Ṣād 38:29

Kitābun anzalnāhu ilayka mubārakun li-yaddabbarū āyātihī wa li-yatadhakkara ulu'l-albāb

"A blessed Book We have sent down to you — that they may ponder its verses and that those who have a kernel may take admonition."

This verse stands near the exact middle of the sūra, and it is a sentence of explanation: it says what the text in your hands is and what it was sent down for.

And its position must be recorded: verses twenty-one to twenty-six told an account; verses twenty-seven and twenty-eight laid down a principle; the twenty-ninth verse says how these are to be read.

The root was treated in Qāf at 50/9 and in al-Dukhān at 44/3. I rely on that.

The concrete sense of the root is worth recording, because it is surprising: بَرَكَ (baraka) — the camel's kneeling down, its settling and staying in a place. Birka — a pool, the place where water gathers and stands.

The picture of the root, that is, is a settling and a staying. Baraka — not first the increase of a thing but its remaining; the not drying up of the source of increase.

And mubārak is a passive participle: given blessing. The quality is not of itself, that is, but placed in it.

The Qurʾān uses this epithet of itself in several places (al-Anʿām 6/92, 155; al-Anbiyāʾ 21/50; al-Dukhān 44/3). What is particular to the use in Ṣād is that a ground follows immediately upon the epithet.

Root د-ب-ر. It was treated in detail in Muḥammad at 47/24, and this verse (Ṣād 38/29) was explicitly named there. I rely on that and do not repeat it here.

The summary of the findings there:

"The concrete sense of the root carries the whole weight of the word: the back, the back of a thing.… تَدَبُّر (tadabbur): to get behind a thing, to think about its end.… That is, tadabbur is not something that happens at a glance. The pattern of the word says that the work takes time and demands labour."

And in the discussion of Sūrat Muḥammad a particular note was entered for this verse:

"And Ṣād 38/29 is striking: there tadabbur is given as the ground of the Book's being sent down — li-yaddabbarū. The text, that is, ties its own reason for existing to this verb."

I rely on that note and add only two things here.

One: the difference of mood between the two sūras.

The same verb, at two different works in two sūras: in the one its absence is questioned, in the other it is set down as the reason for existing. This can be verified from the wording of the two verses.

Two: the difference of object. In Sūrat Muḥammad the object is al-Qurʾān (the whole); here it is āyātih (the parts).

I record this as my own reading: in Ṣād the object of tadabbur is the verses one by one. And joined with the root's picture of "getting behind", what comes out is this: it is asked that one get behind each verse separately — not a collective impression.

Two grounds in succession, both joined with lām. But their subjects differ:

I record this as my own reading: the first verb is a work and is asked of everyone; the second is an outcome and is tied to a particular attribute. That is, tadabbur is something anyone can do, and tadhakkur is its fruit.

أُو۟لُوا۟ ٱلْأَلْبَٰب — its singular lubb. And the concrete sense of the word must be recorded: لُبّ — the kernel of a thing, its inner part; the edible part inside the shell of a walnut or an almond.

The rendering "those of understanding" therefore falls short. Ulu'l-albāb means those who have a kernel — those who have got past the shell, who are full inside.

And the word will occur once more in this sūra, at the forty-third verse: wa dhikrā li-uli'l-albāb (at the end of the account of Job).

In both occurrences the same root (ذ-ك-ر) is named together with the same group. This is a repetition that can be verified.

I record this as my own reading: the twenty-ninth verse says of the Book as a whole that admonition is to be taken from it; the forty-third describes a single event with the same word. The accounts, that is, are instances of the function the Book describes for itself.

The ordering of the verse is worth recording: kitābun anzalnāhu ilayka mubārakun — the adjective comes after the verbal clause.

The ordinary order in Arabic would be "we sent down a blessed Book". Here comes first kitābun (indefinite — "a Book"), then anzalnāhu ilayk (a qualifying clause), then mubārak (a second adjective).

The grammarians explain this thus: the intervening clause brings the second adjective forward. The emphasis, that is, falls on mubārak.

And I record this as an observation: in the seventh verse the other side had said of this Book in hādhā illā ikhtilāq — "nothing but a fabrication." The twenty-ninth verse says three things about the same Book: it has been sent down, it is blessed, and it has a purpose. The objection is not answered directly; what the Book is, is stated, and the comparison is left to the reader.