Tafsir of Saba' 34:7

{Those who disbelieved}: The Quraysh. They said to one another: {Shall we point you to a man}—meaning Muhammad (peace be upon him)—{who informs you of a wonder among wonders: that you will be resurrected and created anew after you have become remains and dust, and decay has torn your bodies into every state of tearing}—meaning: it scatters you and disperses your parts in every manner of dispersion.

{Has he fabricated a lie against Allah} regarding what he attributes to Him of this? {Or is there madness in him} that makes him imagine this and puts it upon his tongue?

Then the Exalted said: Muhammad is not in any way guilty of fabrication or madness; he is exonerated from both. Rather, these speakers—the disbelievers in the Resurrection—are {in the punishment of the Fire} due to what their misguidance from the truth leads them to, and they are heedless of that. This is the most insane of madness and the most severe in its grip upon their minds. He made their falling into punishment a companion to their falling into misguidance, as if they were occurring at the same time; for since punishment is one of the consequences and requirements of misguidance, they were made as if they were, in reality, conjoined.

Zayd ibn Ali (may Allah be pleased with him) read it as: yunabbi’ukum (informs you).

If you ask: You have treated al-mumazzaq (the tearing) as a verbal noun (masdar), like the verse of the Book (Sibawayh’s Al-Kitab): “Do you not know my releasing of rhymes, neither failing in them nor acquiring them?” Is it permissible for it to be a place (makan)? I say: Yes. Its meaning is what has become of the dead in the bellies of birds and beasts of prey, what the floods have passed over and taken in every direction, and what the winds have blown and cast in every place.

If you ask: What is the governing agent (‘amil) for idha (when)? I say: That which is indicated by {Indeed, you will be in a new creation}, and its counterpart has preceded.

If you ask: Is al-jadid (new) a fa‘il (active participle) or a maf‘ul (passive participle)? I say: According to the Basrans, it is in the sense of fa‘il. You say: jadda (it became new), so it is jadid, like hadda (it became sharp), so it is hadid, and qalla (it became little), so it is qalil. According to the Kufans, it is in the sense of maf‘ul, from jaddahu (he cut it). They said: It is that which the weaver has just cut from the loom; then it became common usage. They say: "A new (jadid) garment." According to the Basrans, this is like His saying: {And do not cause corruption upon the earth} (Al-A'raf: 56) and the like.

If you ask: Why was the hamza dropped in his saying {aftara} (has he fabricated) but not in {as-sihr} (the magic), even though both are hamzat wasl? I say: The rule is to drop it, but a necessity compelled them to refrain from dropping it in cases like {as-sihr}—namely, the fear of confusing the interrogative with the declarative, because the hamzat wasl is vocalized with a fatha just like the interrogative hamza.

If you ask: What is the meaning of describing misguidance as "far"? I say: It is a metaphorical attribution (isnad majazi); for "far" is a description of the misguided person when he strays from the path, and the further he strays from it, the more misguided he is.

If you ask: The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) was a well-known figure among the Quraysh, and his informing them of the Resurrection was widespread among them. What is the meaning of their saying: {Shall we point you to a man who informs you}, as if they were denying him to one another and offering to point him out as one points out an unknown person regarding an unknown matter? I say: They intended by that mockery and ridicule. They presented it in the manner of someone posing riddles that are used for laughter and amusement, feigning ignorance of him and his affair.

{Have they not seen what is before them and what is behind them of the heaven and the earth? If We should will, We could cause the earth to swallow them or let fall upon them fragments from the sky. Indeed, in that is a sign for every servant who turns back [to Allah].}