Tafsir (Qur'anic exegesis)

In Sheikh Omar Abdelkafy's account, tafsir is a reading of Juz' 'Amma beginning with Surat An-Naba'. It rests on joining verses, understanding the sense of words, and gathering the scenes of Judgement from several surahs. ^{1 2}

He lists the themes of the Qur'an: creed, then worship, then dealings, then stories. ³

He says the lesson is on the first surah of Juz' 'Amma, Surat An-Naba'. ¹ He says the surah's subject is the Great News, about which the disbelievers ask after mockery, and that the Qur'an addresses the believer with affirmation and the disbeliever with clarification. ⁴

The Sheikh says the scenes of Judgement are not taken from one surah; they are laid out together and their order is then examined. ² He reads Surat Taha, saying that God makes clear the Qur'an was not sent to make the Prophet ﷺ miserable, and that the disjointed letters are not names (needs_source). ^{5 6}

He explains that the Arabic word for a set time means the end of a term, and distinguishes what was written on believers (fasting and fighting) from prayer, which is set at fixed times (his reading of the wording). ^{7 8} He explains that a garden (jannah) is so named because it surrounds those within it, and that the jinn are named from concealment (needs_source). ^{9 10}

He says the Meccan precedes the Madani, so Surat Maryam, which is Meccan, precedes Al 'Imran, which is Madani, and draws the consequence for the sense of night and day (needs_source). ¹¹

The Sheikh notes that the surahs of Juz' 'Amma are, for the most part, Meccan, and then begins with Surat An-Naba' and its opening question An-Naba 1 ¹².

He explains that those who ask in this opening question are two groups, the first of them the disbelievers ¹³.

The Sheikh explains that the word of rebuke which opens the fourth verse cancels what precedes it, and what follows is the warning that they will come to know An-Naba 4 ¹⁴.

He reports from scholars that the second repetition of the rebuke and warning in the two verses is not mere emphasis but a stronger warning An-Naba 4 An-Naba 5 (needs_source) ¹⁵.

He explains the sense of the cradle (mihad) in the description of the earth: God made it level for us as if it embraced us as a mother embraces her children, so the earth is a mother to us and we are its children ¹⁶.

The Sheikh says that the questions the Companions put to the Prophet which are recorded in the Qur'an number thirteen (needs_source) ¹⁷.

The Sheikh explains that sleep can be a security, giving the example of a sick child with a high fever who calms down when drowsiness comes over him ¹⁸.

The Sheikh resumes Surat An-Naba' and says that Juz' 'Amma shakes the Muslim and alerts him to what is coming toward him ¹⁹. He hopes that the hereafter will be on everyone's mind every day, in the dawn prayer, the noon prayer and the rest ¹⁹.

The Sheikh explains that God made the earth level and a cradle for us like a child's cradle, easy and simple, so that we can live on it ²⁰. He says that whoever travels by aeroplane looks at the earth and sees its parts as small and the seas as small watercourses, and realises how little his own worth is in this great universe ²⁰.

The Sheikh says that when God chooses a matter the believers have no choice left after His choice, and he calls to mind the verse that ties faith to accepting the Messenger as judge and submitting to his decision ²¹. He then says that God made the mountains stakes so that the earth does not fly off into the air ²¹.

The Sheikh explains that the sky is described as a building because of its strength, as if it were the walls rather than the roof, and links this to what is said of the seven strong ones and the blazing lamp An-Naba 12 An-Naba 13 ²².

The Sheikh explains the grain we eat and the plants that livestock eat, then interprets the gardens as concealing what is inside them, that is, covering it with their trees An-Naba 15 An-Naba 16 ²³. He ties to this that the jinn are called jinn because we do not see them, and the human being is called insan because we see him (needs_source) ²³.

The Sheikh says that Surat Maryam is Meccan and Surat Al Imran is Medinan, and that the Meccan precedes the Medinan, so Maryam precedes Al Imran just as night precedes day ²⁴.

The Sheikh says that the cure lies in the Book of God, and he reports from Ibn Mas'ud that the reader should read the Qur'an as though it had been sent down to him personally (needs_source) ²⁵.

The Sheikh holds that part of eloquence is to treat people according to their station, addressing the scholar in the language of learning, the engineer in the language of engineering, the accountant in the language of accounts and the doctor in the terms of medicine ²⁶. Ordinary people, by contrast, are addressed in the terms of the Qur'an, which in his view are the most eloquent, the easiest and the shortest route to the hearts of God's servants ²⁶.

The Sheikh begins Surat An-Nazi'at and says that it speaks to us of the gravest stage in a person's life, which is the end of one stage and the beginning of a new one ²⁷.

The Sheikh holds that life is an ocean in which we swim, sometimes with the current and sometimes against it ²⁸.

He says swimming with the current is easier, but the one who goes along with the current is called an imma'a in Islam ²⁹. He cites a hadith in which the Prophet forbids a person from saying that if people do good he will do good and if they do wrong he will do wrong, and instead teaches him to resolve to do good if they do good and to avoid wrongdoing if they do wrong (needs_source) ²⁹.

The Sheikh explains the hollowed bones as those through which air enters, from the side or the inside, and leaves from the other side making a sound like snoring ³⁰. He then asks whether the return would be a losing one for them, and says that in this world the loser is the one who does not sow ³⁰.

The Sheikh explains that the Arabs called the desert the sahira because when they crossed it they did not sleep, for fear that an enemy or a snake might come upon them, and when morning came they thanked God ³¹.

He adds that our forebears were more optimistic and named the deadly desert mafaza, a place of salvation, and says that on that day the earth is not the earth we know ³².

The Sheikh comments on the name of the companions of the elephant and holds that the elephant was better than they were, being a dumb animal who was not charged with duties, because they intended to demolish the Kaaba ³³.

He says the elephant refused to demolish the Kaaba, and then cites a verse about the worst of beasts in God's sight in order to set this against those who do not reason ³⁴.

The Sheikh asks whether the ear meant here is the outer ear or the ear of the heart, says that hearing does not lead to understanding unless the hearts are at work, and prays that God open our breasts ³⁵.

The Sheikh sums up what has passed of Surat An-Nazi'at as concerning the departure of the soul of the disbeliever and the soul of the believer: the nazi'at are the angels who pull out the souls of disbelievers and the nashitat those who draw out the souls of believers gently, and he says that they have agreed on this ³⁶.

He then says that the surah goes on to speak of what follows the departure of the soul, likens this to an aeroplane taking off from the runway, and says the surah then surprises us with the sahira ³⁷.

The Sheikh says he spent seventeen years looking for an explanation of how the surah moves from the sahira to a question about the story of Musa, since there is no apparent link between them (needs_source) ³⁸.

He mentions that he read some fifty commentaries, asked senior scholars and sat at their feet in order to understand this link (needs_source) ³⁹.

The Sheikh tells of a blind sheikh with a bright inner sight, to whom nobody could say anything without his answering with a verse, a hadith, a proverb or a line of poetry, and who composed a line himself if he found none ⁴⁰.

He relates that a classmate of theirs named Othman was the mischief-maker among his fellows, and that the blind sheikh greeted him and he returned the greeting ⁴¹.

He continues the joke: the host apologises that he has no bread and no tea, and the Sheikh mentions the ration card in Egypt in the 1950s and 1960s and adds a humorous aside about socialism (needs_source) ⁴².

The episode ends with the blind sheikh saying jokingly that water in Othman's house has a price ⁴³.

The Sheikh poses a question: why does the mention of Musa come after the matter of the hereafter? He begins his answer by saying that the Prophet was not a reader, had not read the history of mankind, and that God taught him ⁴⁴.

The Sheikh says that every prophet came with what his people could not match in the field in which they excelled: the Arabs excelled in poetry and letters, so the Qur'an came in that field, and Isa came to a people who excelled in medicine ⁴⁵.

He says that Isa healed the one born blind and brought the dead to life by God's leave, that the disciples asked whether his Lord could send down a table from heaven and it came down, and adds that it bore every kind of food in the world (needs_source) ⁴⁶.

He says the Arabs reached the peak of eloquence, so the Qur'an came down and silenced them: they could not produce ten surahs, nor ten verses, nor a single verse, and they stopped (needs_source) ⁴⁷.