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* تفسير Tafsir al-Tustari


{ مَا كَانَ لِبَشَرٍ أَن يُؤْتِيهُ ٱللَّهُ ٱلْكِتَٰبَ وَٱلْحُكْمَ وَٱلنُّبُوَّةَ ثُمَّ يَقُولَ لِلنَّاسِ كُونُواْ عِبَاداً لِّي مِن دُونِ ٱللَّهِ وَلَـٰكِن كُونُواْ رَبَّـٰنِيِّينَ بِمَا كُنتُمْ تُعَلِّمُونَ ٱلْكِتَٰبَ وَبِمَا كُنْتُمْ تَدْرُسُونَ }

…Rather [he should say], ‘Be masters (rabbāniyyūn) by virtue of what you know of the Book and in what you study, He related:Muḥammad b. Sawwār said, ‘The person [whose knowledge derives from the] divine lordliness (rabbānī) is the one who does not choose anyone over his Lord, and it [the name] is derived from the word rubūbiyya’. Sahl continued:People whose knowledge derives from the divine lordliness (rabbāniyūn) are those who are elevated in the degree of [their] knowledge by virtue of [that] knowledge, just as Muḥammad b. Ḥanafiyya said on the death of ʿAbd Allāh Ibn ʿAbbās y, ‘Indeed, today one whose knowledge derived from the divine lordliness (rabbānī) in this community (umma) has died. Furthermore, he [the rabbānī] is associated with the Lord (rabb) because he is knowledgeable through His knowledge, just as He said, She asked, ‘Who told you this?’ He said, ‘I was told by the All-Knowing, the Aware’ [66:3]. He [the Prophet] related it to prophethood (nubuwwa), because of that which God had taught him, Mighty and Majestic is He. Thus, anyone who informs you of something which conforms to the Book and the Sunna, is ‘an informant’ (munbiʾ). Those possessed of knowledge are of three kinds: there is the one whose knowledge derives from the divine lordliness (rabbānī), the one whose knowledge derives from the divine light (nūrānī), and the one whose knowledge derives from the divine essence (dhātī), [who has] no intermediary between him and God most High; within him is a ‘subsisting’ (baqiyya) of God, Mighty and Majestic is He. [On the other hand], ʿUmar b. Wāṣil said: those whose knowledge derives from the divine lordliness (rabbāniyyūn) are the collectivity of scholars. This resembles a saying of ʿAlī , ‘People are of three kinds: the knower whose knowledge derives from the divine lordliness (ʿālim rabbānī), the person acquiring knowledge (mutaʿallim) on the path to salvation, and the commoners and riff-raff, who follow every charlatan. His words:


Tafsīr al-Tustarī, trans. Annabel Keeler and Ali Keeler
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