al-Ṣāffāt 37:45-49

Yuṭāfu ʿalayhim bi-kaʾsin min maʿīn · Bayḍāʾa ladhdhatin li'sh-shāribīn · Lā fīhā ghawlun wa lā hum ʿanhā yunzafūn · Wa ʿindahum qāṣirātu'ṭ-ṭarfi ʿīn · Ka-annahunna bayḍun maknūn

"A cup filled from a flowing spring is passed round among them; white, a delight for those who drink. In it there is no befuddling, nor are they drained by it. And with them are companions of modest gaze, wide-eyed — as though they were sheltered eggs."

Root ط-و-ف: to go round something. Ṭawāf — going round; ṭāʾifa — a circulating group.

The verb is passive: yuṭāfu — it is passed round. Who passes it round is not said. At al-Ṭūr 52/24 this work was plainly given to a group (wa yaṭūfu ʿalayhim ghilmānun lahum); here the agent is concealed.

I record this as my own reading: the passive takes the service out of the scene — attention rests not on the one who serves but on the state of the one served.

Kaʾs — a cup, a full vessel. The lexicographers record a distinction: in Arabic kaʾs is used only of a full cup; an empty one is called qadaḥ. I give this distinction as a transmission from the lexicographers.

Maʿīn — root م-ع-ن or ع-ي-ن. Two derivations are transmitted: (a) from the root م-ع-ن, "flowing water"; (b) from the root ع-ي-ن, "water visible to the eye, issuing from its source". It occurs elsewhere in the Qurʾān too: bi-māʾin maʿīn (al-Mulk 67/30), treated in al-Mulk.

What the two have in common is this, and it is worth noting: the water is not standing but flowing. The forty-fifth verse gives the source, the forty-sixth the colour, the forty-seventh the effect.

Bayḍāʾ — root ب-ي-ض: whiteness. And the attribute may belong, according to most of the lexicographers, to kaʾs or to maʿīn. The disagreement over the case does not markedly change the sense.

Ladhdha — root ل-ذ-ذ: to taste, to please. And a point of word order is worth noting: the word is not an adjective but a verbal noun.

The verse, that is, does not say "delicious" (ladhīdha), it says "a delight". In Arabic, when the verbal noun itself is given to a thing in place of an adjective, it is announced that the thing does not merely bear the quality but is the quality itself — a way of intensification.

In English: not "a delicious drink" but "a delight for those who drink".

And the note li'sh-shāribīn is important: the delight is defined not in the drink itself but for the one who drinks. At al-Wāqiʿa 56/55 the drinking of the left-hand side was recounted as shurba'l-hīm (the drinking of a camel that is never satisfied). The two pictures take the same act and tie it to two different outcomes.

And these two negations remove, separately, the two harms of the drink of this world.

Ghawl — root غ-و-ل. The original sense the lexicographers give: to destroy unnoticed, to spoil stealthily. Ghāla — he destroyed unawares; ightiyāl — assassination. From the same root ghūl is the name of a creature believed in Arab folklore to lead travellers astray and destroy them — I mention this name only to show the field of use of the word, not as a transmission of a belief.

What is transmitted about its sense here:

All three are transmitted; the root's sense of "stealthy spoiling" covers all three. I issue no separate ruling.

Yunzafūn — root ن-ز-ف. And the root's original picture: the water of a well being drawn off until it is exhausted. Nazafa'l-biʾr — the well ran dry. Nazf — loss of blood.

And there are two variant readings, and they change the sense:

Both are transmitted. I give no reciter's name. In both readings the two branches of sense (exhaustion / loss of reason) have also been discussed. I issue no firm ruling.

But the structure of the two negations is worth noting — as my own reading: the first (ghawl) removes the harm coming from the drink, the second (yunzafūn) what goes out of the drinker. One from outside in, one from inside out. Both directions, that is, have been closed.

The construction qāṣirātu'ṭ-ṭarf was treated at al-Wāqiʿa 56/35-37, and a connection was made there with Ṣād 38/52 as well (wa ʿindahum qāṣirātu'ṭ-ṭarfi atrāb). I rely on that treatment and do not repeat it.

The summary there: قَصَرَ — root ق-ص-ر: to shorten a thing, to limit it, to confine it to a place. Qaṣr — a palace (a place one closes oneself into); maqṣūra — a partitioned chamber. Qāṣirātu'ṭ-ṭarf — "those who keep their gaze short", that is, who do not turn their eyes to another.

Ṭarf — root ط-ر-ف: the edge of the eyelid, the tip of the gaze.

ʿĪn — the plural of ʿaynāʾ, root ع-ي-ن: having large and beautiful eyes. The lexicographers record that the concrete origin of the word is the large-eyed wild ox or the gazelle. The construction ḥūrun ʿīn was treated at al-Dukhān 44/54 and al-Ṭūr 52/20.

And this comparison was already cited at al-Ṭūr 52/24 (in the discussion of luʾluʾun maknūn), and this verse was referred to from there. I complete the mutual link here.

Maknūn — root ك-ن-ن: to cover, to keep hidden, to put inside a vessel. The root was analysed at al-Wāqiʿa 56/23 and 56/78. I do not repeat it.

Bayḍ — an egg. And there is disagreement over what the comparison is made in respect of:

All three are transmitted, and the attribute maknūn brings the second forward. I do not impose a preference.

And a comparison must be recorded — this is a textual datum:

The same attribute (maknūn), three different things likened. What is shared is the attribute: being kept hidden.

I record this as my own reading: a pearl is a comparison of worth, an egg a comparison of untouchedness. Both are qualified by the same attribute, but the one looks to value and the other to contact.