Ṭāhā 20:29-35

Wajʿal lī wazīran min ahlī · Hārūna akhī · Ushdud bihi azrī · Wa ashrikhu fī amrī · Kay nusabbiḥaka kathīrā · Wa nadhkuraka kathīrā · Innaka kunta binā baṣīrā

"'Appoint for me a helper from my family: · Aaron, my brother. · Strengthen my back with him · and make him a partner in my task · that we may glorify You much · and remember You much. · Truly You are ever seeing us.'"

The same request occurred with a different word at al-Qaṣaṣ on 28/34 and was treated there: رِدْء — root ر-د-أ: support, a helper who holds one up from behind; the lexicographers explain the word by the prop set behind a thing to keep it from toppling. I rely on that treatment and do not repeat it here.

What belongs here is the comparison of the two words.

وَزِير — two explanations of its root are transmitted, and both come out at the same picture:

The root و-ز-ر was treated in the series at al-Inshirāḥ on 94/2 (wa waḍaʿnā ʿanka wizrak), at Fāṭir on 35/18 and at al-Zumar on 39/7 — where the root's core of weight was recorded. I rely on those treatments.

Now I set the two requests side by side, and the table can be verified from the text:

The difference is worth recording, and I give it as my own reading: what is asked for in al-Qaṣaṣ is to be confirmed — that is, a witness. What is asked for in Ṭāhā is to be made a partner in the work — ashrikhu fī amrī. The request in al-Qaṣaṣ arises from a problem of communication, the request in Ṭāhā from the weight of the commission. The two sūras record two different grounds for the same request, and each states its own ground in the text.

And the answer recorded at al-Qaṣaṣ connects here too: sa-nashuddu ʿaḍudaka bi-akhīk — "We shall strengthen your arm with your brother". al-Qaṣaṣ gives the answer with the word ʿaḍud (upper arm); in Ṭāhā the request is built with the word azr (back). In both places the support is told through a bodily image — one the arm, the other the back.

The root أ-ز-ر — occurs here for the first time in the series. The sense the lexicographers give: the back, the strength of the back; and the garment wrapped around the waist. From the same root izār — the wrap tied at the waist, and muʾāzara — to stand behind someone.

The picture is worth recording: azr is where the strength gathers when a load is lifted. So "strengthen my back" means "make firm the place in me that will lift the load". And the first derivation of the word wazīr (wizr — load) lies in the same field. The three words used across the request — wazīr, azr, amr — build a single scene: a heavy load lifted by two.

A point of word order must be recorded: the ground of the entire request is given with kay (in order that), and two verbs are named — nusabbiḥaka and nadhkuraka.

The subject of both verbs is plural: "we". And both are acts of service, not of commission.

I record this as my own reading, and its ground is the content of the clause of purpose: in asking for a helper, Moses does not point to the success of the work as his ground. He does not say "so that we may persuade Pharaoh" or "so that the Children of Israel may be delivered". The ground he points to is remembrance — and this is from the same root as the command in the fourteenth verse of the sūra: wa aqimi'ṣ-ṣalāta li-dhikrī.

The word that occurred in the command comes back twenty verses later as the servant's own ground. This is a repetition that can be verified within the sūra.

إِنَّكَ كُنتَ بِنَا بَصِيرًا (35) — "Truly You are ever seeing us."

The close of the prayer is worth recording: the request is sealed with a sentence of knowledge. And binā (us) is plural — Moses has already brought into the sentence the partner not yet granted.

And the root ب-ص-ر will return at the end of the sūra: wa qad kuntu baṣīrā (125) — this time of the servant himself, and in a sentence of complaint. This link will be treated in the section on 124-127.