al-Ṣāffāt 37:69-74

Innahum alfaw ābāʾahum ḍāllīn · Fa-hum ʿalā āthārihim yuhraʿūn · Wa laqad ḍalla qablahum aktharu'l-awwalīn · Wa laqad arsalnā fīhim mundhirīn · Fa'nẓur kayfa kāna ʿāqibatu'l-mundharīn · Illā ʿibāda'llāhi'l-mukhlaṣīn

"They found their forefathers astray, and they are rushed along in their tracks. Before them most of those of old had gone astray. And We had sent warners among them. Look, then, how the end of those warned turned out — except God's chosen servants."

Root ل-ف-و (also recorded as أ-ل-ف-و): to come upon a thing, to meet with it, to find. Form IV: alfā — he found, he came upon.

And the choice of the verb is worth noting. Wajada (he found) could also have been said. The difference the lexicographers record: alfā announces meeting by chance, without searching. In the Qurʾān: wa alfayā sayyidahā lada'l-bāb (Yūsuf 12/25) — "and they came upon her husband at the door".

I record this as my own reading: the verb announces that the finding was not their own choice. It is a state they found ready where they were born. And it is not this that the verse blames; what is blamed is in the next verse: continuing without question what they found.

Ḍāllīn — root ض-ل-ل: to lose the way. The root was analysed in al-Fātiḥa (wa la'ḍ-ḍāllīn). The note there: the concrete picture of the root is losing the way in the desert; one who is lost need not be of ill intent.

A point of word order: ḍāllīn stands as a circumstantial — "they found them in a state of having gone astray". What is qualified, that is, is not the persons they found but the state they found.

Root ه-ر-ع. And the word is worth noting: the verb is in the passive pattern but its sense is active.

The sense the lexicographers give: ihrāʿ — to walk fast, in haste, as though being pushed. Yuhraʿūn — they are hurried along, they are dragged.

It occurs once more in the Qurʾān: wa jāʾahu qawmuhu yuhraʿūna ilayh (Hūd 11/78) — the people of Lot came rushing toward him.

And the passive is at work here — I record this as my own reading: the verse does not say "they run", it says "they are rushed along". Who does the rushing is not said. The movement, that is, is not their own. In the sixty-ninth verse there was a state they found; in the seventieth that state carries them.

ʿAlā āthārihim — "upon their tracks". Athar — root أ-ث-ر: the mark a thing leaves behind, a footprint. The root was treated at Ghāfir (al-Muʾmin) 40/21 (wa āthāran fi'l-arḍ).

And the preposition ʿalā (upon) is worth noting: not fī (in) or ilā (toward). ʿAlā announces treading on a surface. They go, that is, treading in the footprints.

This is the most widespread mould of the theme of following the forefathers in the Qurʾān, and it was treated in detail at al-Zukhruf 43/22-23 (innā wajadnā ābāʾanā ʿalā ummatin wa innā ʿalā āthārihim muhtadūn). I rely on that treatment.

The difference here: in al-Zukhruf they themselves said this ("we are rightly guided in their tracks"); here the text says it about them, and the verb is passive. In al-Zukhruf a claim, then; here a diagnosis.

Akthar — "most". And the choice of this word is worth noting.

The verse does not say "all". Aktharu'l-awwalīn — "most of those of old".

I record this as my own reading: the word does two pieces of work. One: that the majority went astray shows that the majority is not the measure of truth — it breaks the proof from the forefathers directly. Two: saying "most" also announces that a minority did not go astray. And that minority will be named in the seventy-fourth verse: illā ʿibāda'llāhi'l-mukhlaṣīn.

The six-verse block thus sets up a logic of number: the majority went astray, the minority was saved, and the warner went to both.

Al-awwalūn — for the third time in the sūra. 17 (ābāʾuna'l-awwalūn), 71 (here), 126 (rabba ābāʾikumu'l-awwalīn — from Elijah's mouth), 168 (dhikran mina'l-awwalīn). Four occurrences, four different pieces of work.

The hundred and twenty-sixth verse is the most interesting place in this table, and I will treat it separately there: Elijah does not reject following the forefathers — he says that the forefathers too had the same Lord. The sūra, that is, takes up the question of following the forefathers from two directions: it rejects blind following, but it does not condemn the forefathers wholesale either.

Mundhir — root ن-ذ-ر, the active participle of Form IV: one who warns, who announces a bad outcome in advance. The root was treated in al-Mursalāt, in al-Qamar (the most frequent word of that sūra: 11 times) and in al-Muddaththir. I do not repeat it.

The basic note there: indhār is not to frighten but to give notice in advance — to announce while there is still time.

A point of word order: arsalnā fīhim — "We sent among them". Not ilayhim (to them). Fī announces an inclusion: the warner is not a stranger coming from outside but from among them. The same emphasis was present at Qāf 50/2: mundhirun minhum ("a warner from among themselves"), treated in Qāf.

Mundhirīn is an indefinite plural: "warners". How many they were and who they were is not said. And this indefiniteness will be removed from the seventy-fifth verse onward: the sequence will begin and the names will be given one by one.

I record this as my own reading: the seventy-second verse is the heading of the sūra's sequence of prophets. It says "We sent warners"; three verses later the names of those warners begin to be enumerated. The command fa'nẓur (look) in the seventy-third verse supports this too: what is to be looked at comes immediately after.

And the sharpest point in the word order is here:

The same root, two consecutive verses, a difference of a single vowel: kasra / fatḥa. And the sense turns about.

This is a linguistic fact that can be verified from the text and is one of the most elegant places in the sūra.

And the word will turn once more at the end of the sūra: fa-sāʾa ṣabāḥu'l-mundharīn (177) — "how evil is the morning of those who were warned". The same passive participle pattern. This is a countable repetition.

ʿĀqiba — root ع-ق-ب: to come after a thing; the heel. ʿAqib — the heel; ʿāqiba — the outcome, what comes behind a matter. The root was treated at Ghāfir (al-Muʾmin) 40/21 (kayfa kāna ʿāqibatu'lladhīna kānū min qablihim).

Fa'nẓur — root ن-ظ-ر, an imperative: look. And the addressee is singular. The command is given, that is, not to a crowd but to one person — to the Prophet, or to each single reader.

The sentence occurs for the second time in the sūra (40, 74). It was analysed in the section on the fortieth verse; I do not repeat it.

The question of word order here must be recorded: what does the exception attach to? In the seventy-third verse there was al-mundharīn (those warned); in the seventy-first, aktharu'l-awwalīn (most of those of old).

Both are transmitted by the grammarians; the sense arrives at the same place either way. I do not impose a preference.

And the closing of the block is worth recording — as my own reading: the seventy-fourth verse is identical with the fortieth, and thirty-four verses lie between them. Blocks III and IV are thus framed by the same sentence: one opens, the other closes. And inside that frame there are two pictures — the garden and zaqqūm. The frame holds the two pictures together.