al-Shuʿarāʾ 26:60-68

Fa-atbaʿūhum mushriqīn · Fa-lammā tarāʾa'l-jamʿāni qāla aṣḥābu Mūsā innā la-mudrakūn · Qāla kallā; inna maʿiya rabbī sa-yahdīn · Fa-awḥaynā ilā Mūsā ani'ḍrib bi-ʿaṣāka'l-baḥr; fa'nfalaqa fa-kāna kullu firqin ka'ṭ-ṭawdi'l-ʿaẓīm · Wa azlafnā thamma'l-ākharīn · Wa anjaynā Mūsā wa man maʿahu ajmaʿīn · Thumma aghraqna'l-ākharīn · Inna fī dhālika la-āyatan wa mā kāna aktharuhum muʾminīn · Wa inna rabbaka la-huwa'l-ʿazīzu'r-raḥīm

"They pursued them as the sun rose. · When the two hosts came in sight of one another, the men of Moses said: 'We are overtaken!' · 'No!' he said, 'my Lord is with me; He will guide me.' · Thereupon We revealed to Moses: 'Strike the sea with your staff.' It parted, and every part was like a great mountain. · And We brought the others near to that place. · And We saved Moses and all who were with him; · then We drowned the others. · In this there is surely a sign; but most of them were not believers. · And your Lord — He indeed — is the Mighty, the Merciful."

The root ش-ر-ق: the rising of the sun. Mushriqīn — an active participle announcing a circumstance: "in the state of having entered upon sunrise", that is, as day broke.

And a point of word order: in the fifty-second verse the departure had been by the command asri (travel by night). Now the pursuit is at the hour of mushriqīn (as the sun rises). The text thus separates the movement of the two sides by time: one set out at night, the other went after them in the morning.

A caution: the word is mushriqīn (ش-ر-ق, to rise) and not mushrikīn (ش-ر-ك, to associate partners). The two words are easily confused in transliteration; their roots are different.

تَرَآءَىٰ — Form VI (tafāʿala): reciprocity. Tarāʾa'l-jamʿān — "the two hosts saw one another". Not a one-sided seeing.

ٱلْجَمْعَان — dual: two hosts. And the word is from the same root as the word Pharaoh used of his own side in the fifty-sixth verse: innā la-jamīʿun ḥādhirūn.

The root د-ر-ك: to catch up with, to reach, to overtake. Mudrak — passive participle: overtaken, caught.

A point of word order: the sentence is reinforced with inna + lām — the fear, that is, is put not as a possibility but as a certainty: "we are overtaken."

And the side that speaks must be recorded: aṣḥābu Mūsā — "the men of Moses". Here the sūra does not say "his people" or "the Children of Israel". In the fifty-second verse the same community had been named ʿibādī ("My servants"). Three different names, three different contexts: servants (in relation to God), men (in relation to Moses), the Children of Israel (by lineage).

The word occurs twice in the sūra, and both times it is said against a fear:

Moses, that is, says to his people the word that was said to him. This is an overlap that can be verified from the text.

And the continuation of the sentence must be recorded: inna maʿiya rabbī. In the fifteenth verse the guarantee was innā maʿakum mustamiʿūn ("we are with you"). Now Moses repeats the same word with a singular pronoun: "my Lord is with me."

سَيَهْدِين — sīn + imperfect: the near future. And the verb is هدى — to guide.

A point of word order: Moses does not say "He will save us" or "He will part the sea". He says "He will guide me". He does not know the solution; he knows that he will be guided.

I record this as my own reading, and its ground is the choice of the verb: the revelation comes in the next verse (63). At the moment he framed the sentence, then, Moses did not yet know the solution. The text does not say this openly; the sequence shows it.

And the same verb will occur once more in the sūra — in Abraham's mouth: alladhī khalaqanī fa-huwa yahdīn (78). Two prophets use the same verb in the same pattern. This link will be treated in the section on 78-82.

The root ف-ل-ق: to split a thing in two, to cleave. From the same root: falaq (the cleaving of the dawn — analysed in al-Falaq) and fāliqu'l-ḥabbi wa'n-nawā (al-Anʿām 6/95 — the splitter of the grain).

Form VII (infaʿala) must be recorded: infalaqa — it parted of itself. In Arabic this form announces the result without bringing the agent of the verb forward.

The verse therefore does not say "God parted the sea"; the command "strike with your staff" is given, and it is said "it parted". No agent is named between the command and the result.

The root ط-و-د: a high and unshakeable mountain. Ṭawd, unlike an ordinary mountain (jabal), announces height and immovability.

فِرْق — root ف-ر-ق: a separated part. That is, each part of the water.

The work of the comparison must be recorded: the verse says the water divided in two and likens the divided parts to a mountain. There are two points to the respect in which the comparison is made: height and stillness. The water comes into a state of not flowing and standing high — that is, the reverse of its own nature.

I record this as an observation; I set up no explanation in physics of how the water stood. No hunting for scientific miracles is done in this commentary (Method).

The root ز-ل-ف: to bring near, to draw close. The same root will occur once more in the sūra: wa uzlifati'l-jannatu li'l-muttaqīn (90) — "the garden was brought near to those who guard themselves".

The same root, toward two different ends. This is an overlap that can be verified from the text.

ثَمَّ — "there" (an adverb of place). It must not be confused with thumma ("then"); its vowelling and its meaning are different. They occur not in the same verse but two verses apart: thamma (64) and thumma (66).

The word is repeated in two verses, and with two different verbs:

There is one verse in between: wa anjaynā Mūsā wa man maʿahu ajmaʿīn (65) — the saving.

The arrangement of the three verses is therefore this: bringing near → saving → drowning. The saving stands in the middle; the drowning is recounted only after the saving is complete.

I record this as my own reading, and its ground is the order. And the same order is present in the section on Noah recorded in al-Ṣāffāt: first the deliverance, then the end of the other side.

أَجْمَعِين — "all together". The word announces the completeness of the deliverance: no one was left behind.

The second seal of the sūra. The mould and its function were treated in the section on 26/8-9; I do not repeat them.

The only thing to be added here is an observation about position: the seal closes, at the end of the account of Moses, a telling of fifty-seven verses — the longest block in the sūra. And the seal refers to no detail of the account: inna fī dhālika la-āyatan — "in this there is a sign". What dhālika points to is not said.

This is what makes it possible for the seal to remain the same eight times: because the demonstrative is left indefinite, it can be set unchanged at the end of every account. I record this as an observation about the structure.