al-Shuʿarāʾ 26:192-195

Wa innahu la-tanzīlu rabbi'l-ʿālamīn · Nazala bihi'r-rūḥu'l-amīn · ʿAlā qalbika li-takūna mina'l-mundhirīn · Bi-lisānin ʿarabiyyin mubīn

"It is surely the sending down of the Lord of all the worlds. · The trustworthy Spirit brought it down — · upon your heart, that you might be one of the warners, · in a clear Arabic tongue."

Grammatically the four verses are a single structure, and each verse adds an element:

The four verses thus give the chain of revelation from beginning to end: the source, the carrier, the destination, the purpose, the form.

I record this as an observation about the structure: through seven accounts the sūra recounted what the messengers said; now it recounts where this speech comes from.

The root ن-ز-ل: to descend. Form II (nazzala) announces gradual descent or intensification. Tanzīl is its verbal noun.

And a point of word order: the sentence does not say innahu munazzalun ("it has been sent down"); it says la-tanzīlu rabbi'l-ʿālamīn — "the sending down of the Lord of all the worlds". Not a passive participle, that is, but a verbal noun.

In Arabic making a verbal noun the predicate announces intensification: not "it is a thing sent down" but "it is the very act of sending down."

The same mould is the opening of several sūras of the Qurʾān: tanzīlu'l-kitābi mina'llāhi'l-ʿazīzi'l-ḥakīm (al-Zumar 39/1; al-Jāthiya 45/2; al-Aḥqāf 46/2 — treated in al-Aḥqāf), tanzīlan mimman khalaqa'l-arḍa (Ṭāhā 20/4), tanzīlu'l-ʿazīzi'r-raḥīm (Yā Sīn 36/5 — treated in Yāsīn).

And Yā Sīn 36/5 is worth recording: there the two names to which tanzīl is attributed are the same as the two names in the seal of al-Shuʿarāʾ — al-ʿAzīzu'r-Raḥīm. This is an overlap that can be verified from the text.

And the verb must be recorded: nazala bihi — "he came down with it".

In Arabic nazala bi- means "to bring a thing down" ("to descend bringing it along"). The Spirit, that is, is recounted not as the party who sends the revelation but as the party who brings it.

Among the variant readings the reading nazzala bihi (Form II) is also transmitted; the difference of sense is not great.

ٱلرُّوحُ ٱلْأَمِين — "the trustworthy Spirit".

Who is meant is not said in the verse; but the intra-Qurʾānic evidence is strong and was tabulated in al-Qadr and al-Nabaʾ. I rely on the note there:

Read together, the three verses yield three names doing the same work, and in the third the name is given openly: Gabriel. This is a chain that can be verified from the text; it was recorded in al-Qadr as the view "with the strongest intra-Qurʾānic evidence".

And the attribute amīn must be recorded. In the sūra five messengers had introduced themselves with this attribute: innī lakum rasūlun amīn (107, 125, 143, 162, 178).

The sūra thus uses the attribute of the carrier five times of human messengers and once of an angel. This is an overlap that can be verified from the text.

And as my own reading I record this: amāna is to deliver a thing as it is — neither taking away nor adding. This is the whole claim of the sūra: the speech has come from its source to the one addressed unchanged. And that both links in the chain are named with the same attribute carries that claim.

And the other side will be described at exactly this point in verse 223: yulqūna's-samʿa wa aktharuhum kādhibūn — "they lend an ear, and most of them are liars."

And a point of word order must be recorded: the place the revelation comes down to is said to be not "to you" but "to your heart".

The root ق-ل-ب was analysed in the fiftieth verse (munqalibūn): to turn a thing over; the thing that turns most from state to state.

The transmitted explanations:

All three are transmitted; I do not impose a preference.

And a link within the sūra must be recorded: in the eighty-ninth verse the measure was the soundness of the heart (illā man ata'llāha bi-qalbin salīm). In the hundred and ninety-fourth verse the place the revelation comes down to is again the heart. This is a repetition that can be verified from the text.

لِتَكُونَ مِنَ ٱلْمُنذِرِين — a clause of purpose.

And the mould must be recorded: not "that you might be a warner" but "that you might be one of the warners". The "assignment to a group" mould that occurs often in the sūra (tabulated at 26/29-31) is used here of the one addressed himself.

I record this as my own reading, and its ground is the sūra as a whole: through seven accounts seven warners were recounted. The hundred and ninety-fourth verse places the one addressed inside that series. And the sentence recorded at al-Aḥqāf 46/9 stands on the same line: qul mā kuntu bidʿan mina'r-rusul — "I am not the first of the messengers".

The root ع-ر-ب was analysed at al-Wāqiʿa 56/37 and I rely on that treatment. The description there: the core sense of the root is "to express clearly and plainly, to set out one's meaning without hiding it". Aʿraba ʿani'sh-shayʾ — he made a thing known plainly. Iʿrāb — bringing out into the open; the grammatical term iʿrāb also comes from here: a word's bringing out its function in the sentence through the vowel at its end.

And the same word was treated at al-Zukhruf 43/3 (innā jaʿalnāhu qurʾānan ʿarabiyyan laʿallakum taʿqilūn) and I rely on that treatment.

What is to be added here is the construction itself: lisānin ʿarabiyyin mubīn.

The two words come from the same semantic field: ʿarabī (clear) and mubīn (making clear). The construction thus stands as though it were a repetition.

The transmitted explanations:

And the five occurrences of the word in the sūra were tabulated in the section on 26/1-2. The sūra opens with al-kitābi'l-mubīn and here ties it to language with lisānin ʿarabiyyin mubīn. This is an overlap that can be verified from the text.

And the word lisān must be recorded: it occurs in the sūra in three places.

Three occurrences, three different senses: the organ, being remembered, a language. This is a repetition that can be verified from the text. And as my own reading I record this: the sūra had recounted an account that opens with a tongue that does not loosen; it ends by defining itself as "a clear tongue". That this link is intended is not stated in the text.