أَفَمَن شَرَحَ ٱللَّهُ صَدْرَهُۥ لِلْإِسْلَٰمِ فَهُوَ عَلَىٰ نُورٍ مِّن رَّبِّهِۦ … ٱللَّهُ نَزَّلَ أَحْسَنَ ٱلْحَدِيثِ كِتَٰبًا مُّتَشَٰبِهًا مَّثَانِىَ تَقْشَعِرُّ مِنْهُ جُلُودُ ٱلَّذِينَ يَخْشَوْنَ رَبَّهُمْ ثُمَّ تَلِينُ جُلُودُهُمْ وَقُلُوبُهُمْ إِلَىٰ ذِكْرِ ٱللَّهِ
"One whose breast God has opened to Islam… God has sent down the fairest of discourse, a Book whose parts resemble one another and which comes in pairs. The skins of those who fear their Lord shiver at it; then their skins and their hearts soften to the remembrance of God."
The root ش-ر-ح: to cut open, to widen. The root was analysed in al-Inshirāḥ in connection with the name of that sūra (a-lam nashraḥ laka ṣadrak). I do not repeat it here.
What is set opposite it is worth recording: fa-waylun li'l-qāsiyati qulūbuhum min dhikri'llāh — those whose hearts have hardened.
That is, the opposition is not open / closed but opened / hardened. Both are the result of a process.
That the word ḥadīth (speech, discourse) is used of the Book must be recorded. The same word was treated in al-Jāthiya at 45/6 (fa-bi-ayyi ḥadīthin baʿda'llāhi wa āyātihī yuʾminūn) and in al-Wāqiʿa at 56/81 (a-fa-bi-hādha'l-ḥadīthi antum mudhinūn). In all three places the Book is named as "speech" — and here it takes a superlative: aḥsanu'l-ḥadīth.
مُتَشَابِه — root ش-ب-ه: to resemble. Its use here differs from the distinction muḥkam / mutashābih treated in al-Baqara: there the verses whose meaning is closed were meant; here the whole of the Book is named with this adjective. The lexicographers give the sense here as "its parts holding together, consistent in style and in content".
مَثَانِى — root ث-ن-ي: to fold, to double, to repeat. There is disagreement over what the word answers to here:
| Reading | What mathānī is |
|---|---|
| 1 | Repeated — the recurrence of the narratives, the rulings, the warnings |
| 2 | Paired — its coming in twos, such as Garden and Fire, good news and warning |
| 3 | Folded — coming section by section, one upon another |
All three are transmitted; I do not impose a preference. The second reading is consistent with the structure of this sūra — the sūra is built out of pairs from beginning to end, and I set this out in a table in the section on the structure. I record this as a supporting indication, not as a preference.
ق-ش-ع-ر — a four-letter root; the shivering of the skin, the standing on end of the hair. The word occurs only here in the Qurʾān.
The order of the two stages and their scope are worth recording, and I give this as my own reading: the first reaction is in the skin alone, and it is a start of alarm. At the second stage the heart joins in, and the movement acquires a direction: ilā dhikri'llāh.
That is, the text first affects the body, then gives a direction. And this is the exact opposite of the adjective qāsiya (hardened) in the twenty-second verse: the hardening heart and the softening heart are set against one another within the same block.