al-Isrāʾ 17:110-111

Quli'dʿu'llāha awi'dʿu'l-raḥmān, ayyan mā tadʿū fa-lahu'l-asmāʾu'l-ḥusnā, wa lā tajhar bi-ṣalātika wa lā tukhāfit bihā wa'btaghi bayna dhālika sabīlā · Wa quli'l-ḥamdu li'llāhi'lladhī lam yattakhidh waladan wa lam yakun lahu sharīkun fi'l-mulki wa lam yakun lahu waliyyun mina'l-dhulli wa kabbirhu takbīrā

"Say: 'Call upon Him as God, or call upon Him as al-Raḥmān. By whichever you call, His are the most beautiful names.' Do not raise your voice in your prayer, nor lower it too far; seek a way between the two. And say: 'Praise belongs to God, who has taken no child, who has no partner in His dominion, and who has needed no friend out of weakness.' And magnify Him greatly."

The first sentence of the verse answers a dispute, and that dispute has been treated in two places in this commentary.

It was recorded at 25/60 in al-Furqān (wa idhā qīla lahumu'sjudū li'l-raḥmāni qālū wa ma'l-raḥmān): the other party was asking not about the prostration but about the name, and the question was built not with man (who) but with mā (what). And it was tabulated there that the sūra takes the rejected name and answers by describing its servants.

And in Maryam the density of this name was treated as the backbone of that sūra: the name occurs there sixteen times, and in the last block the claim made against it is taken up. And it was recorded there: the narratives have prepared the answer to the claim in advance.

I rely on those treatments throughout. And now three sūras can be set side by side:

I record this as my own reading, and its support is the sentences of the three sūras themselves: three sūras take up the same matter by three different methods — by using the name, by reporting the objection, and by stating the ruling. And al-Isrāʾ's method is the shortest: it says that both names belong to the same One, and ends the dispute.

And the structure of the sentence must be recorded: ayyan mā tadʿū — "by whichever you call". The verse does not equate the two names; it says that both go to the same place. And the ground is kept broad: fa-lahu'l-asmāʾu'l-ḥusnā — the names are not two but many.

It is transmitted in the classical commentaries that this verse came when those addressed acknowledged the name "Allāh" and objected to the name "al-Raḥmān". I transmit this as a transmitted background; I do not go into the detail.

Two extremes are forbidden and the middle is asked for. This is the last link on the sūra's line of measure.

The root ج-ه-ر: to bring into the open, to raise the voice. The root خ-ف-ت: to lower the voice, to drop it (in Arabic khāfit is used of the silence of the dead as well).

And the measure of the voice was treated at 31/19 in Luqmān (wa'ghḍuḍ min ṣawtik); the same measure was applied to prayer at 19/3 in Maryam (nidāʾan khafiyyā). And the measure of the voice was treated in detail at 49/2-3 in al-Ḥujurāt. I rely on those treatments.

A record required by the method: in the classical commentaries it has been disputed whether this verse concerns the voice of the recitation in prayer, or supplication, or an occasion of revelation. No legal ruling is issued in this commentary; the literal structure of the verse sets two extremes and a middle.

This sentence is the sūra's plainest expression of measure, and it builds the same structure for the third time within the sūra:

And it is on exactly the same pattern as the measure at 25/67 in al-Furqān (lam yusrifū wa lam yaqturū wa kāna bayna dhālika qawāmā) — indeed the construction bayna dhālika is common to both.

The same construction (bayna dhālika), in two sūras and in two different fields. This is an overlap between sūras that can be verified, and it is read together with the line of qaṣd (keeping to the middle way) at 31/19 in Luqmān.

I record this as my own reading, and its support is the pattern the three verses share: nowhere does the Qurʾān give the measure as a number. Each time it names the two extremes and looks for what lies between — and in al-Isrāʾ this is said with a verb of seeking: wa'btaghi ("seek"). The middle point, that is, is not handed over ready-made; it is set down as something to be sought.

And the word sabīl returns here — it was one of the words that occur often in the sūra (9, 32, 42, 48, 72, 84, 110). After the expressions "an evil way" (32), "finding no way" (48) and "further astray from the way" (72), the sūra in its last command asks that a way be sought.

The sūra closes with a sentence of praise, and the sentence negates three things:

The third is worth recording, and the lexicographers dwell on it.

The construction: waliyyun mina'l-dhulli — "a friend (taken) out of weakness".

I record this as an observation about the structure: the verse negates not the friendship but the reason for the friendship. It does not say "He has no helper"; it says "He has not needed a helper out of any incapacity".

And the word dhull occurs for the second time in the sūra — the first was in the twenty-fourth verse, of parents: janāḥa'l-dhulli mina'l-raḥma.

The same word at the two ends of the sūra: once a command, once a negation. And in both a record of source is set beside the word — in one mina'l-raḥma, in the other mina'l-dhulli.

I record this as my own reading, and its support is the verbal overlap of the two verses: the sūra commands the servant to a lowering that comes out of mercy; and of God it denies a bond that comes out of weakness. The same word, with two different sources and two different rulings.

The sūra closes with a command: "magnify Him as He should be magnified."

ك-ب-ر — the root: to be great. Form II (kabbara): to reckon great, to proclaim the greatness of.

And the absolute object (takbīrā) conveys emphasis.

And the two ends of the sūra must be recorded. I give this as my own reading:

The sūra opens with a glorification and closes with a magnification. And in between, every burden a human being can carry has been enumerated one by one: the history of a people, the deed at the neck, the old age of parents, measure, the voice, wealth, fear, the limit of knowledge.