al-Ṣāffāt 37:114-122

Wa laqad manannā ʿalā Mūsā wa Hārūn · Wa najjaynāhumā wa qawmahumā mina'l-karbi'l-ʿaẓīm · Wa naṣarnāhum fa-kānū humu'l-ghālibīn · Wa ātaynāhuma'l-kitāba'l-mustabīn · Wa hadaynāhuma'ṣ-ṣirāṭa'l-mustaqīm · Wa taraknā ʿalayhimā fi'l-ākhirīn · Salāmun ʿalā Mūsā wa Hārūn · Innā kadhālika najzi'l-muḥsinīn · Innahumā min ʿibādina'l-muʾminīn

"And We bestowed favour upon Moses and Aaron. We saved them both and their people from the great distress. We helped them, and they were the ones who prevailed. We gave them both the Book that makes all clear and guided them both to the straight path. And We left upon them both, among those who came after: 'Peace be upon Moses and Aaron.' Thus do We requite those who do good. They were both of Our believing servants."

And this section is the one paired section of the sequence: all the verbs and pronouns are dual.

And the one exception is the hundred and sixteenth verse: wa naṣarnāhum — plural. Because there the people are included as well.

This is a fact of word order that can be verified from the text and is worth noting: in a section of nine verses, eight duals and one plural. And the plural comes precisely in the verse of help (naṣr) — the help, that is, is not to the two but to the community.

I record this as my own reading: the Qurʾān constantly names Aaron beside Moses, and al-Ṣāffāt is one of the sūras that does this most consistently. In the section not one act done by Moses alone is recounted.

Manna — root م-ن-ن. The root has two branches, and both are used in the Qurʾān:

And the original picture the lexicographers record: mann is to cut a thing. Mannahu — he cut it. The link is made thus: a favour is a portion cut off from something and given; holding a gift over another cuts the bond of the favour. I give this link as a transmission.

The Qurʾān uses the same verb of other prophets too. And in al-Ṣāffāt it occurs only here.

And when the opening moulds of the sequence are looked at, this section is seen to have the same structure as the Noah section:

And the direction of the verbs is opposite: in the Noah section the subject is the prophet (he called), in the Moses section the subject is God (We bestowed). This is the one change of direction in the sequence, and it is countable.

The construction was analysed in the seventy-sixth verse (Noah) and a table was given there. I do not repeat it.

The only thing to be added here: those saved here are saved together with their people. In the Noah section those saved were wa ahlahu (his household). This is a countable difference:

Three sections, three different extents. And the Moses section is the only one in which the whole of the people is saved.

Naṣara — root ن-ص-ر: to help. The root was treated at al-Qamar 54/10, 44 and in al-Ṣaff.

And a point the lexicographers record: one of the concrete senses of the root is rain's coming to the aid — naṣara'l-ghaythu'l-arḍa — the rain came to the aid of the earth. Help is like water coming to parched soil.

Al-ghālibīn — root غ-ل-ب: to prevail, to overcome.

A point of word order: fa-kānū hum al-ghālibīn — the pronoun hum between, the ḍamīr al-faṣl. The same structure was present in the seventy-seventh verse: jaʿalnā dhurriyyatahu hum al-bāqīn. The sūra uses this mould twice, and in both it sets up a ḥaṣr (restriction): "the ones who prevailed were they", "the ones who remained were they".

And the word will return at the end of the sūra: wa inna jundanā la-humu'l-ghālibūn (173). The same mould: la-humu'l-ghālibūn. This is a repetition that can be verified from the text and binds the sūra's sequence of prophets to its closing block.

What was realised in the past, that is, is said with the same word as the promise given for the future.

Mustabīn — root ب-ي-ن, the active participle of Form X. And the pattern is worth noting.

In Arabic Form X can announce "to find a quality in oneself / to go far in that quality". Mustabīn, then — whose clarity has thoroughly come out.

And the word occurs only here in the Qurʾān. Mubīn, by contrast, is used very often in the Qurʾān. In this one place the sūra chooses the stronger pattern. This is a datum of word choice.

The construction al-ṣirāṭu'l-mustaqīm was analysed in detail at al-Fātiḥa 1/6. I do not repeat it.

And the contrast within the sūra is completed here — this is a textual datum:

The same verb (ه-د-ي), the same word (ṣirāṭ), opposite attributes. And ninety-five verses lie between the two. The sūra uses the word at two extremes.

A point of word order: hadaynāhuma'ṣ-ṣirāṭa — the verb takes two objects, and the second without a preposition. In the twenty-third verse it was transitive with ilā (fa'hdūhum ilā ṣirāṭi'l-jaḥīm).

The difference the grammarians record: the verb hadā, when directly transitive, announces bringing to the way; when transitive with ilā, directing toward the way. Arrival in the one, then, and conveyance in the other.

I record this as my own reading: this distinction deepens the difference between the two verses. They are conveyed to the road of the blaze; they are brought to the straight path. This is a linguistic observation; the verse gives no ground.

And this is the one double salutation in the sequence. It ties to the table in the section on the structure.

And a note: both names are given in full in the salutation — ʿalā Mūsā wa Hārūn. They are not shortened to a pronoun (ʿalayhimā could have been said). In the hundred and nineteenth verse a pronoun was used (taraknā ʿalayhimā); in the hundred and twentieth the names are repeated.

I record this as my own reading: in all four of the sentences of peace the name occurs plainly (Nūḥin, Ibrāhīm, Mūsā wa Hārūn, Il Yāsīn). The peace is not left to a pronoun. This suggests that the sentence is framed to be said — in accord with the explanation recorded in the section on the seventy-eighth verse, that "what was left is that sentence itself".