and so, when a man has spent it (1), all that he possessed has been spent; if it had not already perished, then it certainly perishes—rather, it has merely passed from one state to another (2).
In the work Tafsīr ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭalḥah al-Wālibī (3), folio 5/a, it is related from Ibn ʿAbbās—a well-known report frequently cited by nearly all the exegetes who transmit with full chains, such as Ibn Jarīr al-Ṭabarī, Ibn Abī Ḥātim, ʿUthmān ibn Saʿīd al-Dārimī, and al-Bayhaqī; by those who mention the isnād only in summary, like al-Thaʿlabī and al-Baghawī; and by those who omit the chain altogether, such as al-Māwardī and Ibn al-Jawzī—that he said concerning the verse,
“The Fire will be your abode, wherein you shall dwell forever—except as Allah wills. Surely your Lord is All-Wise, All-Knowing” (4),
that
“In this verse there is an indication that no one should presume to judge Allah regarding His creation, nor consign them to either Paradise or Hell” (5).
Al-Ṭabarī (6) said: “It has been transmitted from Ibn ʿAbbās that he interpreted this clause of exception to mean:
(1) Beneath it, in the margin of the original, is the note “Anfazhahu,” indicating that it appears thus in another copy.
(2) The phrase “min ḥāl ilā ḥāl” (from one state to another) marks the end of the first section of manuscript S, which the scribe indicated with “intaha” (ended). See the manuscript facsimile in Sheikh al-Albani’s introduction to Rafʿ al-Astar by al-Sanʿani (pp. 11, 54).
(3) In the original margin appears “ṭara”: “al-Walabi is reliable, but he did not reach Ibn ʿAbbas; rather, he took it from his companions, and Allah knows best, transmitting on their authority.” The term ṭara denotes the small leaf attached to the manuscript, meaning that the cited text was found on a small slip affixed to the primary copy of that version.
I remark: al-Ujali explicitly authenticated ʿAli ibn Abi Talha, but Muhammad ibn ʿAbd Allah ibn Numayr discussed his condition; Ibn Hajar summarized him as “truthful but prone to error” (Tahdhib al-Tahdhib 7/339; al-Taqrib 2/39).
(4) Qur’an 6:128.
(5) The ruling on this report will appear shortly (p. 58).
(6) al-Tabari, Tafsir al-Tabari (Jamiʿ al-Bayan), vol. 8, p. 34.