https://shamela.ws/book/922/430

This page is Az-Zajjāj’s Maʿānī al-Qurʾān wa-Iʿrābuhu (the grammarian-philologist, d. 311 AH), and the section for our verse is his treatment of Āl ʿImrān 3:134 — specifically the kāẓimīn al-ghayẓ clause, which is where he concentrates. I’ve extracted the verse-134 portion, translated and arranged it with the lessons drawn out, in the same per-commentator format as the Al-Qurṭubī file.Extracted and arranged. The page is Az-Zajjāj’s Maʿānī al-Qurʾān wa-Iʿrābuhu, and his verse-134 material is concentrated entirely on the kāẓimīn al-ghayẓ clause — so the file reflects that focus, preserving everything he actually wrote:

• His one-line syntactic resolution (ʿaṭf — the Garden prepared for the suppressors of anger alongside the spenders).
• The jurʿat ghayẓ hadith in his lean wording.
• The full k-ẓ-m lexical chain: the core imsāk sense, the camel’s cud (kaẓama ʿalā jirratihi / kuẓūman), the ar-Rāʿī shāhid (with a note on the Shamela variant أذرعين vs. the standard إذ رَعَيْنَ), and his three signature extensions the other commentators don’t carry — the bow’s kiẓāma, the well-to-well kaẓāʾim, and the toponym Kāẓima.

The KEY LESSONS draw out his distinctive philological angle (containment under pressure; the drawn-bow image of restrained power; channeling rather than blocking), plus the distinctiveness, master lesson, and closing exhortation in your standard structure.

Two notes for your filing: this is Āl ʿImrān 3:134 again, so it sits in the standalone comparative set rather than the Al-Isra sequence — and you now have three commentators on this verse (Al-Qurṭubī, aṭ-Ṭabarī from your paste, and Az-Zajjāj). The same Shamela page also runs into 3:135 and 3:137 if you want those next.

Az-Zajjāj on Āl ʿImrān 3:135 & 3:137 — Translation & Lessons

Maʿānī al-Qurʾān wa-Iʿrābuhu (al-Zajjāj, d. 311 AH)

Source: Shamela — book 922, pp. 469–470 (§§430–431)

Āl ʿImrān 3:135

﴿وَٱلَّذِینَ إِذَا فَعَلُوا۟ فَـٰحِشَةً أَوۡ ظَلَمُوۤا۟ أَنفُسَهُمۡ ذَكَرُوا۟ ٱللَّهَ فَٱسۡتَغۡفَرُوا۟ لِذُنُوبِهِمۡ وَمَن یَغۡفِرُ ٱلذُّنُوبَ إِلَّا ٱللَّهُ وَلَمۡ یُصِرُّوا۟ عَلَىٰ مَا فَعَلُوا۟ وَهُمۡ یَعۡلَمُونَ﴾

“And those who, when they commit an immorality or wrong themselves, remember Allah and seek forgiveness for their sins — and who forgives sins except Allah? — and who do not persist in what they did while they know.”

The Arabic, Arranged with Translation

(1) The rafʿ of wa-man yaghfiru-dh-dhunūba illā-llāh:

﴿وَمَن یَغۡفِرُ ٱلذُّنُوبَ إِلَّا ٱللَّهُ﴾ — الرفعُ محمولٌ على المعنى، والمعنى: وأيُّ أحدٍ يغفرُ الذنوبَ؟ ما يغفرها إلا اللَّه.

“﴿And who forgives sins except Allah﴾ — the nominative (rafʿ) is carried on the meaning (maḥmūl ʿalā-l-maʿnā). The meaning is: ‘And which single person forgives sins? None forgives them except Allah.'”

(2) al-iṣrār:

﴿وَلَمۡ یُصِرُّوا۟ عَلَىٰ مَا فَعَلُوا۟﴾ — الإصرارُ: الإقامةُ على الشيء.

“﴿and they did not persist in what they did﴾ — al-iṣrār is abiding / remaining fixed upon a thing.”

Insights & Lessons

KEY LESSON — the rafʿ turns a question into a proof. Az-Zajjāj’s grammar carries theology: because man is read as a rhetorical interrogative whose force is negation (“which person could possibly…? — none but Allah”), the clause is not asking for information but asserting Allah’s exclusive ownership of forgiveness. The nominative is “carried on the meaning” precisely because the sense is exclusivity, not inquiry.

KEY LESSON — repentance is defined by the absence of iṣrār. By fixing al-iṣrār as al-iqāma ʿalā-sh-shayʾ — staying put on the sin — Az-Zajjāj locates the verse’s condition not in flawlessness but in not digging in. The praised believer may fall, but he does not take up residence in the fall. Istighfār plus the refusal to abide in the deed is the whole of the turning.

KEY LESSON — wa-hum yaʿlamūn raises the bar. They abandon persistence while knowing — knowing it was wrong, knowing the One they wronged, knowing that only He forgives. Repentance here is lucid, not accidental.

Āl ʿImrān 3:137

﴿قَدۡ خَلَتۡ مِن قَبۡلِكُمۡ سُنَنࣱ فَسِیرُوا۟ فِی ٱلۡأَرۡضِ فَٱنظُرُوا۟ كَیۡفَ كَانَ عَـٰقِبَةُ ٱلۡمُكَذِّبِینَ﴾

“Ways (sunan) have passed away before you, so travel through the earth and observe how was the end of the deniers.”

The Arabic, Arranged with Translation

(1) qad khalat:

معنى «قد خلت»: قد مضت.

“The meaning of qad khalat is qad maḍat — they have passed / gone by.”

(2) sunan:

ومعنى «سُنَن»: أهلُ سُنَنٍ، أي أهلُ طرائقَ.

“And the meaning of sunan is ahl sunan — people of ways (ahl ṭarāʾiq).” (A muḍāf is elided: not the “ways” themselves passed, but the communities who walked particular ways.)

(3) as-sunna = aṭ-ṭarīqa, and the rule of contextual ellipsis:

والسُّنَّةُ: الطريقةُ. وقولُ الناس «فلانٌ على السُّنَّة» معناه: على الطريقة، ولم يحتاجوا أن يقولوا «على السُّنَّة المستقيمة» لأنَّ في الكلام دليلاً على ذلك. وهذا كقولنا «مؤمن» معناه «مصدِّق»، وفي الكلام دليلٌ على أنه مؤمنٌ بأمور الله عزَّ وجلَّ التي أمر بالإيمان بها.

“as-Sunna is the way (aṭ-ṭarīqa). People’s saying ‘so-and-so is upon the sunna’ means ‘upon the [right] way’; they had no need to say ‘upon the straight sunna,’ because the speech itself contains the indication of that. This is like our saying ‘muʾmin’ (believer), which means ‘muṣaddiq’ (affirmer of truth) — and the speech contains the indication that he affirms the matters of Allah which He commanded belief in.”

(4) The sense of the command:

والمعنى: إنكم إذا سِرْتُمْ في أسفاركم عرفتُمْ أخبارَ قومٍ أُهلكوا بتكذيبهم.

“The meaning is: when you travel on your journeys, you come to know the reports (akhbār) of peoples who were destroyed for their denial (takdhīb).”

Insights & Lessons

KEY LESSON — it is communities, not abstractions, that passed. Az-Zajjāj’s elided muḍāf (sunan = ahl sunan) keeps the verse concrete: the earth holds the remains of real peoples who each walked a way to its end. “Travel and observe” is an invitation to read history as evidence, not to contemplate a concept.

KEY LESSON — sunna is a neutral word that the context loads. His point that “ʿalā-s-sunna” needs no adjective “straight” — because the speech already implies it — teaches a principle of Arabic semantics: a term’s good or bad sense is supplied by its frame. A sunna is simply a “way”; whether it is a way of guidance or of ruin is told by who walked it and how it ended.

KEY LESSON — the muʾmin / muṣaddiq parallel. Just as “believer” by usage already means one who affirms Allah’s specific commands (not bare assent to anything), so “sunna” by usage already means the upright way. Az-Zajjāj’s method: established usage settles meaning where bare lexicon leaves it open.

KEY LESSON — travel as moral instruction. The destination of sīrū fī-l-arḍ is not scenery but akhbār — the recorded fate of the mukadhdhibīn. Geography becomes a lesson in consequence: the land itself testifies to what denial earns.

What Makes Az-Zajjāj’s Treatment Distinctive (across both verses)

• Grammar as theology. On 3:135 he extracts Allah’s exclusive right to forgive straight out of a single rafʿ (“maḥmūl ʿalā-l-maʿnā”).
• Definition by precise gloss. al-iṣrār = al-iqāma, khalat = maḍat, sunna = ṭarīqa — he fixes each pivotal word with a one-word synonym, then lets the verse’s force follow.
• Usage over bare lexicon. The “ʿalā-s-sunna” and muʾmin/muṣaddiq parallels show his signature move: meaning is settled by how Arabs actually use a word, with context supplying what is left unsaid.
• Ellipsis recovered. Reading sunan as ahl sunan (elided muḍāf) keeps the verse pointed at real, perished communities.

Master Lesson

• Forgiveness belongs to One: the rhetorical man asserts it — none but Allah forgives, so to Him alone the sinner turns.
• Repentance = no iṣrār: falling is not the failure; abiding in the fall is. Seek forgiveness and do not take up residence in the sin.
• History is evidence: real peoples walked their ways to an end; travel the earth and read the akhbār of the deniers as a verdict on denial.
• Context settles meaning: sunna is just “a way” — guidance or ruin is decided by who walks it; let usage and frame, not bare words, fix the sense.

Coverage note: on the same span Az-Zajjāj continues to 3:139 (﴿وَلَا تَهِنُوا۟…﴾ — al-wahn = weakness; the guarantee of victory in ﴿وَأَنتُمُ ٱلۡأَعۡلَوۡنَ﴾) and 3:140 (the qarḥ/qurḥ qirāʾa and ﴿نُدَاوِلُهَا بَیۡنَ ٱلنَّاسِ﴾). I have those pages in hand — say the word and I’ll arrange them next.