al-Shūrā 42:16 commentary

42/16

وَٱلَّذِينَ يُحَآجُّونَ فِى ٱللَّهِ مِنۢ بَعْدِ مَا ٱسْتُجِيبَ لَهُۥ حُجَّتُهُمْ دَاحِضَةٌ عِندَ رَبِّهِمْ وَعَلَيْهِمْ غَضَبٌ وَلَهُمْ عَذَابٌ شَدِيدٌ

Wa'lladhīna yuḥājjūna fi'llāhi min baʿdi ma'stujība lahu ḥujjatuhum dāḥiḍatun ʿinda rabbihim wa ʿalayhim ghaḍabun wa lahum ʿadhābun shadīd

"As for those who argue about God after His call has been answered — their proof slips away with their Lord; upon them is anger, and for them a severe punishment."

مِنۢ بَعْدِ مَا ٱسْتُجِيبَ لَهُۥ — the third "after"

Within three verses the sūra frames the pattern min baʿdi mā for the third time. This is a verifiable repetition:

Verse	After what came	What happened
14	min baʿdi mā jāʾahumu'l-ʿilm	They divided
16	min baʿdi ma'stujība* lah*	They argue
(21)	—	(The pattern changes)

This is the measure the sūra sets, and it is the same as the measure recorded in al-Baqara at 2/213: the trouble arises not before knowledge but after it.

Ustujība lahu is passive and its agent is not stated: "it was answered." By whom? In the classical commentaries there are two readings:

Reading	Who answered
1	People — there were those who responded to the call, and afterwards they began to argue
2	God — the Prophet's prayer or call was answered, and the matter was settled

I do not impose a preference. What is to be recorded: the verb is passive, and the agent's not being stated throws the weight of the sentence onto time — onto the word "after".

حُجَّتُهُمْ دَاحِضَةٌ — the slipping proof

دَاحِضَة — root د-ح-ض. And the concrete sense of the word is striking:

Daḥaḍa'l-qadam — the foot slipped. Makānun daḥḍun — a slippery place.

A dāḥiḍa, then, means not so much "invalid" as "unable to hold, with its footing gone".

The choice of word carries a picture, and I record it: the proof is rejected not because it is false but because one cannot stand on it. Like a surface that slips when a foot is set on it.

The Qurʾān uses the same root elsewhere in a similar sense: "…that they might drive out the truth with it (li-yudḥiḍū bihi'l-ḥaqq)…" (al-Kahf 18/56; al-Muʾmin 40/5). There the verb is transitive: to make the truth slip.

And its link with the fifteenth verse:

Verse	Sentence	What it says
15	Lā ḥujjata* baynanā wa baynakum*	The argument is closed
16	…ḥujjatuhum* dāḥiḍatun ʿinda rabbihim*	The proof of the one who carries it on does not hold

The same word (ḥujja), in two consecutive verses: one is set aside, the other declared void. This is a fact that can be verified from the text.

غَضَبٌ and عَذَابٌ — two indefinites

غَضَب — root غ-ض-ب. As recorded in al-Fatḥ, the root holds the idea of swelling, intensifying.

Both words come indefinite: ghaḍabun, ʿadhābun. In Arabic this can convey magnification (taʿẓīm) or enlargement by leaving indefinite: "an anger — and what an anger!"

And the prepositions differ, which must be recorded too:

Construction	Preposition	What it conveys
wa ʿalayhim* ghaḍab*	ʿalā — upon	A state that settles upon them
wa lahum* ʿadhāb*	li — for	A recompense set apart for them

One upon them, the other for them. This distinction is settled in Arabic, and the construction al-maghḍūbi ʿalayhim in al-Fātiḥa uses the same preposition.