ﲯ ﲰ ﲱ ﲲ ﲳ ﲴ ﲵ ﲶ ﲷ ﲸ ﲹ ﲺ ﲻ ﲼ ﲽ ﲾ ﲿ ﳀ ﳁ ﳂ ﳃ ﳄ ﳅ ﳆ ﳇ ﳈ ﳉ ﳊ ﳋ ﳌ ﳍ
[Moses] said, "Then go. And indeed, it is [decreed] for you in [this] life to say, 'No contact.' And indeed, you have an appointment [in the Hereafter] you will not fail to keep. And look at your 'god' to which you remained devoted. We will surely burn it and blow it into the sea with a blast.
Tafsir
Verse range: 20:97
"He said: 'Go, for indeed...'"
He was punished in this world with a punishment than which there is nothing more overwhelming or desolate. He was completely forbidden from mixing with people. It was forbidden for them to meet him, speak to him, trade with him, or face him—all the ways in which people live with one another. If it happened that he touched anyone, man or woman, both the toucher and the touched would develop a fever. Thus, people avoided him, and he avoided them. He would cry out: "Lā misās" (No contact!). He became more desolate among people than a murderer seeking refuge in a sanctuary, or a wild beast fleeing in the wilderness. It is said that this condition remains among his people to this day.
It is read as lā misās on the pattern of fijār. Similar to this is their saying regarding gazelles: "If they reach the water, then lā ʿabāb (no drinking), and if they lose it, then lā abāb (no seeking)." These are proper nouns for the act of touching (massa), drinking (ʿabba), and seeking (abba), denoting a single instance of the action.
"You will not fail to keep it" Meaning: God will not fail to keep the appointment He promised you regarding your polytheism and corruption on earth. He will fulfill it for you in the Hereafter after punishing you for it in this world. Thus, you are among those who have lost both this world and the Hereafter; that is the manifest loss.
It is also read as lan tukhlifahu (You will not find it broken). This is from the expression "I broke the appointment" (akhlaftu al-mawʿid) when you find it unfulfilled. Al-Aʿshā said: He stayed and shortened his night to provide provisions, Then he departed, and Qutayla broke her promise.
Ibn Masʿūd read it as nukhlifuhu (with a nūn), meaning: God will not fail to keep it. It is as if he is narrating the words of the Almighty, as passed in li-ahaba laka.
"You remained" (ẓalta) Ẓalta, ẓalata, and ẓalalta. The root is ẓalalta; they deleted the first lām and transferred its vowel to the ẓāʾ. Some do not transfer the vowel.
"We will surely burn it" (la-nuḥarriqannahu) Read as la-nuḥriqannahu and la-nuḥarriqannahu. In the codex of Ibn Masʿūd, it is la-nadhbaḥannahu (We will surely slaughter it). As for la-nuḥriqannahu and la-nuḥarriqannahu, both readings refer to burning. Abū ʿAlī al-Fārisī mentioned regarding la-nuḥarriqannahu that it is permissible for it to be an intensive form of ḥaraqa (to burn), as in filing something down with a file.
Based on this is the third reading, which is the reading of ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib (may God be pleased with him): "We will surely scatter it" (la-nansufannahu), with the sīn both kasrah and ḍammah. This is a third punishment: the nullification of that by which he was tempted and through which he tempted others, the wasting of his efforts, and the demolition of his plot: "And they plotted, and God plotted; and God is the best of plotters" (Āl ʿImrān: 54).
"Your god is only God, than whom there is no god. He encompasses all things in knowledge."
