al-Muʾminūn 23:84-89 — Three questions, three answers

qul li-mani'l-arḍu wa man fīhā in kuntum taʿlamūn · sa-yaqūlūna li'llāh, qul a-fa-lā tadhakkarūn · qul man rabbu'l-samāwāti'l-sabʿi wa rabbu'l-ʿarshi'l-ʿaẓīm · sa-yaqūlūna li'llāh, qul a-fa-lā tattaqūn · qul man bi-yadihī malakūtu kulli shayʾin wa huwa yujīru wa lā yujāru ʿalayhi in kuntum taʿlamūn · sa-yaqūlūna li'llāh, qul fa-annā tusḥarūn

"Say: 'To whom belong the earth and all in it, if you have knowledge?' They will say: 'To God.' Say: 'Will you not then take heed?' Say: 'Who is the Lord of the seven heavens and the Lord of the mighty throne?' They will say: 'God.' Say: 'Will you not then guard yourselves?' Say: 'In whose hand is the dominion of everything, who protects and against whom no one is protected, if you have knowledge?' They will say: 'God.' Say: 'How then are you bewitched?'"

Six verses make up three equal steps. Each step is in four parts, and this can be verified from the text:

And there is a widening across the three questions, and I record this as my own reading, its ground being the objects of the questions:

One. The scope grows: the earth → the seven heavens and the throne → everything.

Two. The form of the question changes: the first is li-man (to whom does it belong), the second and third man (who). The first asks about ownership, that is, the others about identity.

Three. The responses descend: taking heed → guarding oneself → astonishment. Together with the a-fa-lā taʿqilūn of 23/80 this makes four steps, and it was tabulated there.

And here is the best known variant reading of the sūra.

Both readings are transmitted; I do not impose a preference. And the grammatical ground of the difference must be recorded, because the disagreement arises precisely from it:

In the eighty-fourth verse the question is in the pattern li-man (to whom does it belong); the answer matching that wording is li'llāh (to God). In the eighty-sixth and eighty-eighth verses the question is in the pattern man (who); the answer matching that wording is Allāh.

Hence:

Both grounds are recorded by the lexicographers. It is transmitted that in the script of the muṣḥaf the spelling li'llāh stands in these verses, and that both readings are counted compatible with that script; I do not go into the detail.

The root م-ل-ك: to possess, to rule. Mulk — sovereignty; malik — sovereign; malakūt — the widest form of sovereignty.

The lexicographers dwell on the ending -ūt: in Arabic this ending, seen in words such as raḥamūt, rahabūt and jabarūt, reports intensification. I pass this explanation on as it is transmitted.

The word occurs in four places in the Qurʾān: al-Anʿām 6/75, al-Aʿrāf 7/185, Yā-Sīn 36/83 (treated in Yāsīn), and this verse.

And at Yāsīn 36/83 (fa-subḥāna'lladhī bi-yadihī malakūtu kulli shayʾ) almost exactly the same construction occurs:

The shared portion is word for word. And the difference must be recorded: in Yā-Sīn the construction stands inside a sentence of glorification, here inside a question. The same expression, once a verdict and once a question.

And in Yāsīn it was recorded that that verse is the last verse of the sūra. I rely on that treatment.

The root ج-و-ر: to be side by side, to be a neighbour; and to swerve (to slip aside from the road). Jār — neighbour; ijāra — taking someone under one's protection.

The root is worked out here for the first time in this series.

And the verb here points to a historical institution, and this must be recorded: in the society into which the Qurʾān was revealed, jiwār (protection) was an established practice. A tribe or a man of influence would take under his protection someone who sought refuge with him, and that person was inviolable. The protecting party was called mujīr, the protected one jār.

And the institution had two sides: the one giving protection could guard the person under his protection; but a stronger man could break that protection.

The verse negates precisely this second side: wa lā yujāru ʿalayh — "no protection can be given against Him."

I give this as an entry of historical background, and its ground is the institution itself: the sentence uses a legal relation from the daily life of the one addressed. And it removes exactly the limit of that relation. I give the explanation resting on the known working of the institution.

The same word occurs at al-Jinn 72/22 as well (lā yujīranī mina'llāhi aḥad; treated in al-Jinn) and at al-Aḥqāf 46/31-32 (treated in al-Aḥqāf).

And the block closes not with a question but with an astonishment.

Annā — "how, from where". In Arabic this particle carries both "how" and "from where", and the lexicographers record both.

The root س-ح-ر: to make a thing appear other than it is, to deceive. The lexicographers record the root's link with saḥar (the last part of the night — the hour at which night and day are mingled and not told apart). And saḥr — the region of the lungs and liver; the word is said to be derived from this as well.

The root was treated at al-Qamar 54/2 (siḥrun mustamirr) and at al-Muddaththir 74/24 (in hādhā illā siḥrun yuʾthar).

And the voice of the verb must be recorded: tusḥarūn — passive. "How are you bewitched" — the one who bewitches is not named.

I give this as my own reading, its ground being the passive voice: the sentence points to no agent. And the sūra had done this before: bal qulūbuhum fī ghamratin (63) — there too what surrounds them was not named.

And the logic of the sentence is worth recording: all three questions have been answered correctly. The astonishment, that is, arises not from ignorance but from the mismatch between what is known and what is done. This can be verified from the build of the three steps.