وَلَقَدْ أَرْسَلْنَا مُوسَىٰ بِـَٔايَٰتِنَآ أَنْ أَخْرِجْ قَوْمَكَ مِنَ ٱلظُّلُمَٰتِ إِلَى ٱلنُّورِ وَذَكِّرْهُم بِأَيَّىٰمِ ٱللَّهِ ۚ إِنَّ فِى ذَٰلِكَ لَءَايَٰتٍ لِّكُلِّ صَبَّارٍ شَكُورٍ
Wa laqad arsalnā Mūsā bi-āyātinā an akhrij qawmaka mina'ẓ-ẓulumāti ila'n-nūri wa dhakkirhum bi-ayyāmi'llāh · Inna fī dhālika la-āyātin li-kulli ṣabbārin shakūr
"And We surely sent Moses with Our signs: 'Bring your people out of the darknesses into the light, and remind them of the days of God.' In that there are surely signs for everyone who is much-enduring and much-thanking."
The work given to the Prophet in the first verse appears in the fifth as given to Moses — the same verb, the same two words: mina'ẓ-ẓulumāti ila'n-nūr.
The difference is in the mood: in the first li-tukhrija (a clause of purpose), here akhrij (an imperative). That is, the one is the reason for which the Book was sent down, the other a direct command given to a messenger.
I record this as an observation about the word order: the sūra answers the work it gives its own addressee five verses later with an instance out of history. The work is not new; it is shared between two messengers.
| Reading | What ayyāmu'llāh is | Ground |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | What befell the earlier peoples — the days of destruction | In Arabic the idiom "the days of so-and-so" is used for the striking events a person has lived through |
| 2 | The days of favour — deliverances, things given | The very next verse (6) recounts a deliverance |
| 3 | Both together — days of bounty and of punishment alike | The pair ṣabbār / shakūr at the end of the verse looks in both directions |
But the last sentence of the verse gives an indication, and I record this as an observation: li-kulli ṣabbārin shakūr — enduring and thanking. Endurance looks to hardship, thanks to favour. That the two attributes come side by side is favourable to the "days" to be recalled being of two kinds as well. I give this as an indication, not as a preference.
The construct occurs in four places in the Qurʾān and two of them have been treated in the series: Sabaʾ 34/19 (after the scattering of the people of Sabaʾ) and al-Shūrā 42/33 (the wind being stilled and the ships left motionless). I rely on those treatments.
An overlap recorded in the section on al-Shūrā is worth mentioning here too: in that same sūra ghafūrun shakūr (42/23) was used of God and ṣabbārin shakūr (42/33) of man — the same pattern, two sides.
The pattern must be recorded: both are of the intensive form. Ṣabbār (faʿʿāl) and shakūr (faʿūl). That is, the attribute is asked for not as a single act of behaviour but as a settled state.