وَٱلَّذِينَ هُمْ لِأَمَٰنَٰتِهِمْ وَعَهْدِهِمْ رَٰعُونَ
| Explanation | Ground |
|---|---|
| 1 | Trusts are many and various (property, a word, an office, a secret); a covenant is a single kind of binding |
| 2 | ʿAhd here is a generic noun; its coming in the singular does not exclude plurality |
| 3 | Among the variant readings a reading li-amānati (singular) is also transmitted; on that reading both words are singular |
The variant reading must be recorded here: the readings li-amānātihim (plural) and li-amānatihim (singular) are transmitted. It produces no radical change in meaning — one reports the trusts one by one, the other the kind "trust".
The root أ-م-ن was treated at the first verse. What belongs here is this: amāna and īmān are from the same root. The name of the sūra and the name of this item, that is, come from one root. I record this as a datum of the language; I draw no ruling from it, but I give this much as an observation: the root derives being trustworthy and trusting from the same place.
The concrete sense of the root: to pasture an animal, to watch over it. Rāʿī — shepherd; raʿy — pasturing; riʿāya — watching over, tending.
The choice of word is worth recording, and I give this as my own reading, its ground being the pastoral sense of the root: ḥifẓ (the verb in the fifth verse) is to hold, to keep — it is static. Riʿāya is to keep the eye on a thing continually; the shepherd stands at the head of the flock, walks, counts. The two items use two different verbs: one for guarding, the other for watching over.