لَّا تَجْعَلْ مَعَ ٱللَّهِ إِلَٰهًا ءَاخَرَ فَتَقْعُدَ مَذْمُومًا مَّخْذُولًا
The twenty-second verse is the threshold stone of the list of commands that will run to the thirty-ninth verse — and the end of the list will close with the same sentence:
| Verse | Expression | Consequence |
|---|---|---|
| 22 | Lā tajʿal maʿa'llāhi ilāhan ākhara | Fa-taqʿuda madhmūman makhdhūlā |
| 39 | Wa lā tajʿal maʿa'llāhi ilāhan ākhara | Fa-tulqā fī jahannama malūman madḥūrā |
The same prohibition at both ends of the list. This is a frame that can be verified within the sūra (in Arabic rhetoric it is called taṣdīr: the repetition at the end of the expression that opened the section).
I record this as my own reading: the list is made up of moral rules — but at both its ends stands tawḥīd. The moral items are thus given not on their own but inside a frame.
I record this as an observation about the language: in Arabic this verb is used figuratively for "to be left in a state, to settle into it". And its opposite is standing upright (ق-و-م) — that is, the root of aqwam in the ninth verse.
| Verse | Root | State |
|---|---|---|
| 9 | ق-و-م — aqwam | That which stands most upright — what the Qurʾān points to |
| 22 | ق-ع-د — taqʿuda | Left sitting — the breaking of the prohibition |
Two opposite postures, thirteen verses apart. I give this as my own reading; its support is the opposition of the two roots in Arabic.
مَخْذُولًا — root خ-ذ-ل: to cut off help, to leave alone at the very moment of need. The root was treated at 25/29 in al-Furqān (wa kāna'l-shayṭānu li'l-insāni khadhūlā). I do not repeat it here.
The difference here must be recorded: in al-Furqān khadhūl (the one who forsakes) was in the active pattern and was used of Satan. Here it is makhdhūl (the one forsaken) — the passive pattern, and used of the human being. The same root, at the two ends of the verb, in two sūras.