al-Nisāʾ 4:9

Wa'l-yakhsha'lladhīna law tarakū min khalfihim dhurriyyatan ḍiʿāfan khāfū ʿalayhim, fa'l-yattaqu'llāha wa'l-yaqūlū qawlan sadīdā

"Let those be wary who, if they left weak offspring behind them, would fear for them. Let them be mindful of God and speak a word that is right / that holds."

This verse uses one of the plainest ethical techniques in the Qurʾān, and the name of the technique is exchange of places.

The structure of the sentence is this: "those who, if they themselves left weak offspring behind them, would fear for them…" — that is, the one addressed is told to put his own child in the place of the orphan before him.

And this is not an appeal to feeling but an appeal to reasoning. The verse does not say "have pity"; it says "consider your own situation". The difference between the two is this: pity depends on the state of the other party and shifts; exchange of places is a measure, and it is constant.

I record this as my own reading; its ground is the construction of the conditional clause (law tarakū … khāfū ʿalayhim).

The verse uses two different roots in the same sentence, and this must be recorded.

And their places in the word order are meaningful: khashya is commanded of the one addressed, while khawf is ascribed to the hypothetical father.

I record this as an observation about word order: the sentence takes the natural fear a man feels for his own child (khawf) and turns it into the deliberate wariness that ought to be felt for another's child (khashya).

ضِعَاف — root ض-ع-ف: weakness. And this root will return in a far heavier place in the later parts of the sūra:

In the ninth verse weakness is a state; in the seventy-fifth it passes into Form X and becomes something that is done.

This distinction was treated at al-Qaṣaṣ 28/4-5, and it was recorded there: "يَسْتَضْعِفُ — root ض-ع-ف, Form X: to reckon someone weak and to make him weak. The pattern matters: weakness is not something that happens of itself but something that is done." I rely on that treatment.

This weave of roots is one of the clearest data showing the backbone of the sūra, and the places of the words can be counted.

Root س-د-د: to close a breach, to stop it up; and to aim straight, to hit the mark. Sadd — a barrier, a dam (a wall that closes a gap); sadād — hitting the mark; musaddad — aimed at a target.

So qawlan sadīdan says two things at once: a word that hits the mark and a word that closes a gap.

The same expression occurs at al-Aḥzāb 33/70 (yā ayyuha'lladhīna āmanu'ttaqu'llāha wa qūlū qawlan sadīdā) and was treated there; I rely on that treatment.

Comparing the two verses is worth recording:

And the context here makes the sense of the word precise: the word spoken at the division of an estate and at the making of a bequest. What the verse asks for, then, is a word that is both true and leaves no gap.

Several views are transmitted in the classical commentaries about whom this verse speaks to:

I do not impose a preference. All three are compatible with the wording of the verse, and all three come out at the same place: that the right of the one left behind be looked after.