al-Shuʿarāʾ 26:83-89

Rabbi hab lī ḥukman wa alḥiqnī bi'ṣ-ṣāliḥīn · Wa'jʿal lī lisāna ṣidqin fi'l-ākhirīn · Wa'jʿalnī min warathati jannati'n-naʿīm · Wa'ghfir li-abī innahu kāna mina'ḍ-ḍāllīn · Wa lā tukhzinī yawma yubʿathūn · Yawma lā yanfaʿu mālun wa lā banūn · Illā man ata'llāha bi-qalbin salīm

"'My Lord! Bestow judgement upon me and join me to the righteous. · Grant me a tongue of truth among those who come after. · Make me one of the inheritors of the garden of bliss. · And forgive my father; he was one of those who had strayed. · And do not disgrace me on the day when they are raised — · the day when neither wealth nor sons will be of use; · none but he who comes to God with a sound heart.'"

After the five-sentence description come six petitions, and these too follow an order:

Five petitions for himself, one for another. And that one is the person standing on the other side of the dispute: his father.

I record this as an observation: in the seventy-seventh verse it was said "they are an enemy to me"; in the eighty-sixth forgiveness is asked for one person from within that same people.

The same word, in the same sūra, two prophets:

The same verb (و-ه-ب), the same object (ḥukm), two different moods. This is an overlap that can be verified from the text.

The root analysis of the word was given in the section on 26/20-22 (ح-ك-م — to make firm, to put on the bit); I do not repeat it.

The construction is an idiom in Arabic and cannot be translated word for word.

لِسَان — the tongue (the organ) and speech, the language spoken. In the construction the second sense is at work: to be well spoken of in the mouths of those who come after, to be remembered with truth.

صِدْق — root ص-د-ق: the correspondence of speech with reality, soundness. The lexicographers record that in the concrete core of the root lie hardness and durability (rumḥun ṣadq — a stout spear). True speech, then, is durable speech.

The petition, then, is this: "let a true word remain behind me." Not to be famous, but to be remembered with truth.

And a link can be made with the mould recorded in al-Ṣāffāt: there the seal of the sequence of prophets was wa taraknā ʿalayhi fi'l-ākhirīn ("and We left upon him [a remembrance] among those who came after"), and Abraham had received that seal (al-Ṣāffāt 37/108).

The same adverbial phrase (fi'l-ākhirīn), in two sūras, one a request and one a response. This is an overlap that can be verified from the text. And as my own reading I record this: when the two sūras are read together the petition and its answer come to stand side by side. That this link is made is not stated in the text.

And this petition is a matter the Qurʾān itself takes up separately.

Al-Tawba 9/114 touches directly on this event: wa mā kāna'stighfāru Ibrāhīma li-abīhi illā ʿan mawʿidatin waʿadahā iyyāhu fa-lammā tabayyana lahu annahu ʿaduwwun li'llāhi tabarraʾa minh — "Abraham's asking forgiveness for his father was only because of a promise he had made to him; when it became clear to him that he was an enemy to God, he dissociated himself from him."

The Qurʾān, that is, both transmits this petition and draws its limit. This is a datum that can be verified from the text and requires no explanation — the Qurʾān gives the explanation itself.

And at al-Mumtaḥina 60/4 the same event is named as an exception (illā qawla Ibrāhīma li-abīhi la-astaghfiranna lak) and was treated in al-Mumtaḥana. I rely on the note there.

I do not enter into details about Abraham's father that the Qurʾān does not give; the reports about his name, his trade and his end are not in the Qurʾān.

And a point of word order must be recorded: the ground given is innahu kāna mina'ḍ-ḍāllīn — "he was one of those who had strayed".

The root ض-ل-ل was analysed in the twentieth verse, and it was recorded there that Moses used it of himself (wa anā mina'ḍ-ḍāllīn). The same word thus occurs twice in the sūra: once by Moses of himself, once by Abraham of his father. This is a repetition that can be verified from the text.

And the choice of the word is worth recording: Abraham does not call his father kāfir or ẓālim. He uses the mildest word: one who has lost the way.

The root خ-ز-ي: to be brought to shame, to be humiliated, to have one's face fall. Khizy — disgrace.

A point of word order: Abraham does not say "protect me from the punishment" or "admit me to the garden" — he had already asked for the garden in the eighty-fifth verse. What he asks for here is not escape from punishment but not to be shamed.

I record this as my own reading, and its ground is the choice of the verb: khizy is not a pain but the loss of a standing — to be made small before others. The petition, then, looks to the social side of the reckoning.

Two things are named, and both are indefinite: mālun and banūn.

In Arabic an indefinite noun after a negative particle negates the whole class: "no wealth whatever, no sons whatever".

And the two things chosen must be recorded: māl (wealth) and banūn (sons). The Qurʾān names the two together in many places — al-mālu wa'l-banūna zīnatu'l-ḥayāti'd-dunyā (al-Kahf 18/46), innamā amwālukum wa awlādukum fitna (al-Taghābun 64/15 — treated in al-Taghābun).

I record this as an observation: both are things that provide power and continuance in a society. Wealth represents present power, sons future continuation. The verse voids them both in the same sentence.

And a link can be made with the section on Hūd in the sūra: amaddakum bi-anʿāmin wa banīn (133) — sons are counted among the favours given to the people of Hūd. The sūra thus names the same thing in one place as a favour and in another as something that brings no benefit. Not a contradiction; two different days are being spoken of.

And one of the most often cited sentences of the sūra.

A point of word order must be recorded: what is the exception being made from?

The first reading is the widespread one and fits the flow of the sentence better; the second is also transmitted. I do not impose a preference.

أَتَى ٱللَّهَ بِـ — the pattern must be recorded. Atā … bi- in Arabic means "to bring"; not "to come". So it is not "he who comes to God" but "he who brings to God".

And at al-Ṣāffāt 37/84 the same construction occurs of the same person: idh jāʾa rabbahu bi-qalbin salīm. It was treated there, and the note there holds here too:

The same construction, the same structure, two different verbs (jāʾa and atā) and opposite directions: in al-Ṣāffāt Abraham himself is described, in al-Shuʿarāʾ Abraham sets a measure. This overlap was already recorded in al-Ṣāffāt and I rely on that treatment.

سَلِيم — root س-ل-م: to be sound, to be without defect, to be in safety. The root was analysed in Qāf, in al-Jinn and in al-Baqara. From the same root: salām (peace), silm (peace-making), islām (to submit).

The faʿīl pattern in Arabic can carry both an active and a passive sense, and in al-Ṣāffāt the senses transmitted for this word were given in a table. I do not repeat it; its summary is this: without defect, without illness, sound (the primary sense) or submitted (the second sense).

What is to be added here is an observation about the context, and I record it as my own reading: the primary sense of the word salīm is freedom from illness. And nine verses earlier illness had occurred: wa idhā mariḍtu fa-huwa yashfīn (80). After recounting the illness of the body and its healing, the sūra sets the soundness of the heart as its measure. That this link is intended is not stated in the text; that the two words come from the same semantic field and stand nine verses apart is a datum of the text.

What the heart is to be sound from is not said in the verse. The transmitted explanations: from associating partners, from hypocrisy, from rancour, from love of the world. There is no limit in the verse; for that reason I do not impose a preference. What is to be recorded is this: the measure is not a deed but a state — and that state is something "brought".