al-Shuʿarāʾ 26:214-220

Wa andhir ʿashīrataka'l-aqrabīn · Wa'khfiḍ janāḥaka li-mani'ttabaʿaka mina'l-muʾminīn · Fa-in ʿaṣawka fa-qul innī barīʾun mimmā taʿmalūn · Wa tawakkal ʿala'l-ʿazīzi'r-raḥīm · Alladhī yarāka ḥīna taqūm · Wa taqallubaka fi's-sājidīn · Innahu huwa's-samīʿu'l-ʿalīm

"And warn your nearest kin. · And lower your wing to those of the believers who follow you. · And if they disobey you, say: 'I am quit of what you do.' · And put your trust in the Mighty, the Merciful — · who sees you when you rise, · and your turning about among those who prostrate. · He indeed is the Hearing, the Knowing."

And the order is worth recording: warning → gentleness → separation → trust. Four commands for four different situations of one task.

I record this as my own reading, and its ground is the addressees of the four commands: three commands look to three different groups — those to be warned, those who follow, those who do not. The fourth looks to no group; it orders the messenger's own bearing.

The root ع-ش-ر: ten; and to live together, to mingle. ʿAshīra — the near community a person lives within, his kin. From the same root comes muʿāshara (living together).

The link the lexicographers make: the ʿashīra is the circle with which a person keeps muʿāshara, with whom he shares his daily life. It announces, that is, closeness rather than descent.

ٱلْأَقْرَبِين — root ق-ر-ب, the plural of an elative: the nearest.

And the construction narrows twice over: ʿashīra is already the near circle; al-aqrabīn narrows it once more.

And the comparison recorded at al-Maʿārij 70/13 attaches here: there the word faṣīla was treated (wa faṣīlatihi'llatī tuʾwīh) and it was recorded that "al-Maʿārij's faṣīla announces a narrower circle". I rely on that treatment.

And the gradation recorded in al-Muddaththir attaches here. The note there was this: the addressee of the warning is determined in the Qurʾān by degrees. I repeat it in a table, because this verse is one link of that table:

And the discussion recorded at Nūḥ 71/8-9 attaches here: there the order in Noah's call (secret / open) was discussed and this verse was cited as the ground for the "from the narrow circle to the wide" reading. I rely on the note there; there too no firm preference was adopted.

I record an observation, and it accords with the principle of this commentary: the verse does not exempt the nearest circle; on the contrary it makes it the first addressee. Closeness, that is, is not an exemption from warning but the priority of the warning.

The root خ-ف-ض: to lower, to bring down, to soften. Its opposite is rafʿ (to raise). The Qurʾān uses the same root for lowering the voice as well (not wa'ghḍuḍ min ṣawtika, but in a similar field, Luqmān 31/19 — treated in Luqmān).

جَنَاح — a wing. Used of a human being it means "the arm, the side".

And the picture of the idiom is taken from the behaviour of birds: when a bird wishes to protect its young or its mate, it lowers its wing and takes it beneath. A wing raised is ready for flight; lowered, it is ready for protection.

The Qurʾān uses the same idiom once more: wa'khfiḍ lahumā janāḥa'dh-dhulli mina'r-raḥma (al-Isrāʾ 17/24) — toward parents, "lower to them the wing of humility out of mercy". The same verb, the same word.

And another idiom of the same word was treated at al-Qaṣaṣ 28/29-35 and I rely on that treatment.

Al-Qaṣaṣ 28/32: wa'ḍmum ilayka janāḥaka mina'r-rahb — "draw your wing to yourself against fear".

The note there was this: the word janāḥ used of a human being means "the arm, the side", and the lexicographers explain this idiom as a person's collecting himself, coming out of a shudder; they base it on the picture of a bird spreading its wings in alarm and gathering them when calm. And there this was transmitted as "a connection the lexicographers make".

Now I set the two idioms side by side:

The two idioms use the same word (janāḥ) but describe two different motions: one gathers the wing, the other lowers it.

And the difference stands in the prepositions: ilayka (toward yourself) and li-man ittabaʿaka (for those who follow).

I record this as my own reading, and its ground is the direction of the two verbs: the motion in al-Qaṣaṣ is turned inward and quiets a fear; the motion in al-Shuʿarāʾ is turned outward and takes a community beneath it. Two verses use the same limb for two different needs. This is an explanation; it is not binding.

And an observation about the structure: the addressee of the command is limited. Li-mani'ttabaʿaka mina'l-muʾminīn — "to those of the believers who follow you". The command, that is, orders a bearing not toward everyone but toward a particular group. And the next verse gives a separate bearing for those who do not follow.

The root ع-ص-ي: to oppose, to refuse to submit. ʿIṣyān — the opposite of obedience (ṭāʿa).

The root ب-ر-أ: to part from a thing, to come clear of it, to be free of it. From the same root: barāʾa (standing clear, severing connection) and barīʾ (clear, unconnected).

And a point of word order must be recorded, and it accords with the principle of the sūra:

Innī barīʾun mimmā taʿmalūn — "I am quit of what you do."

The clearing is not from the persons but from the acts. The verse does not say innī barīʾun minkum ("I am quit of you").

And this has the same structure as Lot's sentence in the hundred and sixty-eighth verse: innī li-ʿamalikum mina'l-qālīn — "I am one of those who detest what you do".

This is an overlap that can be verified from the text. And as my own reading I record this: the sūra sets up separation twice in the same form — from the act, not from the person. This is one of the plainest textual grounds for the principle recorded in Method.

And the change of pronoun must be recorded: the sentence begins fa-in ʿaṣawka (third person — "if they disobey you") and then continues mimmā taʿmalūn (second person — "what you do"). In Arabic this is called iltifāt (a shift in the direction of address).

The transmitted explanation: a declaration of separation is a word that must be said to the face; the address therefore passes from the third person to the second.

And the two hundred and seventeenth verse carries here the two names from the seal repeated eight times in the sūra.

The attribute announced eight times is thus made, at the end, the ground of a command.

I record this as my own reading, and its ground is the sameness of the two constructions: through the sūra it had been said "your Lord is the Mighty, the Merciful". In the two hundred and seventeenth verse it is said "so put your trust in Him". Eight seals are tied to a single command.

The root و-ك-ل: to commit a matter to another, to appoint as agent. Form V (tawakkala) — to leave one's affair to someone.

The root was treated in al-Zumar and at al-Ṭalāq 65/3 and I do not repeat it.

And the ground of the command is given by two states: ḥīna taqūm and taqallubaka fi's-sājidīn.

And both expressions have been disputed. I give the transmitted explanations in a table:

I do not impose a preference. Both readings have a ground: the first rests on the word sājidīn suggesting prayer, the second on the general sense of the verbs qāma and taqallub.

ت-ق-ل-ب — root ق-ل-ب (analysed in the fiftieth verse: to turn over, to return). Form V (taqallaba): to turn about continually, to pass from state to state.

And the root occurs three times in the sūra, and this repetition must be recorded:

The same root, three different places: those who know the place of return, the one who turns about among those who prostrate, those who do not know the place of return. This is a repetition that can be verified from the text; what it means is interpretation.

Two names: al-Samīʿ (the Hearing) and al-ʿAlīm (the Knowing).

And the five occurrences of the root samʿ in the sūra were tabulated in the section on 26/210-213. What is to be added here is this: in the two hundred and twelfth verse it was said that the satans are "kept far from the hearing"; in the two hundred and twentieth God is named "the Hearing". Eight verses apart, the same root, two different directions.

And the separating pronoun (huwa) must be recorded: innahu huwa's-samīʿu'l-ʿalīm. The same pronoun was present in the eight seals (la-huwa'l-ʿazīzu'r-raḥīm). As it draws toward its close, that is, the sūra repeats the grammar of the seal as well.