Āl ʿImrān 3:139-141

Wa lā tahinū wa lā taḥzanū wa antumu'l-aʿlawna in kuntum muʾminīn · In yamsaskum qarḥun fa-qad massa'l-qawma qarḥun mithluh, wa tilka'l-ayyāmu nudāwiluhā bayna'n-nās, wa li-yaʿlama'llāhu'lladhīna āmanū wa yattakhidha minkum shuhadāʾ, wa'llāhu lā yuḥibbu'ẓ-ẓālimīn · Wa li-yumaḥḥiṣa'llāhu'lladhīna āmanū wa yamḥaqa'l-kāfirīn

"Do not slacken and do not grieve: you are the higher, if you are believers. · If a wound has touched you, a like wound touched that people too. Those days We turn about among people — so that God may know those who believe and take witnesses from among you. God does not love the wrongdoers. · And so that God may refine those who believe and wear away those who deny."

The root و-ه-ن: the coming undone of strength, the failing of capacity. The root was treated at 31/14 in Luqmān (wahnan ʿalā wahn — the mother's labour of carrying), at 29/41 in al-ʿAnkabūt (awhanu'l-buyūt — the spider's house), at 8/18 in al-Anfāl (mūhinu kaydi'l-kāfirīn) and at 47/35 in Muḥammad (fa-lā tahinū). I rely on those treatments and do not repeat them.

And the root occurs twice in the sūra, and the relation of the two occurrences must be recorded:

A prohibition and an instance, seven verses apart. This is a repetition verifiable within the sūra and was recorded in the table in the introduction.

I record this as an observation about the word order: having forbidden a thing, the sūra tells of those who kept to that prohibition. And in verse 146 three verbs are counted: mā wahanū, wa mā ḍaʿufū, wa ma'stakānū. That is, the prohibition is given with one word, the instance with three.

And this construction was treated at 47/35 in Muḥammad, and a limit was set there. I keep that limit here exactly.

I set the two verses side by side:

And in both verses the construction does not stand alone: in one wa'llāhu maʿakum is added, in the other in kuntum muʾminīn.

Per the method (Method) I record this plainly and keep the limit set at 47/35 in Muḥammad:

One. The construction is qualified by a conditional clause: in kuntum muʾminīn. In Arabic the particle in conveys a condition. That is, the sentence does not convey an unconditional superiority.

Two. The construction stands in a context of consolation. The sentence comes after two prohibitions: do not slacken, do not grieve. That is, what is said is not a claim of superiority but a sentence of morale.

Three. And the very next verse says that this is not a permanent position: wa tilka'l-ayyāmu nudāwiluhā bayna'n-nās. That is, the construction blocks the drawing of a lasting superiority from it one verse later.

Four. In this commentary no claim of superiority for any community, people or state is drawn from this construction, and present-day politics is not entered.

And this is one of the most important concepts of the block and must be treated in detail.

The root د-و-ل. The root was analysed at 59/7 in al-Ḥashr (kay lā yakūna dūlatan bayna'l-aghniyāʾi minkum) and reference was made there to this verse. I rely on that treatment and take the description given there:

The original sense of the root is a thing's passing from hand to hand, coming round by turns, the turn changing. Dāla yadūlu: it came round, the turn changed. Mudāwala: to pass a thing round from hand to hand. And the word we use in Turkish today, devlet (state), is from this root; within the word there is an idea of taking turns. From the same root, in Turkish, tedavül — the circulation of money.

And I spell out what belongs here.

One. The form of the verb must be recorded: nudāwiluhā — from Form III (mufāʿala). This form conveys in Arabic reciprocity and doing by turns. Qātala — he fought back and forth. Sāraʿa — he raced. And dāwala — he turned about by turns.

That is, the pattern of the verb says the sense of the root a second time: both the root and the form convey taking turns.

Two. The object of the verb must be recorded: al-ayyām — "the days".

In Arabic the word ayyām conveys not only calendar days but also the events a people has been through. And this usage is old in the Arabic language. That is, what is turned about is not time but states.

Three. And the subject of the verb must be recorded: nudāwilu — first person plural, that is, God. The turning about is not tied to a chance or to a law of nature.

Four. And the field of the circulation must be recorded: bayna'n-nās — "among people".

This note is the widest word of the verse. The sentence does not say "between the two sides" or "between you and them".

Now I record this as my own reading, and it is not binding; its ground is the picture of the root and of the form:

The concrete picture of the root is a passing from hand to hand — an object's not staying in one hand. And the verse uses this picture for superiority. That is, superiority is named not as a possession but as something that passes from hand to hand.

And this has two consequences, and both are in the verse's own context:

And the verse gives both consequences at once; it does not choose one.

And the placing of the sentence in the middle of an account of defeat is a fact of word order: the preceding sentence says that the wound was mutual (fa-qad massa'l-qawma qarḥun mithluh), and the sentences after it count the purpose of the testing. That is, the note of "taking turns" stands between the consolation and the purpose.

قَرْح — root ق-ر-ح: a wound. The word is read in the variant readings both as qarḥ and as qurḥ; the lexicographers distinguish one as the wound itself and the other as the pain of the wound, and some count them synonymous. I record the disagreement, impose no preference, and give no reciter's name.

The root م-ح-ص: to pick a thing clean of its dross, to purify. The lexicographers give as an instance the refining of gold in fire.

The root م-ح-ق: to destroy by diminishing, to efface. And the same root occurred at 2/276 in al-Baqara: yamḥaqu'llāhu'r-ribā. Two occurrences, the same verb.

And the setting of the two verbs side by side must be recorded:

Both verbs convey a diminishing; but one purifies and the other consumes. I record this as an observation about the words: the same operation (taking away) gives two different outcomes.