Verse. 3208

٢٧ - ٱلنَّمْل

27 - An-Naml

قَالُوْا تَقَاسَمُوْا بِاللہِ لَـنُبَيِّتَـنَّہٗ وَ اَہْلَہٗ ثُمَّ لَـنَقُوْلَنَّ لِوَلِيِّہٖ مَا شَہِدْنَا مَہْلِكَ اَہْلِہٖ وَاِنَّا لَصٰدِقُوْنَ۝۴۹
Qaloo taqasamoo biAllahi lanubayyitannahu waahlahu thumma lanaqoolanna liwaliyyihi ma shahidna mahlika ahlihi wainna lasadiqoona

English

Ahmed Ali

They said: "Let us swear by God that we will attack Saleh and his family at night, and later tell his heirs: 'We did not see his family destroyed, and we speak the truth.'"

49

Tafseer

'Abdullāh Ibn 'Abbās / Muḥammad al-Fīrūzabādī

تفسير : (they said: swear one to another by allah that we verily will attack him and his household by night) and kill them all, (and afterward we will surely say unto his friend) to his inheritors and relatives: (we witnessed not the destruction of his household) we did not witness the killing of salih and his household. (and lo! we are truth tellers) they will believe us and no one will reject what we say.

Jalāl al-Dīn al-Maḥallī

تفسير : they said, that is, some said to others, ‘swear to one another by god that we will attack him by night (la-nubayyitannahu; or [read] la-tubayyitunnahu, ‘that you will attack him by night’) together with his folk, that is, those who believed in him, in other words, [swear] that we will kill them at night; then we will surely say (la-naqūlanna; or [read] la-taqūlunna, ‘you surely will say’) to his heir, the avenger of his blood, that we did not witness, we were not present at, the destruction of his folk (read muhlika or mahlika, meaning ‘the destroying of them’ or ‘their death’ [respectively]), and so we do not know who killed them, and [that] indeed we are being truthful’.