al-Isrāʾ 17:61-65

Wa idh qulnā li'l-malāʾikati'sjudū li-Ādama fa-sajadū illā iblīs, qāla a-asjudu li-man khalaqta ṭīnā · Qāla a-raʾaytaka hādha'lladhī karramta ʿalayya la-in akhkhartani ilā yawmi'l-qiyāmati la-aḥtanikanna dhurriyyatahu illā qalīlā · Qāla'dhhab fa-man tabiʿaka minhum fa-inna jahannama jazāʾukum jazāʾan mawfūrā · Wa'stafziz mani'staṭaʿta minhum bi-ṣawtika wa ajlib ʿalayhim bi-khaylika wa rajilika wa shārikhum fi'l-amwāli wa'l-awlādi wa ʿidhum, wa mā yaʿiduhumu'l-shayṭānu illā ghurūrā · Inna ʿibādī laysa laka ʿalayhim sulṭān, wa kafā bi-rabbika wakīlā

"When We said to the angels, 'Prostrate to Adam (Ādam)', they prostrated — all but Iblīs. He said, 'Am I to prostrate to one You created out of clay?' He said: 'Do You see this one You have honoured above me? If You defer me to the Day of Resurrection, I will surely take his offspring in hand, all but a few.' He said: 'Go! Whoever of them follows you — Hell is the recompense of you all, a recompense in full. Stir up with your voice whomever of them you can; raise a din against them with your horsemen and your footmen; share with them in wealth and children; and make them promises.' Satan promises them nothing but delusion. Over My servants you have no mastery. Your Lord suffices as trustee."

The word in Iblīs's sentence must be recorded: hādha'lladhī karramta ʿalayya — "this one, whom You have honoured above me."

And the same root will return eight verses later, in the seventieth: wa laqad karramnā banī Ādam.

The same root, once an objection and once a finding. This is a weave that can be verified within the sūra, and I record this as my own reading: the sūra takes the word of the objection and gives it back eight verses later as a sentence of judgement.

The same method was treated at 25/7 and 25/20 in al-Furqān (the words of the objection were repeated verbatim in the answer) — and it was recorded there: the answer does not reject the objection's description, it confirms it and makes it general. I rely on that treatment.

The root ك-ر-م: to be of worth, generous, noble. The root was treated at 49/13 in al-Ḥujurāt (inna akramakum ʿinda'llāhi atqākum), and I rely on it: it was recorded there that worth is tied not to lineage or to position but to a measure.

And the same root had occurred in a command in the twenty-third verse: qawlan karīmā (an honourable word to parents). The sūra uses the root in three separate places: a command, an objection, a judgement.

The root: the lower part of the mouth, under the jaw. Ḥanak — the palate, the jaw. Form VIII (iḥtanaka): to put a bit in an animal's jaw and steer it; and to root a thing out and finish it.

The lexicographers record both senses, and both are transmitted:

Both senses are transmitted; I do not impose a preference.

But the first sense coincides with the root of the word ḥikma in the thirty-ninth verse (the bridle), and I record this as an observation about the language: the picture of the bridle is used in two separate places in the sūra — one holding a person in the right place (ḥikma), the other dragging him off (iḥtināk). The same concrete picture, in two opposite directions.

The verse enumerates five instruments, and all five are worth recording:

اسْتَفْزِزْ — root ف-ز-ز: to dislodge, to make jump, to lighten a thing and tear it from its place. The word will occur twice more in the sūra (76: la-yastafizzūnaka mina'l-arḍ; 103: fa-arāda an yastafizzahum mina'l-arḍ).

The same verb, in three places in the sūra and with three different agents. This is a weave that can be verified within the sūra, and I record this as my own reading: the sūra uses the verb "to tear from one's place" in a spiritual sense and in a geographical one alike.

أَجْلِبْ — root ج-ل-ب: to shout and clamour, to drive a herd along with cries. The word conveys the noise made in driving animals.

I record this as an observation: the first instrument and the second both have to do with sound. And the picture the verse builds is not visual but auditory: a voice, a clamour, the din of horse and foot.

The construction has been disputed in the classical commentaries, and the explanations are transmitted:

I transmit the explanations; I do not impose a preference and I do not pile up reports.

But one textual datum can be recorded, and I give this as an observation: the sūra names these two things (wealth and children) side by side elsewhere as well — in the sixth verse as a gift (wa amdadnākum bi-amwālin wa banīn), in the thirty-first as a cause of fear. In the sūra, that is, wealth and children are named in three separate places in three separate roles: gift, fear, partnership.

And the section closes with a limit.

The word must be recorded: ʿibādī — "My servants".

And a link with the sūra's first verse can be drawn. I give this as my own reading, and its support is the word itself: the sūra had opened with bi-ʿabdihi. In the sixty-fifth verse the same word comes in the plural and becomes the subject of a sentence of protection.

The word occurs in six places in the sūra, and in all six in a favourable position. This is a weave that can be verified within the sūra.