Tafsir for verses: 23:81, 23:82, 23:83
بَلۡ قَالُواْ مِثۡلَ مَا قَالَ ٱلۡأَوَّلُونَ ٨١ ﴿81 قَالُوٓاْ أَءِذَا مِتۡنَا وَكُنَّا تُرَابٗا وَعِظَٰمًا أَءِنَّا لَمَبۡعُوثُونَ ٨٢ ﴿82 لَقَدۡ وُعِدۡنَا نَحۡنُ وَءَابَآؤُنَا هَٰذَا مِن قَبۡلُ إِنۡ هَٰذَآ إِلَّآ أَسَٰطِيرُ ٱلۡأَوَّلِينَ ٨٣ ﴿83
81But they say as the earlier people had said. 82They said, “Is it that, when we will die and become dust and bones - is it that we will be raised again? 83This is what has been promised to us and to our fathers before. It is nothing but the tales of the ancients.”
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Commentary

That is: The people of Mecca said as the disbelievers before them said. The legends: the plural of [UNTRANSLATED-LATIN: asṭār], the plural of [UNTRANSLATED-LATIN: saṭr]. Ruwbah said: Indeed, I and the legends have written a line. To the caller, O Nasr, Nasr, victory. This is for Ruwbah ibn al-Ajajj. And the intended meaning of the legends is: writing, and it is the plural of [UNTRANSLATED-LATIN: saṭr] with movement, and its origin is a source like the middle [UNTRANSLATED-LATIN: sākin]. And [UNTRANSLATED-LATIN: saṭarn] is in the passive voice. And [UNTRANSLATED-LATIN: saṭr] is a source. And [UNTRANSLATED-LATIN: li-qā'il] is the news of 'Indeed' and what is between them is an interjected conditional sentence. And [UNTRANSLATED-LATIN: naṣr] is in the nominative case, and he is the son of Siyār, the king of Khurasan. And the second [UNTRANSLATED-LATIN: naṣr] is a verbal confirmation, raised in the expression. And the third is likewise, accusative in position because it was a singular definite noun as it is a follower. Or it is a source standing in for its action. That is, help me with a victory. And it was said that the second [UNTRANSLATED-LATIN: naṣr] with the emphatic [UNTRANSLATED-LATIN: ḍād] is a name for the owner of the first [UNTRANSLATED-LATIN: naṣr], so it is on the deletion of the conjunction. According to Abu Ubaidah: It is reported that the one with the emphatic [UNTRANSLATED-LATIN: ḍād] is the third, who was a barrier to [UNTRANSLATED-LATIN: naṣr], and the poet complained about him to [UNTRANSLATED-LATIN: naṣr], so he was placed in the accusative for emphasis. And the meaning in the first is: By the right of the written book, indeed I am one who seeks help from it and not from another. And it is what the ancients have written that has no reality to it. And the plural of legend is more appropriate.

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