وَمِنْ ءَايَٰتِهِۦ مَنَامُكُم بِٱلَّيْلِ وَٱلنَّهَارِ وَٱبْتِغَآؤُكُم مِّن فَضْلِهِۦٓ · وَمِنْ ءَايَٰتِهِۦ يُرِيكُمُ ٱلْبَرْقَ خَوْفًا وَطَمَعًا وَيُنَزِّلُ مِنَ ٱلسَّمَآءِ مَآءً فَيُحْىِۦ بِهِ ٱلْأَرْضَ بَعْدَ مَوْتِهَآ · وَمِنْ ءَايَٰتِهِۦٓ أَن تَقُومَ ٱلسَّمَآءُ وَٱلْأَرْضُ بِأَمْرِهِۦ ثُمَّ إِذَا دَعَاكُمْ دَعْوَةً مِّنَ ٱلْأَرْضِ إِذَآ أَنتُمْ تَخْرُجُونَ
Wa min āyātihi manāmukum bi'l-layli wa'n-nahāri wa'btighāʾukum min faḍlih · Wa min āyātihi yurīkumu'l-barqa khawfan wa ṭamaʿan wa yunazzilu mina's-samāʾi māʾan fa-yuḥyī bihi'l-arḍa baʿda mawtihā · Wa min āyātihi an taqūma's-samāʾu wa'l-arḍu bi-amrih, thumma idhā daʿākum daʿwatan mina'l-arḍi idhā antum takhrujūn
"And of His signs is: your sleeping by night and by day, and your seeking of gain out of His bounty. And of His signs is: His showing you the lightning as fear and as hope, and His sending down water from the sky and giving life with it to the earth after its death. And of His signs is: the standing of the heaven and the earth by His command. Then, when He calls you with a call from the earth, there you are, coming forth."
| Reading | What bi'l-layli wa'n-nahāri attaches to |
|---|---|
| 1 | To both — to sleep and to gain alike: one sleeps and works by night as by day |
| 2 | Distributively: sleep to the night, gain to the day — the word order we call laff wa nashr |
I record a ground from the text for the first reading, as an observation: the sentence places the expression bi'l-layli wa'n-nahār immediately after the word for sleep, before the word for gain. The word order is favourable to the first reading; but the second is also within the limits Arabic allows.
The same pair was treated at Ghāfir (al-Muʾmin) 40/61: alladhī jaʿala lakumu'l-layla li-taskunū fīhi wa'n-nahāra mubṣirā — there the night was attached to coming to rest, the day to seeing. I rely on that treatment.
And the difference must be recorded: in Ghāfir the night's verb is sukūn (س-ك-ن) — the same root that was used two verses earlier for spouses (30/21: li-taskunū ilayhā). In al-Rūm, by contrast, the night's counterpart is manām (sleep).
I record this as my own reading, and its ground is this recurrence of the root: in the twenty-first verse sukūn had been attached to a relationship, in Ghāfir to a time of day. al-Rūm here names sleep with a separate word — that is, within the sūra the root sukūn is left to the spouses.
ٱبْتِغَآؤُكُم مِّن فَضْلِهِ — root ب-غ-ي, Form VIII: to seek, to want, to go after. And min faḍlihi — "out of His bounty".
The construct is worth recording, and I give it as an observation: the object of the verb of working is not "provision" or "wealth" but faḍl — bounty. That is, gain is attached to man as something sought, and, as to its source, to something given. The sentence holds both sides in a single construct: the seeking is man's, what is sought is His. The same distinction was tabulated at al-Jāthiya 45/12 (in the discussion of taskhīr); I rely on that treatment.
And the closing must be recorded: li-qawmin yasmaʿūn — for a people who hear. That the closing of hearing should come for sleep and for gain is worth recording — among the four closings of the series this is the only name of a sense.
There is an irregularity in the word order, and it must be recorded: in the other links, after min āyātihi comes a noun or an + a verb. Here an imperfect verb comes directly: yurīkum.
The grammarians generally explain this by "an an or a verbal noun being implied". I transmit this explanation as it has been transmitted.
But the verb's coming directly does something, and I record this as an observation about the word order: the other links enumerated a state; this link comes with a verb of showing — yurīkum, "He shows you". That is, here the sign is mentioned not as an object but as an act.
خَوْفًا وَطَمَعًا — "as fear and as hope". Both verbal nouns stand in the circumstantial accusative.
The same pair had occurred at al-Sajda 32/16: yadʿūna rabbahum khawfan wa ṭamaʿan — there it was the state of the person who prays. Here it is the state that the lightning stirs in the one who looks.
| Place | Whose state khawfan wa ṭamaʿan is | Towards what |
|---|---|---|
| al-Sajda 32/16 | The one who prays | His Lord |
| al-Rūm 30/24 | The one who looks | The lightning |
The same pair, in two different places. I record this as my own reading, and its ground is that the two verses share the same construct: in neither is there a feeling running in one direction only. Lightning carries both the prospect of harm and the prospect of rain; and the verse names the two together. That is, the sign is not given in a form to be read as having a single meaning.
بَرْق — root ب-ر-ق: to shine, to flash. Bariqa baṣaruhu — his sight was dazzled, he froze in bewilderment; and this branch of the root was treated at al-Qiyāma 75/7 (fa-idhā bariqa'l-baṣar). I rely on that treatment. From the same root come burāq (glittering) and ibrīq (a bright vessel).
A scene in which the word occurs had been treated in detail at al-Baqara 2/19-20: the man caught in a downpour, who took a few steps whenever the lightning flashed and froze when the darkness came down (yakādu'l-barqu yakhṭafu abṣārahum). The finding recorded there was this: the advance is intermittent and dependent on outward conditions.
The two places can be compared, and the difference is worth recording: in al-Baqara the lightning is inside a comparison and is part of a negative portrait; in al-Rūm the same event is enumerated directly as an āya. The same image, the one used to describe a failing, the other as a sign.
The last link of the series enumerates something different from those before it: not an event but a continuance.
At Fāṭir 35/41 the same idea had been conveyed with the verb imsāk (to hold): inna'llāha yumsiku's-samāwāti wa'l-arḍa an tazūlā — "He holds them lest they pass away." I rely on that treatment.
| Place | Verb | Who does it | The picture |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fāṭir 35/41 | Yumsiku — He holds | God | Holding from outside |
| al-Rūm 30/25 | Taqūma … bi-amrih — it stands | The heaven and the earth (by the command) | Standing of themselves |
I record this as my own reading, and its ground is the subject of the verb: in Fāṭir the subject is the one who holds; in al-Rūm the subjects are the ones that stand — but with the qualification bi-amrihi. The two verses recount the same fact from two different sides: the one the holding, the other the standing. The finding recorded at Fāṭir 35/41 holds for both: the continuance is not of itself; it is sustained.
In the twentieth verse there was thumma idhā antum basharun tantashirūn — the idhā that conveys suddenness. In the twenty-fifth verse the same structure comes back: idhā antum takhrujūn.
| Verse | Expression | The beginning of what |
|---|---|---|
| 20 | Thumma idhā antum basharun tantashirūn | This life — spreading abroad out of the soil |
| 25 | Thumma idhā antum takhrujūn | The next — coming out of the ground |
The same formula, at the two ends of the series. This is a repetition that can be verified from the text.
I record this as my own reading, and its ground is this overlap of formula: the series opens with a coming out of the earth and closes with a coming out of the earth. The four links in between (21-24) are the life that passes between the two. That is, the wa min āyātihi series is framed so as to cover the two ends of a human lifetime and what lies between them.
دَعْوَةً — the absolute object (an emphasis by the verbal noun): "when He calls you with a call". In Arabic this pattern reinforces the verb. And the choice of the word is worth recording: the resurrection is conveyed not by a compulsion but by a call.