لَّا يَسْـَٔمُ ٱلْإِنسَٰنُ مِن دُعَآءِ ٱلْخَيْرِ وَإِن مَّسَّهُ ٱلشَّرُّ فَيَـُٔوسٌ قَنُوطٌ
"Man does not weary of asking for good. But when evil touches him, he becomes despairing and hopeless."
| Verse | Who | What he does not weary of |
|---|---|---|
| 38 | Alladhīna ʿinda Rabbik | Glorifying — night and day |
| 49 | al-Insān | Asking for good |
The same verb, two subjects. I record this as my own reading: not wearying is described in the verse not as a virtue but as a capacity. Man has that capacity — but it is used in asking. The difference lies not in the not-wearying but in the direction.
يَـُٔوس and قَنُوط — both are in the intensive form. ي-أ-س: to cut off hope. ق-ن-ط — the root occurs for the first time in this corpus here: the sense the lexicographers give is the complete severing of hope, the settling in of despondency.
The use of the two words together sets up a gradation, and the lexicographers generally give the difference between them thus: the one is the cutting off of hope, the other the outward showing of that state. I transmit this distinction in the form in which it is transmitted.
وَإِذَآ أَنْعَمْنَا عَلَى ٱلْإِنسَٰنِ أَعْرَضَ وَنَـَٔا بِجَانِبِهِۦ وَإِذَا مَسَّهُ ٱلشَّرُّ فَذُو دُعَآءٍ عَرِيضٍ
"When We bestow favour on man he turns away and draws his side aside; but when evil touches him, he prays at length and breadth."
نَـَٔا بِجَانِبِهِ — "he moved his side away": a bodily picture. Turning the shoulder, turning aside.
دُعَآءٍ عَرِيضٍ — ʿarīḍ: broad, wide. The choice of the word is striking: the abundance of the prayer is qualified not by "long" but by "wide".
I record this as an observation: ṭūl (length) would convey continuity; ʿarḍ (breadth) conveys spreading out. That is, the prayer does not deepen; it scatters in every direction. And this comes from the same body-language as naʾā bi-jānibih (drawing the side aside) at the beginning of the same verse.