Ṭāhā 20:120-123

Fa-waswasa ilayhi'sh-shayṭānu qāla yā Ādamu hal adulluka ʿalā shajarati'l-khuldi wa mulkin lā yablā · Fa-akalā minhā fa-badat lahumā sawʾātuhumā wa ṭafiqā yakhṣifāni ʿalayhimā min waraqi'l-jannah, wa ʿaṣā Ādamu rabbahu fa-ghawā · Thumma'jtabāhu rabbuhu fa-tāba ʿalayhi wa hadā · Qāla'hbiṭā minhā jamīʿan baʿḍukum li-baʿḍin ʿaduww, fa-immā yaʾtiyannakum minnī hudan fa-mani'ttabaʿa hudāya fa-lā yaḍillu wa lā yashqā

"Then Satan whispered to him: 'Adam! Shall I show you the tree of everlastingness and a kingdom that does not decay?' he said. · The two of them ate from it, and their nakedness was shown to them, and they began to press leaves of the garden over themselves. Adam disobeyed his Lord and went astray. · Then his Lord chose him, turned to him in mercy, and guided. · 'Go down from it, all of you, some of you enemies to others,' He said. 'And when guidance comes to you from Me, whoever follows My guidance neither goes astray nor falls into distress.'"

Ṭāhā is the only place among the three tellings that gives the content of the whispering — tabulated in the discussion of 20/115-116. And what is said must be recorded.

Hal adulluka ʿalā shajarati'l-khuldi wa mulkin lā yablā — "shall I show you the tree of everlastingness and a kingdom that does not decay?"

The root ب-ل-ي: to wear out, to fray and decay. Balā is used of a garment's wearing out.

I record this as my own reading, and its ground is the content of the two promises: the offer does not make breaking the prohibition attractive in itself. It promises two things, and both promise the removal of a lack: death and losing. That is, the whispering aims at the human being's limit.

And the offer is framed, worth recording, as a sentence of showing the way: hal adulluka ʿalā… — "shall I show you…?"

And the same verb occurred in the fortieth verse of this sūra — in the mouth of Moses's sister: hal adullukum ʿalā man yakfuluh — "shall I show you someone who will take charge of him?"

The same pattern, in two different places. I record this as my own reading: the sūra uses the same sentence-pattern in two offers, one rescuing and one ruinous. The form of the offer is the same; where it leads is different. This is an overlap that can be verified from the text.

All the verbs are dual: akalā (the two ate), badat lahumā (was shown to the two), sawʾātuhumā (the nakedness of the two), ṭafiqā yakhṣifāni (the two began to press over).

This note was entered at al-Baqara on 2/35-36, and precisely this verse was cited there as evidence: "There is no expression anywhere in the Qurʾān that blames Eve separately, that positions her as a seducer, or that lays the responsibility on her… In Sūrat Ṭāhā the one whispered to is Adam directly (20/120), and then 'the two of them ate from it' (20/121). The woman is not presented as an intermediary." I rely on that treatment and do not repeat it here.

What is to be added here is a datum of word order: in the hundred and twentieth verse the whispering is done to the singular (ilayhi, yā Ādamu, adulluka), the verb turns to the dual (fa-akalā), and at the end of the hundred and twenty-first it comes back down to the singular (wa ʿaṣā Ādamu rabbah). This is a shift of number within the verse itself, and it is verifiable.

يَخْصِفَان — root خ-ص-ف: to patch one thing over another, to lay them over each other and stitch. The lexicographers explain the word through the mending of shoes (khaṣf): laying a new piece over a worn place.

I record this as an observation: the verb tells of the leaves being laid one over another — that is, a covering is not being sewn, it is being closed up piece by piece.

And there is a verbal connection with the twelfth verse: there it said fakhlaʿ naʿlayka (take off your sandals). Both verses have verbs of putting on and taking off; I record this only as a verbal overlap and draw no connection of meaning.

The sentence must be recorded because it is plain and has not been softened.

The root ع-ص-ي: not to obey a command. The root غ-و-ي: not to find what is right, to lose one's way; the lexicographers record a difference between ghayy and ḍalāl — ghayy is also used of taking the wrong road while knowing better.

And a point of word order must be recorded: the sentence ranges three separate things one after another, and the second verse answers it:

I record this as my own reading, and its ground is the adjacency of the two verses: the text does not cover the event over — and because it does not, the three verbs that follow gain their weight.

And the principle recorded at al-Baqara on 2/37 holds here too: "the possibility of return is a gift given afterwards to the one who wants to return." In Ṭāhā this is given with three verbs:

And the third verb must be recorded: hadā. This is the last word of the answer in the fiftieth verse of the sūra (thumma hadā) and the verb negated of Pharaoh in the seventy-ninth (wa mā hadā).

The same verb, the same form, in three separate places in the sūra. I record this as my own reading: in the fiftieth verse the guiding came after creation; in the hundred and twenty-second it comes after repentance. The sūra attaches the same verb to both beginnings.

The hundred and twenty-third verse gathers the sūra's two spinal roots into a single sentence:

And the structure of the sentence must be recorded: a condition and two consequences.

Fa-mani'ttabaʿa hudāya — the condition; fa-lā yaḍillu — the first consequence; wa lā yashqā — the second consequence.

I record this as my own reading, and its ground is that the two verbs are named separately: ḍalāl is a loss of direction, shaqā a disorder of state. One is not knowing where one is, the other struggling in the place where one is. The verse removes both at once.

And the word hudā occurs twice in the verse: hudan (indefinite — "a guidance") and hudāya (definite — "My guidance"). The first is what will come, the second what is to be followed.

The same descent and promise were treated at al-Baqara on 2/38, and it was recorded there: "The human being is not abandoned to the earth; he is sent to the earth, and it is said that a guide will be sent after him." I rely on that treatment.

And the difference between the two verses is worth recording:

Two sūras give the same promise with two different pairs of words. And the second word Ṭāhā chooses is the word of the sūra's second verse. This is the sūra's most closed link, and it can be verified from the text.