Sūrat Al-Baqara · 2 : 143

Q 2:143 in the tafsīr of Shaykh Ibrāhīm Niasse

وَكَذَٰلِكَ عَلَي عَلَيْكُمْ وَمَا اَ۬لتِے عَلَيْهَآ إِلَّا مَنْ مِمَّنْ عَلَيٰ وَإِن اِلَّا عَلَي اَ۬لذِينَ وَمَا إِنَّ

Thus We have appointed you a middle nation, that ye may be witnesses against mankind, and that the messenger may be a witness against you. And We appointed the qiblah which ye formerly observed only that We might know him who followeth the messenger, from him who turneth on his heels. In truth it was a hard (test) save for those whom Allah guided. But it was not Allah's purpose that your faith should be in vain, for Allah is Full of Pity, Merciful toward mankind — Pickthall

Shaykh Ibrāhīm Niasse (d. 1975) read the whole Qurʾān aloud at Medina Baye over fifty-six sessions between ẓuhr and ʿaṣr in Ramaḍān 1383/1964, and his students wrote those sessions down as Fī Riyāḍ al-Tafsīr. He comes back to the same āya elsewhere — in the fatwās, the Ḥikam, the poetry — decades apart. About the tafsīr →

In the printed edition: Sūrat Al-Baqara begins at vol. 1, p. 54 (Tūnis 2022, 10 vols.)

The āya above is Warsh ʿan Nāfiʿ, the rasm of the printed edition. The root behind each underlined word comes from a Ḥafṣ ʿan ʿĀṣim corpus, realigned to this Warsh text word by word; 125 of the 6,236 āyāt differ in word count between the two riwāyāt, and those were aligned rather than assumed. A word carries no underline where the corpus supplies no root. Lexicon entries are a reading aid and carry no page reference; the edition does not cite them. Page references elsewhere on this site follow the ten-volume Tunis 2022 printing this site was transcribed from; published scholarship on this text cites the six-volume Tunis 2010 printing, whose pagination is different.

5
loci in the corpus
2
distinct acts
5 of 5
text available

Exegesis of the verse

Sustained interpretation of the verse as a verse — lemma, gloss, expansion.

Fī riyāḍ al-tafsīr li-l-Qurʾān al-karīm

في رياض التفسير للقرآن الكريمtafsīr

1383 / 1964 · Arabic · Lesson 5, ¶81 · numbered by Ḥafṣ · lesson opens at vol. 1, p. 120 · the annual Ramaḍān cycle

عيارا عدولا (لَتِكُونُواْ شُهَدَآءَ عَلَى ألنَاسِ) يوم القيامة (وَيَكُونَ اَ۬لرَّسُولُ عَلَيْكُمْ شَهِيداࣰۖ) أنه بلغكم، الله تبارك وتعالى من جوده وكرمه وفضله علينا جعل أمة محمد خير أمة أخرجت للناس كما قال "كُنتُمْ خَيْرَ أَمَّةٍ أخْرِجَتْ لِلنَّاسِ" وقال في هذه الآية: «وَكَذَٰلِكَ جَعَلْنَٰكُمُۥٓ أُمَّةࣰ وَسَطاࣰۖ لِّتَكُونُواْ شُهَدَآءَ عَلَي اَ۬لنَّاسِ» جعل هذه الأمة الأخيرة أفضل الأمم ليصلحوا للشهادة يوم القيامة. إن اللّٰه إذا حشر الخلق كلا يسأل المرسلين ويسأل الأمم

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Fī riyāḍ al-tafsīr li-l-Qurʾān al-karīm

في رياض التفسير للقرآن الكريمtafsīrunbracketed quotation

1383 / 1964 · Arabic · Lesson 5, ¶84 · numbered by Ḥafṣ · lesson opens at vol. 1, p. 120 · the annual Ramaḍān cycle

وطمعهم في عوده إليها (وَمَا بَعْضُهُم بِتَابِعٍ قِبْلَةَ بَعْضٍ) اليهود قبلة النصارى والعكس لوَلِس إتَعْتَ أَهْوَآءَهُم) التي يدعونك إليها (مِنْ بَعْدِ مَا جَاءَكَ مِنَ الْعِلْمِ) الوحي (أَكَ إِذا) إن اتبعتهم فرضا (لَّمِنَ اَ۬لظَّٰلِمِينَۖ اَ۬لذِينَ ءَاتَيْنَٰهُمُ اُ۬لْكِتَٰبَ يَعْرِفُونَهُۥ) يعرفون عمدا (كَمَا يَعْرِفُونَ أَبْنَآءَهُمْ)) قال ابن سلام: لقد عرفته حين رأيته كما أعرف ابني ومعرفتي لمحمد أشد لأن ابني لم أدر هل خانتني أمه أم لا.[42] قال يعرفون أبناءهم ولم يقل آباءهم والإنسان أعرف بأبيه من ابنه ولكن معرفتك للإبن متقدمة منذ يوم ولادته أنت تعرفه إلى يومنا هذا والأب مضى له زمن قبل وجودك لا تعرفه، فلهذا لم يقل كما يعرفون آباءهم وإن كانت معرفة الأب أشد، بل يعرفون أبناءهم (وَإِنَّ فَرِيقاࣰ مِّنْهُمْ لَيَكْتُمُونَ اَ۬لْحَقَّ) نعت محمد (وَهُمْ يَعْلَمُونٌ) هذا الذي أنت عليه (ألْحَقُّ صِ رَبِّكُّ فَلاَ تَكُونَنَّ مِ الْمَمْتَرِينَ) الشاكّين (وَلِكُلِّ) من الأمم (وجْهَةً) قبلة (هُوَ …

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The printing brackets no quotation here. A run of consecutive words in this paragraph — three at the shortest — occurs in one place in the muṣḥaf and nowhere else, and every āya lying inside that run is credited, so a run crossing a boundary attests both. Matching folds together the letter shapes the scan confuses, so the words need not stand in the āya exactly as printed.

The verse used, not interpreted

Here the verse warrants a claim argued from other authorities. It is not the object of commentary.

Fī riyāḍ al-tafsīr li-l-Qurʾān al-karīm

في رياض التفسير للقرآن الكريمproof-textunbracketed quotation

1383 / 1964 · Arabic · Lesson 11, ¶30 · numbered by Ḥafṣ · lesson opens at vol. 2, p. 161 · the annual Ramaḍān cycle

(4487). وقد تقدم في الدرس 5.

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Lesson 11 runs Q 4:24–Q 4:86. This āya falls outside it. He quotes it here inside the commentary on another verse, which is why it is not filed as exegesis of this one.

The printing brackets no quotation here. A run of consecutive words in this paragraph — three at the shortest — occurs in one place in the muṣḥaf and nowhere else, and every āya lying inside that run is credited, so a run crossing a boundary attests both. Matching folds together the letter shapes the scan confuses, so the words need not stand in the āya exactly as printed.

Fī riyāḍ al-tafsīr li-l-Qurʾān al-karīm

في رياض التفسير للقرآن الكريمproof-textunbracketed quotation

1383 / 1964 · Arabic · Lesson 34, ¶152 · numbered by Ḥafṣ · lesson opens at vol. 6, p. 122 · the annual Ramaḍān cycle

إلى آخره\!. فقامت حجة نوح عليه الصلاة والسلام فلهذا يقول الله: "كُنتَمْ خَيْرَامَّةِ أخْرِجَتْ لِلنَّاس" "وَكَذَلِكَ جَعَلْنَاكُمْ دَ أمَّةً وَسَطاً لَتَكُونُواْ شُهَدَآءَ عَلَى النَّاسِ وَيُكُونَ ألرَّسُولُ عَلَيْكُمْ شهِيداً (بَأَفِيمُواْ الصَّلَوةَ) دوموا عليها (وَاتُواْ أَلزَّكَوْةَ وَاعْتَصِمُوا بِلِّمِ

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Lesson 34 is titled by sūra rather than by āya, and its bounds (Q 21:64–Q 22:78) are inferred from where the neighbouring sessions begin, so they are soft at the edges. This āya falls outside it. He quotes it here inside the commentary on another verse, which is why it is not filed as exegesis of this one.

The printing brackets no quotation here. A run of consecutive words in this paragraph — three at the shortest — occurs in one place in the muṣḥaf and nowhere else, and every āya lying inside that run is credited, so a run crossing a boundary attests both. Matching folds together the letter shapes the scan confuses, so the words need not stand in the āya exactly as printed.

Fī riyāḍ al-tafsīr li-l-Qurʾān al-karīm

في رياض التفسير للقرآن الكريمproof-textunbracketed quotation

1383 / 1964 · Arabic · Lesson 34, ¶155 · numbered by Ḥafṣ · lesson opens at vol. 6, p. 122 · the annual Ramaḍān cycle

هل بلغكم؟ فيقولون: ما أتانا من نذير، فيقول: من يشهد لك؟ فيقول: محمد وأمته، فتشهدون أنه قد بلغ ويكون الرسول عليكم شهيدا فذلك قوله جل ذكره "وَكَذَلِكَ جَعَلْنَٰكُمُ وَ أَمَّةَ وَسَطاً لَتَكُونُواْ شُهَدَاءَ عَلَى ألنَّاس وَيَكُونَ الرَّسُولُ عَلَيْكُمْ شَهِيدًا والوسط العدل. صحيح البخاري: كتاب تفسير القرآن/ باب قوله تعالى "وَكَذَلِكَ جَعَلْنَٰكُمُ دَ أمَّةَ وَسَطاً لَتَكُونُواْ شُهَدَاءَ" (4487).

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Lesson 34 is titled by sūra rather than by āya, and its bounds (Q 21:64–Q 22:78) are inferred from where the neighbouring sessions begin, so they are soft at the edges. This āya falls outside it. He quotes it here inside the commentary on another verse, which is why it is not filed as exegesis of this one.

The printing brackets no quotation here. A run of consecutive words in this paragraph — three at the shortest — occurs in one place in the muṣḥaf and nowhere else, and every āya lying inside that run is credited, so a run crossing a boundary attests both. Matching folds together the letter shapes the scan confuses, so the words need not stand in the āya exactly as printed.

Entries are grouped by what Shaykh Ibrāhīm is doing with the verse, then ordered oldest first inside each group, so the same words can be seen carrying different work across a career. Every entry names the witness it comes from. Passages that are known but not yet available are listed rather than hidden. Beyond Fī Riyāḍ al-Tafsīr, 156 āyāt have so far been indexed from his other writings — the Ḥikam, the fatwās, Kāshif al-Ilbās, theQanābīl, the Tafsīr Maʿānī cassettes. A verse with nothing under this heading has not been searched in them and found wanting; it has not been searched.

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