al-Muʾminūn 23:77

ḥattā idhā fataḥnā ʿalayhim bāban dhā ʿadhābin shadīdin idhā hum fīhi mublisūn

"Until, when We open upon them a gate of severe punishment, at once they are stripped of hope in it."

The root ف-ت-ح: to open. The root was treated in detail in al-Fatḥ on the occasion of that sūra's name. I do not repeat it here.

And the use of the verb here is worth recording, and I give this as my own reading: in the Qurʾān the pattern fataḥnā ʿalayhim is mostly used for a favour — al-Anʿām 6/44 (fataḥnā ʿalayhim abwāba kulli shayʾ), al-Aʿrāf 7/96 (la-fataḥnā ʿalayhim barakātin mina'l-samāʾi wa'l-arḍ).

Here the same pattern is used for a gate of punishment.

The same pattern, the reverse content. This is a contrast that can be verified from the three texts.

And the continuation of al-Anʿām 6/44 must be recorded, because it lies on the same line: there, after the gates of favour are opened, akhadhnāhum baghtatan follows. In both verses, that is, the gate that opens is a turning point.

And the difference of singular and plural is worth recording: in al-Anʿām abwāb (gates, plural), here bāban (a gate, singular and indefinite). I give this as an observation about the word order.

The sense of the root is given by the lexicographers as follows: to have one's hope cut off, to be left helpless and bewildered; to find nothing to say. Iblās — Form IV.

And the lexicographers record that the name Iblīs is derived from this root — "the one whose hope is cut off". I pass this explanation on as it is transmitted; there are other views on the origin of the word (a view that it comes from a non-Arabic name is transmitted) and I do not impose a preference.

The word occurs in several places in the Qurʾān: al-Anʿām 6/44 (fa-idhā hum mublisūn), al-Rūm 30/12 and 30/49 (treated in al-Rūm), al-Zukhruf 43/75 (treated in al-Zukhruf).

And the overlap between al-Anʿām 6/44 and this verse must be recorded: both verses begin with fataḥnā ʿalayhim and both end with mublisūn. This is an overlap that can be verified from the two texts.

The word order must be recorded: there are two separate occurrences of idhā in the sentence. The first is the conditional particle (idhā fataḥnā), the second the idhā fujāʾiyya — the particle reporting "all at once" (idhā hum fīhi mublisūn).

The same structure was used in the sixty-fourth verse as well: ḥattā idhā akhadhnā mutrafīhim bi'l-ʿadhābi idhā hum yajʾarūn.

I compare the two verses:

The difference is worth recording, and I give this as my own reading: in the sixty-fourth verse there was a sound; in the seventy-seventh the sound too is cut off. At the core of the word iblās lies finding nothing to say. Block VI closes with the cutting off of sound.