مَن كَانَ يَظُنُّ أَن لَّن يَنصُرَهُ ٱللَّهُ فِى ٱلدُّنْيَا وَٱلْءَاخِرَةِ فَلْيَمْدُدْ بِسَبَبٍ إِلَى ٱلسَّمَآءِ ثُمَّ لْيَقْطَعْ فَلْيَنظُرْ هَلْ يُذْهِبَنَّ كَيْدُهُۥ مَا يَغِيظُ
Man kāna yaẓunnu an lan yanṣurahu'llāhu fi'd-dunyā wa'l-ākhirati fa'l-yamdud bi-sababin ila's-samāʾi thumma'l-yaqṭaʿ · Fa'l-yanẓur hal yudhhibanna kayduhu mā yaghīẓ
"Whoever supposes that God will not help him in this world and the next, let him stretch a rope to the sky, then let him cut it; then let him look whether his scheme takes away what enrages him."
This is the most disputed verse in the sūra as regards its understanding. The disagreement lies at three separate points, and each must be recorded separately.
| View | Reading |
|---|---|
| A | To the Prophet — "one who supposes God will not help him (the Prophet)" |
| B | To the man himself — "one who supposes God will not help him" |
| View | Meaning |
|---|---|
| A | A rope, a cord — the concrete sense of the root. Sabab is originally "that by which a place is reached"; the lexicographers give the first sense as rope |
| B | A way of ascent to the sky, a means — figuratively "a cause, an instrument" |
| View | Meaning |
|---|---|
| A | Let him cut the rope — let him hang himself, that is, let him finish his rage upon himself |
| B | Let him cut off the coming of revelation — let him reach up to the sky and stop what comes down from it |
| C | Let him cut the distance — let him traverse the road as far as the sky |
Several readings follow from the combination of these three points. I set out in a table those most prominent in the sources:
| Reading | How the verse as a whole is understood |
|---|---|
| 1 | "If he can, let him climb to the sky and cut off the help." The man wants to prevent God's help; the verse proposes to him an impossible task. The proposal is made in order to show the impossibility |
| 2 | "If he is bursting with rage, let him hang himself." The verse says that rage will not change the fact; whatever the man does, the thing that enrages him will remain in place |
| 3 | "If he does not expect help from God, let him seek it from some other place than the sky." The verse shows that there is no alternative |
I impose none of these as a preference. All three are transmitted in the sources, and none of them decisively excludes the others.
The one thing that is certain is the last word of the sentence: hal yudhhibanna kayduhu mā yaghīẓ. The question is rhetorical and its answer is no. Whichever reading is taken, then, the verse arrives at the same place: rage does not remove what it rages at.
The root ك-ي-د: a hidden plan, a cunning scheme; the lexicographers also record in the root the sense of "being hard pressed, straining with difficulty" (kāda yakīdu — to be in the throes of death).
The root غ-ي-ظ: rage that boils within. The lexicographers observe a difference between ghayẓ and ghaḍab, and generally give it thus: ghaḍab is rage that shows itself, that has an effect; ghayẓ is rage that stays inside and burns the man himself. I transmit this distinction as it is transmitted.
And the choice of the word carries the whole verse; I give this as my own reading: if ghayẓ is the rage that stays inside, then the man's stretching a rope to the sky produces no result outside either. A state that remains within moves to change something without, and the verse leaves the outcome as a question.
مَا يَغِيظُ — "what enrages him". What that thing is is not said. The verse leaves the object of the rage empty and describes only the mechanism. The consequence is this: the description works without being tied to a single event.