لِّلَّذِينَ أَحْسَنُوا۟ ٱلْحُسْنَىٰ وَزِيَادَةٌ وَلَا يَرْهَقُ وُجُوهَهُمْ قَتَرٌ وَلَا ذِلَّةٌ · وَٱلَّذِينَ كَسَبُوا۟ ٱلسَّيِّـَٔاتِ جَزَآءُ سَيِّئَةٍۭ بِمِثْلِهَا وَتَرْهَقُهُمْ ذِلَّةٌ
"For those who do good there is the best, and more. Neither a darkening nor a humiliation covers their faces. · But those who earn evil deeds — the recompense of an evil deed is its like; and humiliation covers them. They have no one to protect them from God; their faces are as though covered with patches of the darkened night."
This construct has been named in many places in the index: al-Qiyāma, ʿAbasa, al-Layl, al-Jinn, al-Muddaththir.
Al-ḥusnā — treated in al-Layl: the Qurʾān uses the word for the reward.
| Reading | What the ziyāda is |
|---|---|
| 1 | The beholding — seeing God |
| 2 | Reward multiplied — what is added on top of the recompense for the deed |
| 3 | An unspecified addition — the word's being left open |
In al-Qiyāma the first reading was related "as it is transmitted" and was not presented as a ruling. I keep the same note and impose no preference.
And this datum of word order must be recorded: the word comes indefinite (nakira) — ziyādatun. The indefiniteness leaves the scope open. I record this as an observation.
The twenty-sixth and twenty-seventh verses are built as opposites of one another and can be compared word for word:
| Verse 26 | Verse 27 |
|---|---|
| Li'lladhīna aḥsanū | Wa'lladhīna kasabu's-sayyiʾāt |
| Al-ḥusnā wa ziyādah — recompense with more | Jazāʾu sayyiʾatin bi-mithlihā — recompense with its like |
| Wa lā yarhaqu wujūhahum qatarun wa lā dhillah | Wa tarhaquhum dhillah |
| Aṣḥābu'l-jannah | Aṣḥābu'n-nār |
| Hum fīhā khālidūn | Hum fīhā khālidūn |
And the single place where the symmetry is broken is the measure of the recompense — and this is deliberate:
The recompense of good is al-ḥusnā wa ziyāda (the best and more), the recompense of evil bi-mithlihā (its like).
I record this as my own reading, and its ground is the two words of measure: the verse does not keep the recompense equal in the two directions. On the side of good there is a surplus; on the side of evil there is none. And this is stated openly elsewhere in the Qurʾān (al-Anʿām 6/160). Here the sūra shows it by breaking a symmetry.
قَتَر — root ق-ت-ر: smoke, soot; and from this the darkening that settles on a face. The word was treated at ʿAbasa 80/40-41 and it was recorded there: "The same word (qatar), the same family of verbs (yarhaqu), with the opposite ruling. The last two verses of ʿAbasa are the negative of Yūnus 10/26." I rely on that treatment.
The root ر-ه-ق: to cover a thing, to overspread it, to overtake and envelop it. The lexicographers record the picture of "catching up from behind and taking hold". And the verb is used in both verses: negated in one, affirmed in the other.
كَأَنَّمَآ أُغْشِيَتْ وُجُوهُهُمْ قِطَعًا مِّنَ ٱلَّيْلِ مُظْلِمًا — "their faces as though covered with patches of the darkened night."
The material of the comparison is worth recording: what is chosen as the covering is patches of the night. I record this as an observation: darkness is related not as an absence but as a substance that can be cut and laid over. The word qiṭaʿ (patches) carries this.