5:104

Salaam all,


Waitha qeela lahum taAAalaw ila ma anzala Allahu waila alrrasooli qaloo hasbuna ma wajadna AAalayhi abaana awalaw kana abaohum la yaAAlamoona shayan wala yahtadoona

The aya says:
And when it was said to them: “Come towards what Allah brought down and towards the envoy/ messenger”. They responded: “Enough for us what we found our ancestors upon”. Even if their ancestors happened to not know a thing nor become guided?!

My personal note:
The aya is a strong indictment of a response to a challenge of the status quo. The response that is severely criticized is saying that this is the tradition and so on but without any strong evidence to support that stance.

Translation of the transliterated words:
Waitha: and when/ if and when
Qeela: it was said
Note: the root is Qaf-W-L and it means saying or communicating. QEELA is an action that is completed. It means: the action of saying or communicating happened by an undeclared subject.
Lahum: to them
taAAalaw: Come
Note: the root is Ain-L-W and it means rising or above or just rising. TaAAaLAW is an order to a group. It means Rise in an interactive manner. This is the fashion that Arabs called others. It was an order to rise. It is understood as come.

Ila: towards/ to
Ma: what
Anzala: He made come down/ He made arrive
Note: the root is N-Z-L and it carries the meaning of arrival to stay and descent. One concrete meaning is the descent of the person from his or her horse or camel as they arrive at the place where they plan to stay. ANZALA is an action that is completed. It means: the action of making arrive or making descend happened by the subject (third person singular).
Allahu: Allah
Waila: and/ including to/ towards
alrrasooli: the messenger/ the envoy
Note: ALRRASOOLI is derived from the root R-S-L and it means to envoy someone or a group of people or animals. The concrete word is RASL and it means a group of people or animals that were sent by their owners or senders. ALRRASOOLI means the envoy or the messenger.

Qaloo: they said/ communicated/ responded
Note: QALOO is derived from the root Qaf-W-L and it means saying in any way possible. QALOO is an action that is completed that is derived from the root. It means the action of saying happened by the subject (third person plural). This, in turn means: they said or they happened to say or communicate. In this context it takes the meaning of they responded.

Hasbuna: enough for us/ calculation for us
Note: the root is Ha-S-B and it means calculating from all the aspects of it. HISAB is the calculation. Conceptually it applies to any form of calculating and may be also estimating as well. HASBU would literally mean: calculation of. MA means us. According to the context this takes the meaning of our calculation suggests sufficiency and this in turn takes the meaning of enough for us.

Ma: what
Wajadna: we found/ we encountered
Note: WAJADNA is derived from the root W-J-D and it means in one concrete meaning the water that has accumulated in the desert. This is then used to mean a find that is really important. WAJADNA is an action that is derived from the root. It means: the action of finding the object (MA= what) happened by the subject (first person plural).

AAalayhi: upon him
Abaana: our fathers/ our ancestors
Note: the root is Hamza-B and it means father or parent. ABAA means parents or fathers or ancestors of. NA means us.
Awalaw: even if
Kana: they happened to be
Note: the root is K-W-N and it means being. KANA is an action that is completed that is derived from the root. It means: the action of being happened by the subject (third personal singular or plural). This in turn means: He/ they was or He/ they happened to be

Abaohum: their fathers/ their ancestors
Note: the root is Hamza-B and it means father or parent. ABAO means parents or fathers or ancestors of. Hum means them.
la yaAAlamoona: they do not know/ know for fact
Note: LA is for negation of the action that comes after. YaAALAMOON is derived from the root Ain-L-M and it means knowing/knowledge or knowledge of facts. YaAALAMOON is an action that is being completed or will be completed. It means: the action of knowing the object (shayan=entity) for fact is happening or will be happening by the subject (third person plural).

Shayan: entity/ a thing
Note: the root is SH-Y-Hamza and it means entity. SHAYAN means entity. It is taken here to mean a thing or entity.
Wala: and not
Yahtadoona: they become guided/ the guide themselves
Note: YAHTADOON is derived from the root H-D-Y and it means gift in all it’s forms and it carries the meaning of guidance since guidance is a gift. YAHTADOON is an action that is being completed or will be completed. It means: the action of guiding oneself or for oneself is happening by the subject (third person plural).

Salaam all and have a great day.

Hussein