Verse. 1129

'Abdullāh Ibn 'Abbās / Muḥammad al-Fīrūzabādī

تفسير : (recite unto them) o muhammad (the tale of him to whom we gave our revelations) the greatest divine name, (but he sloughed them off) the reference here is to bal'am ibn ba'ura' whom allah honoured with his greatest name but he used to pray against moses and so allah took it away from him. it is also said that the reference here is to umayyah ibn al-salt whom allah honoured with knowledge and good speech but when he did not believe, allah took this away from him, (so satan overtook him) satan deluded him (and he became of those who lead astray) he became of the erring disbelievers.

Jalāl al-Dīn al-Maḥallī

تفسير : and recite, o muhammad (s), to them, that is, the jews, the tidings, the tale, of him to whom we gave our signs, but he cast them off, emerging in his disbelief in the same way that a snake emerges from its [shed] skin, he rebelled in disbelief, this was bal‘am b. bā‘ūrā’, a scholar from among the children of israel, who had been given some knowledge [of the scriptures], and who was asked [by them] to invoke god against moses. and when he did, the invocation turned against him and his tongue fell out onto his chest, and satan pursued him, catching up with him and so he became his comrade, and he became of the perverse.

Ali ibn Ahmad al-Wahidi

تفسير : (recite unto them the tale of him to whom we gave our revelations, but he sloughed them off…) [7:175]. ibn mas'ud said: “this verse was revealed about bal'am ibn abrah, one of the children of israel”, while ibn 'abbas and other commentators of the qur'an said this relates to bal'am ibn ba'ura. said al-walibi: “he was a man from the city of al-jabbarin and his name was bal'am. this man knew allah's greatest name. when moses, peace be upon him, went to this city, his cousins and people went to see bal'am and said to him: 'moses is a tough man and he has a huge army. he will definitely destroy us if he ever conquers us. pray to allah that he drives moses and those with him away from us'. the man said: 'i will lose both this world and the next if i were to pray to allah to drive away moses and those with him'. but they kept insisting until he prayed against moses and those with him. as a result, [allah] stripped him of what he had. hence allah's saying (but he sloughed them off…)”. said 'abd allah ibn 'amr ibn al-'as and zayd ibn aslam: “this verse was revealed about umayyah ibn abi al-salt al-thaqafi who had studied the scriptures and knew that allah was about to send a messenger at around that time, hoping to be himself that messenger. when allah, exalted is he, sent muhammad, allah bless him and give him peace, he envied him resentfully and disbelieved in him”. ibn 'abbas said, according to the report of 'ikrimah: “this verse is about a man who was given three prayers which were answered. this man had a wife called al-basus who loved him, and from her he had children. one day she said to him: 'let one of those answered prayers of yours be for me'. he said: 'one is for you, what do you wish for?' she said: 'ask allah to make me the most beautiful woman among the children of israel'. [he did and] when she knew that there was no one like her, she shunned him and wanted something else. the man prayed to allah to make her a barking dog. and so, two prayers were wasted. then, her children came to him and said: 'we cannot stand this, our mother has become a barking dog and people are insulting us because of her. pray that allah restores her to her initial state'. the man prayed and she became as she was before. but all three answered prayers were now wasted. this is al-basus whose ill-omen became a proverb. people say: he/she is more ill-omened than al-basus”.