قُلْ مَآ أَسْـَٔلُكُمْ عَلَيْهِ مِنْ أَجْرٍ وَمَآ أَنَا۠ مِنَ ٱلْمُتَكَلِّفِينَ · إِنْ هُوَ إِلَّا ذِكْرٌ لِّلْعَٰلَمِينَ · وَلَتَعْلَمُنَّ نَبَأَهُۥ بَعْدَ حِينٍۭ
Qul mā asʾalukum ʿalayhi min ajrin wa mā ana mina'l-mutakallifīn · In huwa illā dhikrun li'l-ʿālamīn · Wa la-taʿlamunna nabaʾahū baʿda ḥīn
"Say: I ask you no wage for this, and I am not one of those who contrive. It is nothing but a reminder for all the worlds. And you will surely know its report after a time."
أَجْر — root أ-ج-ر: the return for a work, a wage. And the concrete sense of the root: the knitting of a broken bone (ajara'l-ʿaẓmu). The lexicographers make the link thus: a wage is what "mends" the labour spent.
And the pattern of negation is strong: mā asʾalukum… min ajr — with min intervening, generalising as to kind: "no wage whatever".
The Qurʾān repeats this sentence in the mouths of many envoys (al-Shuʿarāʾ 26/109, 127, 145, 164, 180; Yūnus 10/72; Hūd 11/29, 51, and others). This, that is, is the common declaration of envoyship.
I record this as my own reading, and its ground is the ninth and tenth verses of the sūra: there the other side was asked "are the treasuries with you, is the dominion yours?" In the eighty-sixth verse the envoy says that on his own side too there is no expectation of a treasury or a dominion. The sūra closes the question of authority on both sides.
تَكَلَّفَ — root ك-ل-ف. Its concrete sense: to load a thing on oneself by force, to make it one's own burden. Kulfa — trouble; takalluf — to make a show of having what one has not, to force a thing.
| Sense | What it means |
|---|---|
| Straining | To try to do what is not in one's power |
| Affectation | To appear other than one is; to add something of one's own |
In the seventh verse the other side had said: in hādhā illā ikhtilāq — "this is nothing but a fabrication."
In the eighty-sixth verse the envoy says: wa mā ana mina'l-mutakallifīn — "I am not one of those who contrive something of their own."
The two words are from different roots (خ-ل-ق and ك-ل-ف) but they take up the same accusation. And the sūra answers the accusation eighty verses later.
Worth recording: the answer is not a defence but a refusal. "I do not fabricate" — and no ground is given. The ground is offered in the next verse as the Book itself.
And the backbone root of the sūra comes for the last time: ذ-ك-ر. It was tabulated above — the last of eight occurrences.
| Verse | Expression |
|---|---|
| 1 | wa'l-Qurʾāni dhi'dh-dhikr — by the Qurʾān, possessor of the reminder |
| 49 | hādhā dhikr — this is a reminder |
| 87 | in huwa illā dhikrun li'l-ʿālamīn — it is a reminder for all the worlds |
And the note li'l-ʿālamīn is new: in the first verse the Book was named only dhi'dh-dhikr; here those it addresses are stated: all the worlds.
عَالَمِين — root ع-ل-م: to know. ʿĀlam — that by which something is known; a set of existing things. This word was treated in al-Fātiḥa.
I record this as my own reading: through the sūra those addressed had been narrow — the leading men of Mecca, a community, an envoy. In the last verses the compass opens. And this widening is the exact counterpart of the objection in the fourth verse: there it was said min bayninā ("from among us") — a narrow frame. Here li'l-ʿālamīn — the widest frame.
As was recorded above in the table of the jawāb al-qasam, this pattern is the most established form of an oath's answer in Arabic. And some exegetes find the answer to the oath of the first verse here. I tabulated that view there; I do not impose a preference, but I record the force of the wording once more.
| Verse | Expression | Report of what |
|---|---|---|
| 21 | hal atāka nabaʾu'l-khaṣm | Of the litigants — an account |
| 67 | huwa nabaʾun ʿaẓīm | A mighty report |
| 88 | wa la-taʿlamunna nabaʾahū baʿda ḥīn | Its report |
Three occurrences, and all three together with a verb of hearing / knowing: atāka (has it reached you), qul (say), la-taʿlamunna (you will know).
I record this as my own reading: the sūra first offers the report with a question (21), then announces its greatness (67), and at the end ties the knowing of it to a time (88).
حِين — root ح-ي-ن: an indefinite stretch of time. And this is the distinguishing side of the word: its length is not specified. It may be a moment, or it may be a long age.
And the word occurs for the second time in the sūra. In the third verse it was said: wa-lāta ḥīna manāṣ — "it was no longer the hour of escape."
| Verse | Expression | What it conveys |
|---|---|---|
| 3 | wa-lāta ḥīna manāṣ | The hour had passed — being late |
| 88 | baʿda ḥīn | The hour will come — waiting |
And it joins with the eighth verse as well: bal lammā yadhūqū ʿadhāb — "they have not yet tasted the punishment." There lammā conveyed an expectation; here that expectation is given its name: baʿda ḥīn.
I record this as my own reading, and its ground is the wording of these three verses (3, 8, 88): from beginning to end the sūra dwells on an interval of time. Knowing is not refused; it is deferred. And the mood of the sentence says this plainly: la-taʿlamunna — "you will surely know". Whether it will be known is not the matter in dispute; when it will be known is.
The sūra does not end with a threat. There is a warning in the last sentence, but the predicate of the sentence is not ʿadhāb or ʿiqāb — it is to know.
This can be compared with the close recorded in Qāf at 50/45: there too the sūra does not end with a frightening, and the last command was a reminding.
| Sūra | The predicate of the last sentence | What it conveys |
|---|---|---|
| Qāf 50/45 | fa-dhakkir bi'l-Qurʾān | A command — to the envoy |
| Ṣād 38/88 | wa la-taʿlamunna nabaʾah | A report — to the one addressed |
The two sūras look in two different directions: Qāf tells the envoy what he is to do, Ṣād tells the one addressed what will happen.