أَتَىٰٓ أَمْرُ ٱللَّهِ فَلَا تَسْتَعْجِلُوهُ سُبْحَٰنَهُۥ وَتَعَٰلَىٰ عَمَّا يُشْرِكُونَ
"The command of God has come; do not seek to hasten it. He is far removed from, and exalted above, what they associate with Him."
The whole sentence gathers into two expressions, and the entire matter lies in them: atā (it has come) — a perfect verb; and immediately after it fa-lā tastaʿjilūh (do not seek to hasten it) — a prohibition which shows that it has not yet come.
That is, the verse forbids that haste be asked for over the very thing it says has come. Had it come, no haste could be asked for.
This structure was analysed in detail at two places in this commentary, and I take them as the ground here:
- At al-Qamar, 54/1 (iqtarabati'l-sāʿatu wa'nshaqqa'l-qamar) the two distinct tasks of the perfect verb were tabulated: the expression of certainty (a future event whose occurrence is certain being told as though it had already happened) and the narration of an event genuinely past. And this verse was already named there as the example of the first kind.
- At al-Anbiyāʾ, 21/1 (iqtaraba li'l-nāsi ḥisābuhum) the same pattern was treated once more, and the sense of iqtaraba that comes from Form VIII — "the closing of a distance" — was recorded.
I do not repeat it here. What belongs here is the comparison of the three verses — for the three are not doing the same work:
| Place | Verb | Mood | What it conveys | The sentence beside it |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| al-Qamar 54/1 | Iqtaraba — Form VIII | Perfect | The motion of drawing near — the distance is closing | Wa'nshaqqa'l-qamar — an event |
| al-Anbiyāʾ 21/1 | Iqtaraba — Form VIII | Perfect | Drawing near — and ascribed to those whose reckoning it is | Wa hum fī ghaflatin muʿriḍūn — a state |
| al-Naḥl 16/1 | Atā — Form I | Perfect | Arrival — no distance left, it has come | Fa-lā tastaʿjilūh — a prohibition |
The difference must be recorded, and I give this as my own reading, its ground being the choice of verb: al-Qamar and al-Anbiyāʾ convey drawing near — iqtaraba. al-Naḥl goes past even drawing near and conveys arrival: atā. Of the three verses this is the one that goes furthest. And it is precisely the verse that goes furthest which, immediately afterwards, forbids haste.
The contrast lies inside the sentence, and the lexicographers dwell on it. In rhetoric this usage is generally called the highest degree of certainty: the certainty of the event is so complete that the future tense fell short and the perfect was used.
And the addressee of the prohibition is worth recording. Lā tastaʿjilū — plural. It is not said who is hastening; but those who hasten are not the ones who do not want it to come, they are the ones who do. This demand will be named several times in the verses that follow.
| Branch | Sense | Plural |
|---|---|---|
| أَمْر (command) | To command, to order | awāmir |
| أَمْر (affair, event) | A situation, a state, a thing that comes to pass | umūr |
| View | What amru'llāh is | Ground |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | The Hour | Istiʿjāl (asking for haste) is used in the Qurʾān mostly of the Hour and of punishment |
| 2 | Punishment, retribution | Further on in the sūra what befell earlier peoples is recalled (26, 33-34) |
| 3 | God's decree / the decision He has taken | The widest sense of the word; in the next verse min amrih occurs from the same root |
But an internal note must be entered: the second verse uses the same root once more — yunazzilu'l-malāʾikata bi'l-rūḥi min amrih. Two consecutive verses thus carry the same word: in the one a command that comes, in the other a command that descends.
I record this as my own reading, and its ground is this repetition: the sūra sets the command whose hastening is forbidden beside another command that is in the course of descending. What is awaited has not yet come; but news of what ought to be awaited has long since arrived.
The sentence will occur twice in the sūra: in the first verse, and at the end of the third (taʿālā ʿammā yushrikūn). Only one verse stands between them. This is a repetition that can be verified from the text.
The root of subḥān (س-ب-ح) has been analysed at many places in this commentary — al-Aʿlā, Yāsīn 36/36, al-Ḥashr and others: the core sense is to swim away through empty space or through water; from there, tanzīh — holding God clear of what does not befit Him. I do not repeat it here.
تَعَٰلَىٰ — root ع-ل-و: height. That it comes from Form VI (taʿālā) is worth recording: this form generally conveys reciprocity, but here it does the work the lexicographers call mubālagha (intensification) — that the height is of Himself.