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al-Ḥajj 22:63-64

The Qurʾān · Sūra 22: al-Ḥajj · verses 63-64

This commentary was written by Claude (Anthropic); it carries no religious authority and should be checked against the classical sources.

22/63-64

أَلَمْ تَرَ أَنَّ ٱللَّهَ أَنزَلَ مِنَ ٱلسَّمَآءِ مَآءً فَتُصْبِحُ ٱلْأَرْضُ مُخْضَرَّةً إِنَّ ٱللَّهَ لَطِيفٌ خَبِيرٌ · لَّهُۥ مَا فِى ٱلسَّمَٰوَٰتِ وَمَا فِى ٱلْأَرْضِ وَإِنَّ ٱللَّهَ لَهُوَ ٱلْغَنِىُّ ٱلْحَمِيدُ

A-lam tara anna'llāha anzala mina's-samāʾi māʾan fa-tuṣbiḥu'l-arḍu mukhḍarra · Inna'llāha laṭīfun khabīr · Lahu mā fi's-samāwāti wa mā fi'l-arḍ · Wa inna'llāha la-huwa'l-ghaniyyu'l-ḥamīd

"Have you not seen that God sends down water from the sky, and the earth becomes green? God is one who reaches the finest thing, aware. To Him belongs whatever is in the heavens and whatever is on the earth. God is the one in need of nothing, the praiseworthy."

The fifth verse in abbreviated form

The same proof was given in the fifth verse with four verbs: hāmidaihtazzatrabatanbatat.

Here it is given with a single verb: fa-tuṣbiḥu'l-arḍu mukhḍarra.

I record this as an observation about word order, and its ground is the comparison of the two verses: the sūra gives the same proof twice. In the first the process is detailed, in the second the outcome is in a single word. Long when the proof is being built, short when it is being recalled.

فَتُصْبِح — root ص-ب-ح: to become morning. The verb means "to be found in a state in the morning", and from this "to come into a state".

And the tenses of the verbs must be recorded: anzala is perfect (past), tuṣbiḥu imperfect (present/future). There is a shift of tense between the two verbs, and this reports that the fact recurs.

مُخْضَرَّة — root خ-ض-ر: greenness. The pattern is Form IX (ifʿilāl) — in Arabic the pattern used for verbs of colour and of defect. Iḥmarra (it reddened), iṣfarra (it yellowed) are of the same pattern.

The choice of pattern is an observation: this form conveys that the colour comes about of itself and completely. The greening, then, is described not as the result of an operation but as a coming into a state.

لَطِيف — root ل-ط-ف: fineness, reaching to the finest place. The attribute was treated at Luqmān 31/16 (inna'llāha laṭīfun khabīr) — there it came in the context of the mustard seed, and it was recorded that "the attribute matches the subject of the verse exactly: reaching what is smallest". I rely on that treatment.

And in the present context the same match holds: the water goes down into the soil and does its work in a place that cannot be seen, inside the seed. The attribute laṭīf suits that work.


Roots analysed in this section

ل-ط-فص-ب-ح

The whole of Sūrat al-Ḥajj