35. Sūrat Fāṭir

Forty-five verses. It is widely reported that it was revealed in the Meccan period. It takes its name from the construct فَاطِرِ ٱلسَّمَٰوَٰتِ وَٱلْأَرْضِ in the first verse; because the angels are spoken of in that same verse, it is also called al-Malāʾika.

The backbone of the sūra is two verbs: imsāk (holding) and irsāl (letting go). They are set against one another in the second verse, and they return once more in the forty-first. Everything between them is about in whose hand what is held and what is released lies.

"Praise belongs to God, the Originator of the heavens and the earth, who makes the angels messengers with wings in twos, threes and fours. He increases in creation what He wills."

The concrete sense of the root: to split, to cleave open. Faṭara'sh-shayʾa — he split it. And the lexicographers record that the root's sense of "bringing a thing forth for the first time" comes from this picture: the bud splits and the leaf comes out.

The root was treated in al-Infiṭār (idha's-samāʾu'nfaṭarat) and in al-Zumar at 39/46 (fāṭira's-samāwāti wa'l-arḍ). I do not repeat it here.

What belongs here is this: in al-Zumar the word stood inside a prayer (quli'llāhumma fāṭira's-samāwāt), here inside an act of praise. The same attribute, once in a context of asking and once in a context of praising.

The numbers are worth recording: in twos, in threes, in fours. In Arabic these patterns (mathnā, thulātha, rubāʿ) convey distribution: "two to each", and so on.

And the verse does not set these numbers down as a limit — for immediately after them comes: yazīdu fi'l-khalqi mā yashāʾ — "He increases in creation what He wills."

I record this as my own reading, and its ground is the order of the sentences: the verse gives a concrete description, then says that the description has no end. That is: the number is given not as a piece of information but as a scale.

A record about the angels, per the method (Method): no description is produced beyond what the text states. The same limit had been set in al-Jinn for beings that are not seen; I rely on that treatment.

And the reason the angels are mentioned in this verse must be recorded: rusulā — messengers. That is, their attribute is given by way of a task.

"There is none who can hold back a mercy that God opens for people; and what He holds back, none can let go after Him."

The sentence is built symmetrically upon two verbs:

Four words, two pairs, one sentence. And in both directions the same thing is said: there is no hand that can come in between.

The root fatḥ was analysed in detail in al-Fatḥ in connection with the name of that sūra (to open what is closed; fattāḥ, miftāḥ). I do not repeat it here.

And the pair imsāk / irsāl had been treated in al-Zumar at 39/42 — there it was used of the souls taken in sleep: fa-yumsiku'llatī qaḍā ʿalayha'l-mawta wa yursilu'l-ukhrā.

The same two verbs, two different objects. This is an overlap between sūras that can be verified.

And the root imsāk will return once more in this sūra: in the forty-first verse, for the hand that holds the heavens and the earth (inna'llāha yumsiku's-samāwāti wa'l-arḍa an tazūlā). The sūra closes the ring by carrying the act of holding from mercy to the universe.

"O people! Remember God's favour upon you. Is there any creator other than God who provides for you from the heaven and the earth?"

The address must be recorded: yā ayyuha'n-nās — this address will occur three times in the sūra (3, 5, 15). That is: the sūra calls to its addressee without dividing him into believer and unbeliever.

The way the question is built is striking: hal min khāliqin ghayru'llāhi yarzuqukum — creating is asked about together with the act of providing.

I record this as an observation: the verse does not open an abstract discussion of creation. What it asks is by whom a work that goes on and on is being carried out. Creating is mentioned not as a single past event but as a feeding that continues.

"If they call you a liar, messengers before you were called liars too. All matters are returned to God."

The sentence is built as a consolation, and the consolation is given not by removing the denial but by setting it into a sequence.

And the verb is passive: kudhdhibat — "they were called liars". Those who did the denying are not named; what is mentioned is the event itself.

The same line was treated in al-Aḥqāf at 46/9: mā kuntu bidʿan mina'r-rusul — "I am not an unprecedented one." There the one speaking was the Prophet; here it is the text itself that speaks. The two verses say the same thing from two mouths.

The same sentence will come once more, in almost the same words, in the twenty-fifth verse of this sūra (wa in yukadhdhibūka fa-qad kadhdhaba'lladhīna min qablihim). It is a repetition that can be verified within the sūra.

"O people! God's promise is true. Do not let the life of this world deceive you; and do not let the great deceiver deceive you with God. Satan is an enemy to you; so take him as an enemy."

The same root occurs in three words: taghurrannakum (let it not deceive you), yaghurrannakum (let him not deceive you), al-gharūr (the great deceiver).

The lexicographers give the concrete sense of the root thus: that the outward look of a thing should be striking while its inside is empty. Ghirr — the inexperienced youth; ghurūr — a misleading appearance.

بِٱللَّهِ — and the particle is worth recording: yaghurrannakum billāhi — "let him not deceive you with God."

I record this as my own reading: the verse says that deceiving can be done by using the name of God. That is: deception does not always come by way of denial; it can come also by pulling forgiveness to the wrong place. And in al-Zumar at 39/53 it was commanded that hope of forgiveness not be cut off — read together, the two verses set up a balance: despair is forbidden, and so is leaning back on assurance.

"So take him as an enemy."

The logic of the sentence is worth recording: the enmity is already there (inna'sh-shayṭāna lakum ʿaduww) — what is commanded is that this enmity be made mutual.

That is: the verse is not content to give a piece of information; it asks for what the information requires. I record this as an observation: the difference between knowing a danger and behaving accordingly has been distributed over the two halves of the sentence.

"The one whose evil deed is made to seem fair to him, so that he sees it as good… Do not let your soul waste itself away in grief over them. It is God who sends the winds, and they raise up a cloud, and We drive it to a dead land…"

The verb is passive, and this is a pattern recorded in several places in this commentary. The same verb occurred in the same pattern in Ghāfir (al-Muʾmin) at 40/37 (wa kadhālika zuyyina li-Firʿawna sūʾu ʿamalih); I rely on that treatment.

And the state the verse describes is worth recording: the person does what is evil and sees it as good. That is: there is no conflict of conscience here — the mechanism of evaluation has itself slipped.

فَلَا تَذْهَبْ نَفْسُكَ عَلَيْهِمْ حَسَرَٰتٍ — "do not waste yourself away in griefs over them."

The root ح-س-ر was treated in al-Zumar at 39/56 (to strip off what lies over a thing and lay it bare; from this, weariness and regret). I do not repeat it here.

That the sentence draws a limit must be recorded — and this limit will be repeated several times through the sūra (18, 23, 42). The same limit was treated in al-Zumar at 39/41 (wa mā anta ʿalayhim bi-wakīl) and in al-Aḥqāf at 46/35 (balāgh).

أ-ث-ر / ث-و-ر — ithāra: to raise up, to send into the air, to lift from the ground and scatter. The lexicographers record the word's connection with turning up the soil (thawr — the ox).

And the tense of the verbs changes: arsala (perfect) → tuthīru (imperfect) → suqnāhu (perfect) → fa-aḥyaynā (perfect).

I record this as an observation about the word order: the middle verb comes in the imperfect and so brings a movement still under way before the eye; what comes before it and after it is given with completed verbs. That is: while it relates the rising of the cloud, the sentence changes tempo.

كَذَٰلِكَ ٱلنُّشُورُ — "so too is the resurrection." The proof is set up in the ninth verse of the sūra, still within the first block, and it is the same structure as the one treated in Qāf at 50/11 (kadhālika'l-khurūj): a passage from an event that is seen to an event that is not seen.

"Whoever wants might: all might belongs to God. To Him the good word ascends; and the righteous deed He raises up."

The sentence begins by granting a desire: man kāna yurīdu'l-ʿizza — "whoever wants might". The desire is not refused; its address is corrected.

The same structure had been used for intercession in al-Zumar at 39/43: qul li'llāhi'sh-shafāʿatu jamīʿan — intercession is not denied, its owner is stated. The two verses share the same pattern, and both end with the word jamīʿan (the whole of it).

Two clauses, two verbs, and the relation between them has been disputed by the lexicographers:

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

But the first reading says something worth recording, and I give it as an observation: the word does not rise of itself; what carries it upward is the deed. The word order of the sentence is favourable to this reading, since al-ʿamalu'ṣ-ṣāliḥ and yarfaʿuhū stand side by side.

"God created you from dust, then from a drop; then He made you pairs. No female conceives or gives birth save with His knowledge. And no lengthening of the life of one whose life is lengthened, and no shortening of his lifespan, is otherwise than in a book."

The verse sets two fields side by side: birth and lifespan. Both have to do with a beginning and a term.

وَمَا تَحْمِلُ مِنْ أُنثَىٰ وَلَا تَضَعُ إِلَّا بِعِلْمِهِ — the same sentence was treated in Fuṣṣilat at 41/47 (wa mā taḥmilu min unthā wa lā taḍaʿu illā bi-ʿilmih), and it was recorded there that it is mentioned together with the fruit's coming out of its sheath: the scope of the knowledge is described by way of the most hidden processes. I rely on that treatment.

وَمَا يُعَمَّرُ مِن مُّعَمَّرٍ وَلَا يُنقَصُ مِنْ عُمُرِهِ — the lexicographers dwell on the meaning of this sentence:

Both readings are transmitted; I do not impose a preference, and I do not enter into the discussion of destiny. What the verse says in its wording is that the term is recorded.

And its connection with the construct ajalin musammā is worth recording: in the forty-fifth verse the sūra will repeat the same idea on the scale of a society.

"The two seas are not equal: one is sweet, it cuts thirst, its drink goes down easily; the other is salt and bitter."

أُجَاج — it was treated in al-Wāqiʿa at 56/70 (law nashāʾu jaʿalnāhu ujājā); I rely on that treatment. There this word was a state that could have been and has not been; here it is mentioned as a reality that actually exists.

Read together, the two verses show that the supposition in al-Wāqiʿa is not a remote possibility. I record this as my own reading.

سَآئِغ — root س-و-غ: to go down the throat easily. The word describes the drinkability of water by way of ease of swallowing — that is, not a chemical description but a bodily experience.

وَمِن كُلٍّ تَأْكُلُونَ لَحْمًا طَرِيًّا وَتَسْتَخْرِجُونَ حِلْيَةً تَلْبَسُونَهَا — "from both of them you eat fresh meat, and you bring out ornaments to wear."

Worth recording: the two seas are not equal, yet from both of them benefit is drawn. Having stated the inequality, the verse mentions the shared benefit.

"If you call upon them they do not hear your call; and even if they heard, they could not answer you. And on the Day of Resurrection they reject your having associated them."

The verse closes off three possibilities in turn:

The second stage is worth recording: the verse acts as though it had granted the first possibility, and takes one step further. That is: it closes off by itself every place where an objection might be raised.

The same threefold sequence was treated in al-Aḥqāf at 46/5-6 (the inability to answer, the being unaware, the turning enemy in the end). The two sūras build the same structure, and the record treated in al-Aḥqāf — that the relationship was never established at all — holds here too.

وَلَا يُنَبِّئُكَ مِثْلُ خَبِيرٍ — "no one can give you news like one who is aware of all things."

The block closes with a sentence about the source of knowledge. And the word is khabīr — root خ-ب-ر: to know the inner face of a thing. The lexicographers record the root's connection with the sense of "ploughing the soil and seeing what is beneath it".

"O people! It is you who are in need of God. God is the One who needs nothing and is worthy of all praise."

The lexicographers give the concrete sense of the root thus: faqar, the spine; faqīr, the one whose spine is broken. From this arises the sense of neediness: one who cannot stand up on his own.

I record this picture and transmit it as a connection the lexicographers make, not as a settled verdict of etymology.

And the way the sentence is built is worth recording: antumu'l-fuqarāʾu ila'llāh — the predicate comes definite. In Arabic this conveys restriction (ḥaṣr): "the truly needy ones are you."

That is: need is given not as a state of man but as his definition.

And the other side is mentioned by two names: al-ghaniyy (the one who needs nothing) and al-ḥamīd (the one worthy of praise). The addition of the second is worth recording: to be without need might on its own have conveyed a distance; the attribute of praise keeps the relationship open.

"If He wills, He takes you away and brings a new creation; and that is not hard for God. No bearer of burdens bears the burden of another. If one weighed down calls another to carry her load, nothing of it will be carried — even were the one called a near kinsman."

The root wizr and the principle "no one bears another's burden" were analysed in al-Najm at 53/38 and occurred again in al-Zumar at 39/7. I do not repeat it here.

What belongs here is the detail this verse adds — and this addition is peculiar to the sūra:

That is: the principle is not set down once and passed over; it is tested at its most demanding point.

I record this as my own reading, and its ground is the third addition: the record dhā qurbā (a near kinsman) names the most natural place in this world for a burden to be shared. By saying that even there it is not shared, the verse builds the principle at its most durable point.

مُثْقَلَة — root ث-ق-ل: weight. A passive participle: "made heavy, laden". That is, the person is mentioned not as though he had not chosen the burden himself — he is mentioned as laden.

إِنَّمَا تُنذِرُ ٱلَّذِينَ يَخْشَوْنَ رَبَّهُم بِٱلْغَيْبِ — "you can warn only those who fear their Lord though they do not see Him."

The effect of the warning is tied to a condition, and the condition lies on the side of the one addressed. The same limit was treated in al-Zumar at 39/19 and 39/41 (a-fa-anta tunqidhu man fi'n-nār, wa mā anta ʿalayhim bi-wakīl); in al-Aḥqāf at 46/35 it was set down with the word balāgh. I rely on that treatment.

"The blind and the seeing are not equal; nor the darknesses and the light, nor the shade and the scorching heat. Nor are the living and the dead equal."

The verses set four contrasts one after another:

And the last link in the series is the heaviest: the living and the dead. The ordering moves from the lighter to the heavier.

ٱلظُّلُمَٰتُ is plural, ٱلنُّورُ singular. This usage was treated in al-Baqara at 2/257, and what was recorded there can be carried over to here: darkness is the absence of light, and absence has many forms; light is one.

حَرُور — root ح-ر-ر: heat. The lexicographers generally describe ḥarūr as "the burning heat that continues through the night" or as "a hot wind", and compare it with samūm. Samūm was treated in al-Ṭūr and in al-Wāqiʿa at 56/42; I rely on that treatment.

And what is set opposite it is ẓill (shade). How shade is used in two tableaux was treated in detail in al-Wāqiʿa at 56/30 and 56/43 — there shade occurred once as mercy and once as a shelter turned inside out. Here shade stands on the good side of the contrast.

إِنَّ ٱللَّهَ يُسْمِعُ مَن يَشَآءُ وَمَآ أَنتَ بِمُسْمِعٍ مَّن فِى ٱلْقُبُورِ — "you are not one who can make those in the graves hear."

The last of the four contrasts (living/dead) turns here into a comparison. And it arrives at the same place as the question in al-Zumar at 39/19: the limit of responsibility.

"There is no community but that a warner has come and gone among it."

The sentence is built on the pattern of negation + exception (in … illā), and in Arabic this structure conveys an all-embracing affirmation: to every community without exception.

I record this as an observation: within its own text the verse closes off the possibility of a community to which the knowledge never came. And this joins with the principle of the burden in the eighteenth verse of Fāṭir: responsibility is personal, and the warning is declared to have reached everywhere.

خَلَا — root خ-ل-و: to pass on, to become empty. The verb is in the perfect: "he came and went". That is, what is said is not that the warner is still present but that he came at some time.

"If they call you a liar, those before them called liars too: their messengers had come to them with clear proofs, with the scriptures and with the illuminating Book. Then I seized those who denied. How, then, was the recompense of denying Me!"

This sentence is almost identical with the fourth verse of the sūra. The two verses can be set side by side:

The same sentence twenty-one verses apart, the one passive and the other active. I record this as my own reading: the first consoles the Prophet, the second sets the one addressed into a sequence. When the point of view changes, the voice of the verb changes with it.

ٱلزُّبُر — the plural of zabūr: written pages. The root ز-ب-ر was treated in al-Qamar at 54/52 (to write, to carve in stone). I do not repeat it here.

The ordering of the three words is worth recording: bayyināt (proofs), zubur (pages), kitābu'l-munīr (the illuminating Book). That is: what came is mentioned both as spoken proof and as written document — and this overlaps with the two kinds of evidence asked for in al-Aḥqāf at 46/4 (observation and transmitted report).

نَكِير — root ن-ك-ر: not to recognise, to reject, not to receive well. The word here means not "my denial" but "the requital of my rejection", and the lexicographers explain it as the severity of the punishment.

"Have you not seen that God sends down water from the sky, and that with it We bring out fruits of differing colours? In the mountains too there are tracks, white and red, of differing colours, and others raven-black. And among people, beasts and cattle there are likewise those of differing colours. Of God's servants, it is only those who know who fear Him."

Across the two verses the construct mukhtalifun alwānuhā (of differing colours) occurs three times:

Three separate realms, one shared attribute: diversity. This is a repetition that can be verified from the text.

جُدَد — the plural of judda: the vein, streak or track of another colour seen on a mountain. The lexicographers record the word with the sense of "road" as well.

غَرَابِيبُ سُود — ghirbīb means raven-black; the word is linked with the raven (ghurāb). And the word order is inverted: normally one would have expected sūdun gharābīb. The lexicographers record that this fronting is for emphasis.

This sentence of the verse comes immediately after three separate lists of diversity. The connection must be recorded.

I record this as my own reading, and its ground is the order of the two verses: the sentence is set down not as an abstract praise but as the conclusion of a list of observations. A bond is established between khashya and the person who notices the colours, the veins, the species.

خَشْيَة — root خ-ش-ي: fear grounded in knowledge, a shudder mixed with reverence. The lexicographers record the difference between khashya and khawf: khawf is fear in general, khashya is the fear felt before a greatness that is known.

That is: the bond between ʿulamāʾ and khashya in the sentence is already present in the definition of the word itself. This is an observation about the language.

And the lexicographers dwell on the grammatical parsing of the sentence: innamā yakhsha'llāha … al-ʿulamāʾu — the subject is al-ʿulamāʾ, the object Allāha. That is, "the learned fear God." Some grammarians have discussed the reverse as well; but this is the widespread reading, and the vowelling of the words shows it.

A record per the method (Method): the ʿulamāʾ here cannot be understood as a particular professional group. The context of the verse is the observations of nature enumerated across two verses — and the act of knowing occurs there. I record this as an observation; I do not issue a ruling that narrows the scope of the word.

"Those who recite God's Book, who keep up the prayer and who spend of what We have provided for them, in secret and openly, look for a commerce that will never go slack."

تِجَٰرَةً لَّن تَبُورَ — bawār: root ب-و-ر, to find no buyer, to be left on one's hands, to fall out of use. Būr — land unsown, left empty.

The commercial sense of the word is worth recording: goods that find no buyer and are left on the seller's hands. The verse gives the recompense by way of a comparison with trade, and what it negates is not loss — but stagnation.

سِرًّا وَعَلَانِيَة — in al-Baqara at 2/271 it was treated that both secret and open giving are held to be legitimate, the one being called "how good" and the other "better for you". Here the two are mentioned together, joined by wāw — that is, without a distinction being drawn. I rely on that treatment.

"The Book We have revealed to you is the truth itself, confirming what came before it."

مُصَدِّقًا لِّمَا بَيْنَ يَدَيْه — "confirming what is before it".

The same expression was treated in al-Aḥqāf at 46/12 and 46/30 — there it occurred both from the text itself and from the mouths of the jinn as an attaching to the chain. I rely on that treatment.

And the place of the verse within this sūra is worth recording: the next verse (32) will speak of the Book's being left as an inheritance. That is: first the Book's relation to the preceding link, then its handing on to the following one.

I record this as an observation about the word order: together the two verses hold the two ends of a chain — confirmation backwards, inheritance forwards.

"Then We gave the Book in inheritance to those of Our servants whom We chose. Among them is one who wrongs himself, one who keeps to the middle, and one who is foremost in good deeds by God's leave."

The verse divides those who inherit the Book into three:

The division of human beings into three was treated in detail in al-Wāqiʿa at 56/7-11 (aṣḥābu'l-maymana, aṣḥābu'l-mashʾama, al-sābiqūn), and it was tabulated there how the names of the groups change through the sūra.

The two threefold divisions can be compared, and the difference must be recorded:

This is the most striking difference, and I record it as my own reading: in Fāṭir the one who wrongs himself is also counted within the scope of "those We chose" (iṣṭafaynā). All three groups have received the same inheritance.

And the root sābiq (س-ب-ق) was treated in al-Baqara at 2/148 and in al-Wāqiʿa at 56/10 and 56/60; I rely on that treatment. Here the object of the root is stated: bi'l-khayrāt — in good deeds.

The record بِإِذْنِ ٱللَّه comes only for the third group. The lexicographers dwell on the reason for this; I do not impose a preference.

"The gardens of ʿAdn… there they are adorned with bracelets of gold and with pearls… They say: 'Praise belongs to God, who has taken grief away from us… No weariness touches us there, nor any exhaustion.'"

What is striking in the description of the recompense is not the objects enumerated but the words the dwellers speak.

And those words are a sentence of praise: al-ḥamdu li'llāhi'lladhī adhhaba ʿanna'l-ḥazan.

I record this as my own reading: the sentence mentions not the thing gained but the thing lifted — grief. In al-Wāqiʿa the places where the descriptions of the Garden are enumerated object by object were treated; here the description is summed up by the ending of a feeling.

نَصَب and لُغُوب — both convey weariness; the lexicographers distinguish the first as the toil of the body, the second as the giving out of strength.

The word لُغُوب was treated in Qāf at 50/38 — there it was denied of God (wa mā massanā min lughūb). Here the same word is denied of the people of the Garden.

The same word, on two different planes. This is an overlap between sūras that can be verified.

وَٱلَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا۟ لَهُمْ نَارُ جَهَنَّمَ لَا يُقْضَىٰ عَلَيْهِمْ فَيَمُوتُوا۟ وَلَا يُخَفَّفُ عَنْهُم مِّنْ عَذَابِهَا — "no decree is passed upon them that they should die, nor is anything of its punishment lightened for them."

The opposing tableau is built with two negations: neither an end nor a lightening. And in al-Zumar at 39/71 the questioning by the keepers in the scene of Hell was treated; here there is no speech — only duration.

"There they cry out: 'Our Lord! Bring us out, and we will do righteous work, other than what we used to do!' — 'Did We not give you life enough for whoever would take heed to take heed in? And the warner came to you.'"

يَصْطَرِخُون — root ص-ر-خ, Form VIII: to shout aloud, to call for help. The word carries the force of the voice.

And the request is worth recording: naʿmal ṣāliḥan ghayra'lladhī kunnā naʿmal — "other than what we used to do." That is, the wrongness of their own deeds is admitted.

The answer is two sentences, and both are in the form of a question:

The two answers attach to two verses of Fāṭir: the twenty-fourth verse says that a warner came to every community, and the forty-fifth will say that the term has been deferred. The sūra works these two grounds through from beginning to end.

And the description of the term is worth recording: mā yatadhakkaru fīhi man tadhakkar — "as much as one who would take heed needs to take heed". The measure is not an absolute age but sufficiency. In Ghāfir (al-Muʾmin) at 40/67 the stages of a lifetime were enumerated; here a lifetime is mentioned not as a duration but as an opportunity.

"God knows the unseen of the heavens and the earth; He is the one who knows what the breasts hold within. It is He who made you those who come one after another on the earth."

بِذَاتِ ٱلصُّدُور — "that which the breasts possess", that is, what is kept inside. The same field was treated in Ghāfir (al-Muʾmin) at 40/19 (wa mā tukhfi'ṣ-ṣudūr), and it was recorded there that together with the treacherous glance of the eyes the two ends are covered. I rely on that treatment.

خَلَٰٓئِف — the plural of khalīfa; root خ-ل-ف: to come after someone, to take his place.

The use of the word here is worth recording: in al-Ḥadīd at 57/7 mustakhlafīna fīh (that over which you have been given charge) was treated, and the trust-character of property was dwelt on there. Here, however, the word describes people's taking one another's place.

And the continuation of the verse ties this to a consequence: fa-man kafara fa-ʿalayhi kufruh — "whoever denies, his denial is against himself." That is, succession is given not as a privilege but as a task whose outcome belongs to the person.

This overlaps with the principle of the burden in the eighteenth verse of the sūra: no one carries another's burden — and here the same thing is said of one's position on the earth.

"God holds the heavens and the earth lest they pass away. And if they were to pass away, none could hold them after Him."

In the second verse imsāk and irsāl had been used of mercy (fa-lā mumsika lahā). In the forty-first verse the same root comes for the universe itself.

This is a repetition that can be verified within the sūra, and it binds the two ends of the sūra together.

تَزُولَا — root ز-و-ل: to depart from its place, to disappear, to come to an end.

I record this as my own reading: the verse relates the standing of the universe not as a balance but as an act of holding. That is: continuance is not of itself; it is being sustained. And in al-Baqara at 2/255 the two-sided description of the name al-Qayyūm (the one who stands by Himself / the one who keeps everything standing) was treated — this verse is that name in the form of a verb.

"They swore by God with the strongest of their oaths that if a warner came to them, they would be better guided than any one of the communities. But when a warner came to them, it increased them in nothing but shying away."

The verse sets a word and a piece of conduct against one another, and between them lies a single event: the coming of the warner.

جَهْدَ أَيْمَٰنِهِم — "with the strongest of their oaths". That is: the word was given in its heaviest form.

نُفُور — root ن-ف-ر: to take fright and flee. The word is used especially of an animal's taking fright. The lexicographers record this concrete sense.

I record this as my own reading, and its ground is the root of the word together with the verb zādahum: the verse does not say that the warning remained without effect — it says that it took effect in the opposite direction. And the reaction is named not as a thought but as a shying away.

The like of this was recorded in the portrait treated in al-Baqara at 2/204-206: "when he is told 'fear God', his pride drives him into sin" — there too the warning increased the resistance. The two verses relate the same mechanism with two different words.

"An evil scheme closes in upon none but its own author. Are they waiting for anything but the way of those who went before? You will find no change in God's way."

يَحِيقُ — root ح-ي-ق: that a thing should turn back and close in upon its owner. The root was treated in Ghāfir (al-Muʾmin) at 40/45 and in al-Zumar at 39/48. I do not repeat it here.

The way the sentence is built is worth recording: lā yaḥīqu … illā bi-ahlih — negation + exception. That is, the possibility of the evil scheme's going somewhere else is closed off.

سُنَّتَ ٱللَّه — the root س-ن-ن was analysed in detail in al-Fatḥ at 48/23 (to open a way, to make flow; sinān, masnūn). I do not repeat it here.

And in Ghāfir (al-Muʾmin) at 40/85 the close of that sūra was made with this word: sunnata'llāhi'llatī qad khalat fī ʿibādih. The two sūras use the same concept for the same work: continuance.

فَلَن تَجِدَ لِسُنَّتِ ٱللَّهِ تَبْدِيلًا — and the unchangeability is declared with the particle lan (absolute negation).

"Have they not travelled in the land and looked at how the end of those before them was? They were stronger than these."

This sentence occurred in Ghāfir (al-Muʾmin) at 40/21 and 40/82 as well and was treated there: the evidence is brought not from a distant history but from the ruins along the road.

There is a difference that belongs here, and it is worth recording: in Ghāfir it was said of the ruins wa āthāran fi'l-arḍ (traces upon the earth); here it is not the traces but only strength that is mentioned.

وَمَا كَانَ ٱللَّهُ لِيُعْجِزَهُۥ مِن شَىْءٍ — iʿjāz: to render powerless, to make unattainable.

The scope of the sentence must be recorded: fi's-samāwāti wa lā fi'l-arḍ — both fields at once. And this prepares the declaration of deferral in the next verse (45): the delay cannot be read as a want of power.

Together the two verses build a single sentence, and I give this as my own reading: the forty-fourth verse declares the possibility, the forty-fifth the decision to defer. That is: the term comes not from incapacity but from a respite that has been granted.

"Had God taken people to task at once for what they have earned, He would not have left a single creature upon its back. But He defers them to a term that is set."

The sentence is built with a law (a condition contrary to fact).

عَلَىٰ ظَهْرِهَا — "upon its back". The referent of the pronoun is not stated in the verse; the lexicographers record that it is the earth, the indication being understood from the word itself. And the word dābba is worth recording: it was analysed in al-Jāthiya at 45/4 — a living creature that moves.

I record this as my own reading: in relating the deferral of the punishment, the scope is not kept to man — min dābba, every living creature on the earth. That is: the verse states that man's reckoning concerns other living creatures too.

إِلَىٰٓ أَجَلٍ مُّسَمًّى — "to a term whose name has been set". The same construct was treated in al-Aḥqāf at 46/3 and in al-Zumar at 39/42. In all three places the same thing is said: the term is determined and its name has been set; but it is not man who has set that name.

And the sūra closes with a name that declares seeing: inna'llāha kāna bi-ʿibādihī baṣīrā.