Tafsir for verse: 20:71
قَالَ ءَامَنتُمۡ لَهُۥ قَبۡلَ أَنۡ ءَاذَنَ لَكُمۡۖ إِنَّهُۥ لَكَبِيرُكُمُ ٱلَّذِي عَلَّمَكُمُ ٱلسِّحۡرَۖ فَلَأُقَطِّعَنَّ أَيۡدِيَكُمۡ وَأَرۡجُلَكُم مِّنۡ خِلَٰفٖ وَلَأُصَلِّبَنَّكُمۡ فِي جُذُوعِ ٱلنَّخۡلِ وَلَتَعۡلَمُنَّ أَيُّنَآ أَشَدُّ عَذَابٗا وَأَبۡقَىٰ ٧١ ﴿71
71He (Pharaoh) said, “You have believed in him before I permit you. This man is in fact your master who has taught you the magic. So I will certainly cut off your hands and your legs from opposite sides, and will crucify you on the trunks of palm-trees, and you shall know whose punishment, out of us, is more severe and more lasting.”
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Commentary

Your great one is your mighty one. He means that he has enchanted them and raised them in rank in their craft. Or it is for your teacher, from the saying of the people of Mecca to the teacher: My great one commanded me, and my great one said to me: such and such. They mean their teacher and mentor in the Qur'an and in everything. It has been recited: 'So I will certainly cut off and I will certainly crucify.' with the lightening of the letters. And cutting is from opposition: that you cut off the right hand and the left leg, because each of the two limbs opposes the other, as this is a hand and that is a leg, this is the right and that is the left. And 'from' is for the beginning of the limit: because cutting begins and arises from the opposition of one limb to another, not from their agreement. The position of the preposition and its object is in the accusative case, meaning: I will cut it off in differing ways, because if some of them oppose each other, they have acquired the characteristic of difference. The state of the crucified in the trunk is likened to the state of something contained in its container, and that is why it was said: 'in the trunks of the palm trees.' Which of us intends for himself the curse of Allah and Moses, blessings and peace be upon him, as evidenced by his saying: 'Have you believed in him?' And the 'lam' with faith in the Book of Allah is for other than Allah, the Exalted, as His saying: 'He believes in Allah and believes for the believers.' And in it is a nuance of his power and dominion, and what he has accustomed himself to and inflicted upon them: from torturing people with various tortures. And it is a degradation of Moses, peace be upon him, and a weakening of him with mockery: because Moses was never involved in any torture.

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