al-Ṣāffāt 37:99-101

Wa qāla innī dhāhibun ilā rabbī sa-yahdīn · Rabbi hab lī mina'ṣ-ṣāliḥīn · Fa-bashsharnāhu bi-ghulāmin ḥalīm

"And he said: 'I am going to my Lord; He will guide me. My Lord, grant me [a child] from among the righteous.' So We gave him the good news of a forbearing boy."

A point of word order, and an important one: innī dhāhibun — a nominal sentence and an active participle. Sa-adhhabu (I shall go) or adhhabu (I am going) could have been said.

In Arabic the active participle announces the act in its settled state, become an attribute of the person. Not "I shall go", then, but "I am one who goes" — the decision is made, the matter is settled.

Dhāhibun ilā rabbī — "I am going to my Lord". And a note is required on the expression: the sentence announces a change of place, but the place to be reached is given not by the name of a place but by an attribution. Elsewhere the Qurʾān names this as a migration: innī muhājirun ilā rabbī (al-ʿAnkabūt 29/26).

What is said, that is, is not the place gone to but the direction gone in. This accords with the Qurʾān's choice not to give a place name, and no place name is given in this commentary either.

Sa-yahdīn — "He will guide me". And the yāʾ at the end of the verb has dropped: sa-yahdīn, not sa-yahdīnī. This is for the sake of the verse-ending and is a widespread usage in the Qurʾān. In the section on Qāf the same fact was recorded for the word waʿīd.

And the root ه-د-ي occurs for the second time in the sūra:

Three occurrences, the same root, two opposite directions. This is a fact countable from the text.

I record this as my own reading: Abraham does not say "I know the way", he says "He will guide me". When he makes the decision, that is, he does not know the point of arrival. The ground of the decision is not knowledge but trust.

And this is one of the most striking points of word order in the sūra: an object is missing from the sentence.

Hab lī mina'ṣ-ṣāliḥīn — "grant me … from among the righteous". What he is asking to be granted is not said.

The grammarians count this as an ellipsis and complete the elided word as waladan (a child) or ghulāman (a boy). The completion comes from the next verse: fa-bashsharnāhu bi-ghulāmin ḥalīm.

I record this as my own reading: the prayer does not name the thing asked for; it names the quality of the thing asked for. Not "give me a son" but "give me from among the righteous". At the centre of the request, that is, is not a being but an attribute.

Wahaba — root و-ه-ب: to give without return, to bestow. Hiba — a thing given without return. At the centre of the word is the absence of return: not a sale, not a reward, but a gift.

Ṣāliḥ — root ص-ل-ح: a thing's being free of defect, serviceable, sound. Its opposite is fasād (corruption). The root was analysed in al-Baqara.

And the word will occur once more in the sūra: wa bashsharnāhu bi-Isḥāqa nabiyyan mina'ṣ-ṣāliḥīn (112). The attribute asked for in the prayer (to be of the righteous), that is, will be plainly given to Isaac in the hundred and twelfth verse. This is a link that can be verified from the text.

Bashshara — root ب-ش-ر, Form II. The root was treated at al-Dhāriyāt 51/28 (wa bashsharūhu bi-ghulāmin ʿalīm) and in ʿAbasa.

The note there: the original sense of the root is connected with bashara (skin) — good news is the report that changes the skin of a person's face. And the root can be used both for good and for bad news; the Qurʾān uses it for bad news too (fa-bashshirhum bi-ʿadhābin alīm).

Ghulām — a male child approaching or newly come to maturity. The word had occurred at al-Ṭūr 52/24 (ghilmānun lahum).

Two annunciations are given to Abraham in the Qurʾān, and al-Ṣāffāt contains both. Their attributes differ:

The good news of a ghulāmin ʿalīm (a knowing boy), then, occurs in two places in the Qurʾān, while the good news of a ghulāmin ḥalīm (a forbearing boy) occurs only here.

This difference is one of the grounds of the question of "which son", which I shall take up below, and it will be set in the table there.

Ḥalīm — root ح-ل-م. And the sense of the word is worth noting: not to be hasty where one has reason to be angry, to have command of oneself, to be steady. Ḥilm — to be patient and gentle; its opposite is safah (lightness, thoughtlessness).

The Qurʾān uses the word of Abraham himself too: inna Ibrāhīma la-awwāhun ḥalīm (al-Tawba 9/114) and inna Ibrāhīma la-ḥalīmun awwāhun munīb (Hūd 11/75). The attribute used of the father, that is, is used of the son as well. This is a fact that can be verified from the text.

And I record this as my own reading: the attribute ḥalīm is exactly the attribute required for the scene that will take place in the hundred and second verse. Steadiness, not being hasty, not growing angry — this is precisely the answer the child will give. The attribute is given one verse before the scene.