al-Aḥzāb 33:65-68

Khālidīna fīhā abadā, lā yajidūna waliyyan wa lā naṣīrā · Yawma tuqallabu wujūhuhum fi'l-nāri yaqūlūna yā laytanā aṭaʿna'llāha wa aṭaʿna'l-rasūlā · Wa qālū rabbanā innā aṭaʿnā sādatanā wa kubarāʾanā fa-aḍallūna'l-sabīlā · Rabbanā ātihim ḍiʿfayni mina'l-ʿadhābi wa'lʿanhum laʿnan kabīrā

"Abiding therein for ever; they will find neither friend nor helper. · On the day their faces are turned about in the Fire they will say, 'If only we had obeyed God and obeyed the Messenger.' · And they will say: Our Lord! We obeyed our masters and our great ones, and they led us astray from the way. · Our Lord! Give them a double punishment and curse them with a great curse."

In its first verse the sūra had laid down a prohibition of obedience: wa lā tuṭiʿi'l-kāfirīna wa'l-munāfiqīn.

And in the sixty-sixth and sixty-seventh verses the consequence of that prohibition's being broken is shown as a scene.

The root ط-و-ع occurs four times in these four verses:

And the "willingness" sense of the root — recorded at the sūra's first verse — is at work here with all its weight.

Because ṭāʿa is not something done under compulsion. The sentence does not say "they forced us"; it says "we obeyed". And the subject of the verb is themselves.

This is a fact that must be recorded, and I give it as my own reading: the verse makes those speaking frame a sentence of excuse, and that sentence refutes itself. The verb of the sentence framed to throw the blame on another stays upon them.

And here is the most striking turn of a word in the sūra.

The root ق-ل-ب: to turn, to turn upside down. And qalb (the heart) is from the same root — because it is the thing that constantly turns, that passes from state to state.

This root was opened up in the fourth verse of the sūra: mā jaʿala'llāhu li-rajulin min qalbayni fī jawfih.

And in the sixty-sixth verse the same root returns as a verb: tuqallabu wujūhuhum — "their faces are turned about".

The sūra closes with the face the root it opened with the heart. And that the verb is passive is worth noting: tuqallabu — they are turned; they do not turn themselves.

I record this as my own reading: the fourth verse had said that there cannot be two centres inside a person. In the sixty-sixth verse the faces of those who obeyed in two directions at once are turned about. There is a link between the two ends of the root, and this link touches the founding principle of the sūra.

This is an inference and not a transmitted report. Its ground is the distribution of the root in the sūra.

سَادَة — singular سَيِّد. Root: س-و-د. A master, a leader. The lexicographers differ about the root of the word; on one view it is connected with sawād (a crowd, a dark mass): the one who stands at the head of a group.

كُبَرَآء — singular كَبِير. Root: ك-ب-ر. Great. And kibr is from the same root.

That the two words are enumerated separately is worth recording: one is a position (master), the other a standing (great one). That is, there are two separate reasons for following: authority and prestige.

I record this as my own reading.

And one further note, per the method (Method): the verse gives no names. And no person or group today can be identified from this verse. What the verse describes is a form of relationship: a person's handing over his own choice to another's position.

The difference of reading recorded for al-ẓunūnā in the tenth verse holds here too.

The alif at the end of these three words — al-ẓunūnā (10), al-Rasūlā (66), al-Sabīlā (67) — is read differently among the readers: some read it both in continuous recitation and at a pause, some only at a pause, some not at all.

It does not change the meaning; it is a difference of reading bound up with the harmony of the verse-endings, and in the script of the muṣḥaf the alif is written.

And that these three words fall at three separate places in the sūra is worth noting: one in the middle of the siege, two in the final scene.

The root ض-ع-ف was treated at the thirtieth verse: both weakness and doubling.

And the expression ḍiʿfayn occurs in the sūra for the second time:

The same expression, for two different reasons. And what joins the two is this: being in a position that affects others.

I record this as my own reading; its ground is that both occurrences of the expression concern a standing.

The sentence of the sixty-seventh verse is one of the most often repeated excuses in human history: "We obeyed our masters and our great ones; they led us astray."

And the verse does not accept this excuse. The reason is said by the sentence's own verb: aṭaʿnā — we obeyed.

The finding recorded at al-Ṣāffāt for a similar scene holds here too: "This is not a defence but a levelling. The other side was saying 'you led me astray'; the answer becomes 'yes, but we too were astray.' That is, the offence is admitted but the difference is not removed."

In al-Aḥzāb there is one step further: here the other side's answer is not given. The sentence stands one-sided and rots from within.

Its present-day form is plain: a person's going along behind an institution, a leader, a group is a choice — and a choice, however natural it may look, is that person's own act. The verse says that responsibility cannot be handed over.