فَذَرْهُمْ فِى غَمْرَتِهِمْ حَتَّىٰ حِينٍ
The concrete sense of the root: water's covering a thing completely, closing over it and taking it in. Ghamara'l-māʾu — the water covered it; ghamr — abundant water, a deep place; ghimr — rancour (what covers the heart); mughāmara — throwing oneself into a thing.
The picture in the word is worth recording, and I give this as my own reading: ghamra is a state one is inside of and from which the outside cannot be seen. The word, that is, names not an error but a being surrounded.
| Verse | Sentence | Where the ghamra is |
|---|---|---|
| 54 | fa-dharhum fī ghamratihim | They are inside it |
| 63 | bal qulūbuhum fī ghamratin min hādhā | Their hearts are inside it |
And the difference must be recorded: in the fifty-fourth verse what is surrounded is the persons; in the sixty-third it is their hearts. The second occurrence, that is, narrows the location of the first.
These two words occurred in the twenty-fifth verse in the mouth of the other side: fa-tarabbaṣū bihī ḥattā ḥīn — "wait and watch him for a time".
| Verse | Who says it | Command | Concerning whom |
|---|---|---|---|
| 25 | Noah's people | fa-tarabbaṣū bihī — watch | Concerning the messenger |
| 54 | The text | fa-dharhum — leave | Concerning them |
The same two words, on two different sides. This is a repetition that can be verified within the sūra, and I record it as an observation: the command to wait changes direction twenty-nine verses later.
حِين — an indefinite stretch of time. The lexicographers record that the word reports no fixed span. In neither verse is the span stated.
The root و-ذ-ر: to leave, to abandon. The lexicographers record that the perfect of this verb is not used — only the imperfect and the imperative are current.
And the scope of the command must be recorded, and I give this as my own reading: the command is not "do not trouble yourself with them" but "leave them inside their own state". The qualification fī ghamratihim shows this: the place they are left in is their own condition.
The same line was treated at al-Furqān 25/43 (a-fa-anta takūnu ʿalayhi wakīlā) and in the limit of responsibility tabulated at al-Qaṣaṣ 28/56. This verse is a link in that line.