Ṣād 38:36-40

Fa-sakhkharnā lahu'r-rīḥa tajrī bi-amrihī rukhāʾan ḥaythu aṣāb · Wa'sh-shayāṭīna kulla bannāʾin wa ghawwāṣ · Wa ākharīna muqarranīna fi'l-aṣfād · Hādhā ʿaṭāʾunā fa'mnun aw amsik bi-ghayri ḥisāb · Wa inna lahū ʿindanā la-zulfā wa ḥusna maʾāb

"And We made the wind subservient to him: it ran at his command, gently, wherever he directed. And the satans too — every builder and diver — and others bound together in fetters. 'This is Our giving; so bestow or withhold — without reckoning.' And with Us he has a nearness and a good place of return."

The same verb (sakhkharnā) was used of David in the eighteenth verse: sakhkharna'l-jibāla maʿahū.

The difference between the two sentences lies in the particles, and it is fine:

This is a difference that can be verified, and I record it as my own reading: what is given to David is a work done together; what is given to Solomon is a power tied to command. Both are taskhīr; the form of the relation differs.

Root ر-خ-و: to be soft, to be slack. Rikhwa — slackness; rakhāʾ — breadth, plenty (a relative from the same root).

The choice of the word is worth recording. In the Qurʾān the wind is mostly named with force and violence (rīḥan ṣarṣarā — Fuṣṣilat 41/16; al-Qamar 54/19). Here the opposite epithet: rukhāʾ — gentle.

I record this as my own reading: this conveys that the power given is controlled. The wind is at his command, but not harsh. The power is given in a consistency that will not batter what it carries.

حَيْثُ أَصَابَ — root ص-و-ب: to hit a thing, to find the right target. Ṣawāb — that which hits the mark; muṣība — that which strikes (in the negative direction).

The phrase is rendered "wherever he wished"; but the root of the word is not "he wished" but "he hit the mark". The lexicographers record that in this use the verb aṣāba carries the sense "to aim at, to make for".

Two names of trades are given, and both are on the faʿʿāl pattern — that is, the pattern that conveys a trade:

I record this as an observation: two works, two opposite directions. One raises up, the other goes down. And both are works of extraction: the one takes stone from its place and sets it in a building, the other brings something up from the bottom of the sea.

غَاصَ — root غ-و-ص: to dive into water. The lexicographers record that the word is used in particular for bringing up pearls.

مُقَرَّنِين — root ق-ر-ن: to bind two things to one another, to bring them side by side. A passive participle of Form II: bound together.

The concrete sense of the root: to yoke two animals to the same yoke. Qarīn — the one bound alongside; this word was treated in Qāf at 50/23 and 27.

أَصْفَاد — its singular ṣafad. Root ص-ف-د: a tie, a chain, a shackle. The lexicographers describe the ṣafad as "a bond that ties the hands to the neck".

And three groups are counted:

I record this as my own reading: the power given is not only the power to make things serve but also the power to hold in check. Some of them work, some are held fast. There is an order inside the kingdom, that is: not everything is loose.

And now the answer to the prayer of the thirty-fifth verse comes.

عَطَاء — root ع-ط-و: to give, to hold out. Aʿṭā — he gave. The concrete sense of the root is handing a thing from hand to hand.

فَٱمْنُنْ — root م-ن-ن. And the word has two branches:

The sense here is the first: "give, bestow". The Qurʾān uses the second sense too, and forbids it (al-Baqara 2/264 — lā tubṭilū ṣadaqātikum bi'l-manni wa'l-adhā).

أَمْسِكْ — root م-س-ك: to hold, to keep in hand, not to let go.

The two commands are opposites: imnun (give) and amsik (withhold). And both are left free: "bestow or withhold."

بِغَيْرِ حِسَابٍ — "without reckoning". And the construct has been understood in two ways:

Both explanations are transmitted; I do not impose a preference.

And as was tabulated above, this is one of the four occurrences of the word ḥisāb in the sūra, and the only positive one. In the sixteenth verse the day was wanted brought forward, in the twenty-sixth it had been forgotten, in the fifty-third it will be the address of a promise. Here, however, it is lifted.

I record this as an observation: the sūra's central word (reckoning) is suspended inside an authority given to a prophet. And this must be read together with the qualification placed on David in the twenty-sixth verse — there the authority to judge was bound to a measure (bi'l-ḥaqq, lā tattabiʿi'l-hawā); here the authority to give is left free.

I record this as my own reading, and its ground is the comparison of the two verses: two different authorities are given to two prophets, and the one is tightly bound, the other free. And the difference comes from whom the authority touches: a judgment touches another man's right, a gift comes out of one's own portion.

It is the exact repetition of the twenty-fifth verse. It was tabulated above.

And that the two accounts close with the same sentence must be recorded: the one after a test and a forgiveness, the other after a kingdom and an authority. What was given differs; the place arrived at is the same.