Āl ʿImrān 3:102-103

Yā ayyuha'lladhīna āmanu'ttaqu'llāha ḥaqqa tuqātihī wa lā tamūtunna illā wa antum muslimūn · Wa'taṣimū bi-ḥabli'llāhi jamīʿan wa lā tafarraqū, wa'dhkurū niʿmata'llāhi ʿalaykum idh kuntum aʿdāʾan fa-allafa bayna qulūbikum fa-aṣbaḥtum bi-niʿmatihī ikhwānā, wa kuntum ʿalā shafā ḥufratin mina'n-nāri fa-anqadhakum minhā

"You who believe! Guard yourselves before God as guarding is due, and do not die except as those who have handed themselves over. · Hold fast, all of you together, to the rope of God, and do not scatter. Remember the favour of God upon you: you were enemies, and He knit your hearts together, and by His favour you became brothers. You were on the edge of a pit of fire, and He rescued you from it."

These two verses open the fourth block, and the subject of the block is single: the inside of the community. I shall treat it in detail.

Taqwā was analysed in al-Baqara and I do not repeat it here. What belongs here is the construction before the word: ḥaqqa tuqātih.

The pattern حَقّ + a genitive conveys in Arabic the doing of a thing to the measure it deserves. And the same pattern was treated in the series at 22/74 and 22/78 in al-Ḥajj:

Three occurrences, and I rely on al-Ḥajj 22/74-78.

And it is recorded in the classical sources that the construction gives rise to a difficulty, and the disagreement is not to be concealed: is it possible for a human being "to guard himself as guarding is due"?

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

The wording of the sentence carries a difficulty, and the lexicographers dwell on it: death is not a thing that can be commanded or forbidden.

And the solution lies in the structure of the sentence: the prohibition is laid not on dying but on the state of the dying. In Arabic this is a prohibition falling on a circumstantial note: what is forbidden is not to die but to die in a state of not having handed oneself over.

I record this as an observation about the word order: the sentence thereby commands a continuance. Since the time of death is not known, to say "die in that state" is to say "be in that state at every moment".

ٱعْتَصِمُوا۟ — root ع-ص-م, Form VIII. The root was analysed at verse 101; I do not repeat those notes. What belongs here: Form VIII (iftiʿāl) conveys in Arabic that the act is done with care and by one's own effort. Iʿtiṣām — to fasten oneself, to cling.

حَبْل — the root ح-ب-ل: rope, bond. The concrete sense of the word is a rope, and its derivatives keep this: ḥabl — a rope; ḥibāla — a snare-cord; and ḥubl — pregnancy (the most concrete form of a bond).

And the word ḥabl will come once more nine verses later in the sūra, this time not in the plural but in a paired construction: illā bi-ḥablin mina'llāhi wa ḥablin mina'n-nās (112). Two occurrences, in a single sūra.

This is a repetition verifiable within the sūra, and both occurrences of the word carry the idea of a bond.

And there is a divergence in the classical commentaries over what ḥablu'llāh is, and it is not to be concealed:

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

But the verse's own word order gives an indication, and I record this as an indication, not as a preference: immediately after the command comes wa lā tafarraqū. That is, the holding fast stands in the same sentence as the not scattering. And the note jamīʿan makes the subject of the command plural. Whatever the thing held on to may be, the verse names it as something that holds people together.

At 2/256 in al-Baqara al-ʿurwa al-wuthqā was treated (fa-qadi'stamsaka bi'l-ʿurwati'l-wuthqā lā-nfiṣāma lahā) and the same family of verbs was there too: istamsaka — he took hold. I rely on that treatment and compare the two verses:

I draw three observations from the table, and all three can be verified from the two texts.

One. The pictures of the two objects differ, and the difference does work. An ʿurwa is a handle: it is joined to the object, it is close, it is held with one hand. A ḥabl is a rope: it extends, it is held out from a distance, and more than one hand can hold the same rope.

I record this as my own reading, and its ground is the concrete sense of the two words: in al-Baqara the one holding on is singular and the object is chosen to fit one hand; in Āl ʿImrān the ones holding on are plural and the object is chosen to fit many hands. The two verses give the same idea on two different scales.

Two. Firmness is placed in two different places in the two verses. In al-Baqara firmness is a quality of the object: lā-nfiṣāma lahā — it does not break. In Āl ʿImrān nothing is said about the object; the obligation is laid on the subject: wa lā tafarraqū. That is, the rope does not break; what breaks is those who let go of it.

Three. Both verses set the holding fast after a choice. In al-Baqara there is the condition man yakfur bi'ṭ-ṭāghūti wa yuʾmin bi'llāh; in Āl ʿImrān the command is directed to those who believe (yā ayyuha'lladhīna āmanū).

ألف — root أ-ل-ف: to unite, to be knit together, to grow accustomed. Ulfa — cohesion. Alf — a thousand (a gathered multitude). And the core the lexicographers record: separate things coming together and growing used to one another.

And the subject of the verb must be recorded: fa-allafa — the subject is God. The uniting is not told as an achievement of the parties.

The same verb and the same note occur at 8/63 in al-Anfāl (law anfaqta mā fi'l-arḍi jamīʿan mā allafta bayna qulūbihim wa lākinna'llāha allafa baynahum) and there it is said plainly: it is a work that cannot be done by spending wealth. I rely on that treatment.

The two verses use the same verb at two different pieces of work: one an impossibility, the other something accomplished. This is a weave verifiable within the series.

شَفَا — root ش-ف-و/ي: the edge of a thing, its brink, its threshold. Shafa — lip (the edge of the mouth) is from the same root. And the lexicographers explain shafā as "the point nearest to falling".

حُفْرَة — root ح-ف-ر: a dug pit.

And the word order of the description must be recorded, and it has three elements: ʿalā shafā ḥufratin mina'n-nār — edge, pit, fire. Three words set up a measure of distance: the person is not inside the fire but on the edge of the pit.

I record this as an observation: the description tells of a moment — the moment at which the fall has not happened but a single step's distance remains. And the verb of rescue is chosen accordingly: fa-anqadhakum (ن-ق-ذ) — to pull out, to rescue. The verb conveys not the taking out of one who has fallen but the pulling back of one who is about to fall.

And the standing of the two descriptions in the same verse is a fact of word order: from enmity to brotherhood, and a moving away from the edge of the pit. Two separate pictures, two faces of a single favour.