al-Shuʿarāʾ 26:52-59

Wa awḥaynā ilā Mūsā an asri bi-ʿibādī innakum muttabaʿūn · Fa-arsala Firʿawnu fi'l-madāʾini ḥāshirīn · Inna hāʾulāʾi la-shirdhimatun qalīlūn · Wa innahum lanā la-ghāʾiẓūn · Wa innā la-jamīʿun ḥādhirūn · Fa-akhrajnāhum min jannātin wa ʿuyūn · Wa kunūzin wa maqāmin karīm · Kadhālika wa awrathnāhā banī Isrāʾīl

"And We revealed to Moses: 'Set out by night with My servants; you will be pursued.' · Pharaoh sent gatherers into the cities: · 'These are a paltry little band; · and they are enraging us; · and we are a company on our guard.' · So We brought them out of gardens and springs, · out of treasures and a noble station. · So it was; and We made the Children of Israel inherit them."

The root س-ر-ي: to travel by night. Isrāʾ — a journey by night (the asrā of al-Isrāʾ 17/1 is from the same root). The word contains no daytime travel; the time is inside the root.

And a point of word order: bi-ʿibādī — "with My servants". The Children of Israel are named here not as "your people" or "them" but as "My servants".

I record this as an observation, and it ties to the whole of the sūra: in the twenty-second verse Moses had said to Pharaoh "you made slaves of the Children of Israel" (ʿabbadta). Now the same root occurs for the same community but with a different attribution: ʿibādī — My servants.

The same root, two attributions. This is an overlap that can be verified from the text. And as my own reading I record this: the sūra speaks not of the abolition of servitude but of the changing of its direction. Deliverance is recounted not as being bound to no one but as the correction of whom one is bound to. This is an explanation, not a ruling.

A point of word order: the pursuit is announced before it happens, and in the passive: muttabaʿūn — "you are the pursued".

The command to depart therefore does not hide the danger. This resembles the mould recorded at al-Qaṣaṣ 28/7-13 in the announcement given to the mother: the command is not left bare; what will happen is said.

The root ش-ر-ذ-م: the sense the lexicographers give is a small piece broken off a whole, a paltry group. Shirdhima — a group few in number and scattered.

The word occurs only here in the Qurʾān. This is a datum that can be verified from the text.

And a point of word order must be recorded: shirdhimatun qalīlūn. Shirdhima already means "a paltry group"; on top of it qalīlūn ("few") is added. The fewness is thus said twice.

A grammatical note: shirdhima is feminine singular, while its adjective is a sound masculine plural (qalīlūn). This is an ordinary usage with collective nouns — the adjective looks to the individuals of the group.

And the work of the sentence must be recorded: Pharaoh describes as small the community after which he is sending an army. If they are small, why is an army needed? The text does not ask this question; it sets the sentences side by side, and the next verse shows the contradiction of itself: innā la-jamīʿun ḥādhirūn — "we are a company on our guard".

All three sentences are reinforced with inna + lām. All three, that is, are set down as firm claims.

I record this as my own reading, and its ground is the sequence of the three sentences: the first belittles the other side, the third calls its own side to be on guard. Contempt and precaution cannot be spoken in the same breath — and the text shows this without criticism, merely by setting them in order.

غَآئِظُون — root غ-ي-ظ: anger that seethes within. The lexicographers describe ghayẓ as anger that is not let out, that gathers in the breast; in this it is distinguished from ghaḍab.

حَٰذِرُون — root ح-ذ-ر: to be on one's guard, to take care. Two variant readings are transmitted for the word: ḥādhirūn (active participle — on guard) and ḥadhirūn (assimilate adjective, ṣifa mushabbaha — continually on guard, wary). There is a difference of sense, but a small one: the one announces being on guard at that moment, the other a wariness that has become a trait. Both are transmitted; I do not impose a preference.

And one of the sharpest reversals in the sūra is here.

In the thirty-fifth verse Pharaoh had said: yurīdu an yukhrijakum min arḍikum — "he wants to drive you out of your land".

What happens in the fifty-seventh verse is this: fa-akhrajnāhum min jannātin wa ʿuyūn — "We brought them out of gardens and springs".

The same root, the same form, the reverse direction. This is an overlap that can be verified from the text.

And at al-Dukhān 44/25-28 the same event is recounted in the same words (kam tarakū min jannātin wa ʿuyūn) and was treated there. The difference here is the verb: al-Dukhān says "they left behind", al-Shuʿarāʾ says "We brought out". One recounts an abandoning, the other a driving out.

Four things are enumerated, and their order is worth recording:

Three are material; the fourth is not. Maqāmin karīm is not a possession but a position.

And the attribute karīm was used of plants in the seventh verse of the sūra (min kulli zawjin karīm). The sūra thus gives the same attribute both to what the earth gives and to what man loses. This is a repetition that can be verified from the text.

The root و-ر-ث: a thing's passing to another after its owner.

And this is the fulfilment of the promise treated at al-Qaṣaṣ 28/1-6. The sentence recorded there was this: wa najʿalahumu'l-wārithīn (al-Qaṣaṣ 28/5) — "and make them the inheritors". The same root, the same community, the same promise.

This is an overlap that can be verified from the text, and it is the counterpart of the promise of "the reversal of position" recorded in al-Qaṣaṣ.

كَذَٰلِكَ — "so it was". A one-word fragment of a verse; the lexicographers explain it as a mark that seals the preceding scene.