Tabari's exegesis of Q4:49 and taqtulu anfasakum/anfusakum and it is: do not kill one another

Submitted by dhimmi no more (United States), Aug 26, 2007 at 07:20

You can read Tabari's exegesis or tafsir on-line. I do not how good is your Arabic but here is what he is saying I will provide you the transliterated text and then translate it

Minkum wa la taqtulu

al-qawl fi ta'weel....... wa la taqtulu Anfusakum (in the text there is a sukun above the nuun and a damma above the feh and no short vowels above the seen and damma above the lam and then a sukun above the meem) ya3ni .....wa la yaqtul ba3dakum ba3dan (I3rab) wa antum ahl mila wahida

Or:

the saying in the exegesis.....do not kill yourselves...in other words....and some of you should not kill others and you are people (that belong) to the same religion/sect

'ANFuSKuM (the caps is the rasm and the lower case are the short vowels and the sukun)

Fa inahu ya3ni ana Allah..... wa min rahmatuhu bikm kaf ba3dukum 3an qatl ba3d ayuha al-mu'minuun bitahreem dima'i ba3dakum 3ala ba3d ila bihaqiha

Or

'Anfuskum

and it means that Allah.....and from His (Allah) mercy upon you (he) stopped some of you from killing others (among you) O you believers by forbidding the blood of some (among you) upon others (among you) unless there is (valid) truth (reason).

Now you can see that Tabari reads it as: do not kill one another

I hope I helped

Note: Opinions expressed in comments are those of the authors alone and not necessarily those of Daniel Pipes. Original writing only, please. Comments are screened and in some cases edited before posting. Reasoned disagreement is welcome but not comments that are scurrilous, off-topic, commercial, disparaging religions, or otherwise inappropriate. For complete regulations, see the "Guidelines for Reader Comments".