Tafsir of Al-Furqan 25:27

Biting the hands and fingertips, falling upon one's hands, gnawing the fingers, grinding the teeth, and gnashing them: these are metonyms for rage and regret. They are the radif (concomitants) of these emotions; the speaker mentions the concomitant to signify the thing accompanied. This elevates the speech to a high level of eloquence, and the listener finds in himself a sense of awe and approval that he would not find in the literal term itself.

It is said: This was revealed regarding Uqbah ibn Abi Mu'ayt ibn Umayyah ibn Abd Shams. He used to sit frequently with the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ). It is said he prepared a feast and invited the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ), who refused to eat until Uqbah uttered the two testimonies of faith. He did so. Ubayy ibn Khalaf, his friend, rebuked him, saying, "Have you apostatized, Uqbah?" He replied, "No, but he refused to eat my food while in my house, so I was ashamed and testified for him, though the testimony was not in my heart." Ubayy said, "My face is forbidden to your face if you do not go to Muhammad, step on his neck, spit in his face, and strike his eye." Uqbah found the Prophet (ﷺ) prostrating in the Dar al-Nadwah and did so. The Prophet (ﷺ) said, "I will not find you outside of Mecca without striking your head with the sword." He was killed at Badr; it is said Ali (ra) was ordered to kill him, or that Asim ibn Thabit ibn Aflah al-Ansari killed him. Uqbah said, "O Muhammad, to whom will the children go?" He replied, "To the Fire." As for Ubayy, the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) wounded him at Uhud, and he returned to Mecca and died.

The lam in "the [true] path" (al-sabil): It may be for specification (al-'ahd), referring specifically to Uqbah. It may also be generic (al-jins), encompassing Uqbah and others. He wished he had accompanied the Messenger and followed the same path as him—the path of Truth—and that the paths of misguidance and caprice had not branched off for him. Or, he meant: "I was astray and had no path at all; would that I had attained for myself, through the Prophet's company, a path."

"Ya waylata" (Woe to me): Read with a ya (waylati), which is the original form, as a man calls out to his "woe" (his destruction), saying to it, "Come, for this is your time." The ya was changed to an alif (waylata) as in sahara and madara.

"Fulan" (So-and-so): A metonym for proper names, just as al-hun is a metonym for generic nouns. If the "wrongdoer" refers to Uqbah, the meaning is: "Would that I had not taken [Ubayy] as a friend," using a metonym for his name. If it refers to the genus, then everyone who takes a misguider as a friend has a friend with a proper name, so he uses it as a metonym for him.

"From the Reminder": From the remembrance of Allah, or the Quran, or the admonition of the Messenger. It is also possible he means his utterance of the testimony of truth and his resolve toward Islam.

"And Satan": A reference to his friend. He called him a devil because he led him astray just as Satan leads astray, then abandoned him and did not benefit him in the end. Or, he meant Iblis, who incited him to befriend the misguider and oppose the Messenger, then abandoned him. Or, he meant the genus: everyone who acts like a devil among jinn and mankind. It is possible that "And Satan was..." is a continuation of the wrongdoer's speech, or it may be the speech of Allah.

"I took": Read with both assimilation (idgham) and non-assimilation (izhar), with assimilation being more frequent.

"And the Messenger has said, 'O my Lord, indeed my people have taken this Quran as something abandoned.'"