Bibliotheca Polyglotta

Of uncertain meaning. Pickthall comments on his translation as “Listen to us” (see below, section HIST): »a word which the Muslims used to call the Prophet’s attention respectfully, rāʔinā, the Jews could change into an insult by a slight mispronunciation. It is not clear in which language the insult was made but it was probably a double entendre in Hbr, Syr, or Aram«

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▪ eC7 Q 2:104 yā-ʔayyu-hā ’llaḏīna ʔāmanū lā taqūlū rāʕi-nā wa-qūlū ’nẓur-nā wa-’smaʕū wa-lil-kāfirīna ʕaḏābun ʔalīmun ‘O ye who believe, say not (unto the Prophet): “Listen to us” but say “Look upon us,” and be ye listeners. For disbelievers is a painful doom’; Q 4:46 mina ’llaḏīna hādū yuḥarrifūna ’l-kalima ʕan mawāḍiʕi-him wa-yaqūlūna samiʕnā wa-ʕaṣaynā wa-smāʕ ġayra musmaʕin wa-rāʕi-nā layyan bi-ʔalsunati-him wa-ṭaʕnan fī ’l-dīni ‘Some of those who are Jews change words from their context and say: “We hear and disobey; hear thou as one who heareth not” and “Listen to us!” distorting with their tongues and slandering religion’

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▪ Jeffery1938: »The reference is the same in both passages – ‘say not rāʕi-nā but say unẓur-nā.’ The Commentators tell us that the Jews in Arabia used to pronounce the word rāʕi-nā, meaning ‘look at us’, in such a way as to relate it with the root [Hbr] raʕ ‘evil’, so Muḥammad urged his followers to use a different word unẓur-nā ‘behold us’, which did not lend itself to this disconcerting play on words.¹
/ Hirschfeld, Beiträge, 64, thinks the reference is to [Hbr] rʔhnʔ or rʔnw occurring in connection with some Jewish prayer, but it is much more likely that the statement of the Commentators is correct and that as Geiger, 17, 18, noted,² it is a play on [Hbr] raʕ and rāʔâʰ and reflects the Prophet’s annoyance at the mockery of the Jews.«

1. al-Suyūṭī, Itq 320, quoting Abū Naʕīm’s Dalāʔil al-Nubuwwa. Cf. Mutaw, 59. 2. Vide, also Palmer, Qoran, i,14; and Dvořák, Fremdw, 31; Horovitz, JPN, 204.

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