a scattering.'"