Qala bal faAAalahu kabeeruhum hatha faisaloohum in kanoo yantiqoona
English
Ahmed Ali
"No," he said. "It was done by that chief of theirs. Ask him in case they can speak."
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Tafseer
'Abdullāh Ibn 'Abbās / Muḥammad al-Fīrūzabādī
تفسير : he said) abraham said: (but this, their chief) who has the axe on its shoulder (hath done it. so question them, if they can speak) so that they can inform you who broke them.
Jalāl al-Dīn al-Maḥallī
تفسير : he said, concealing his deed: ‘rather it was this principal one among them did it. so question them, about the perpetrator of this, if they can speak!’ (here the response to the conditional statement precedes [the conditional clause]; in the preceding clause there is an intimation for them that an idol, acknowledged as being incapable of action, cannot be a god).
