al-Shūrā 42:7

Wa kadhālika awḥaynā ilayka qurʾānan ʿarabiyyan li-tundhira umma'l-qurā wa man ḥawlahā wa tundhira yawma'l-jamʿi lā rayba fīh; farīqun fi'l-jannati wa farīqun fi's-saʿīr

"And thus We revealed to you an Arabic Qurʾān — that you may warn the mother of towns and those around it, and warn of the day of gathering, of which there is no doubt. One party in the Garden, and one party in the blaze."

Both words are indefinite (nakira): qurʾānan ʿarabiyyan — "an Arabic Qurʾān". It does not say al-qurʾāna'l-ʿarabī.

In Arabic indefiniteness sometimes conveys indeterminacy, sometimes taʿẓīm (magnification), sometimes nawʿ (kind). Here most of the exegetes read it as kind: "a recitation that is in Arabic" — that is, the type of the text is being specified.

The same construction occurs in several other places in the Qurʾān, and in all of them a clause of purpose accompanies it:

The difference is worth recording: in the other places the purpose is understanding (ʿaql, ʿilm), here it is warning. The same quality (being Arabic), that is, is tied to a different work in different contexts. In al-Shūrā the intelligibility of the language is set down as the ground for the warning's being able to arrive.

And this must be read together with the sixth verse: there it was said that the Prophet is no guardian; here it is said what he is — a warner. The two are the halves of one sentence: you are not responsible, but you are charged.

One of the densest constructions in the sūra, and the root must be dwelt on.

The root أ-م-م. In the corpus it was taken up in al-Baqara at 2/78 and in al-Jumuʿa in connection with the word ummī; the note there was this: the root means mother, and ummī, in the classical explanation, is one who has remained in the state in which he was born of his mother, that is, one who has not learned to read and write.

What belongs here are the root's other branches — because they are what make the construction ummu'l-qurā intelligible:

The picture beneath the root is this, and it is settled by the lexicographers' own descriptions: the point that is returned to, the point one comes out of. A mother is both at once — the child comes out of her and returns to her. An imām is in front, and those behind him turn towards him. The verb amma means precisely "to head towards".

For this reason a thing's central and original part is called umm in Arabic:

• أُمّ الرَّأْس — the centre of the head; the membrane of the brain.
• أُمّ الكِتَاب — the origin of the Book. The Qurʾān uses this construction: Āl ʿImrān 3/7, al-Raʿd 13/39, al-Zukhruf 43/4.
• أُمّ القُرَىٰ — the mother of towns.

The explanations given for this construction in the classical commentaries rest on the two branches of the root above:

The three do not exclude one another and all three are transmitted in the classical sources. I do not impose a preference.

There is a fact of language that must be recorded, and it is certain: in Arabic the word umm, alongside the sense "mother", has a settled usage in the sense of centre and origin. The construction, that is, is not a figure but a pattern of the language itself.

The construction occurs twice in the Qurʾān, and in both the same addition comes with it:

In both occurrences wa man ḥawlahā is present, and both come with the verb of warning. This is a fact that can be verified from the text.

Ḥawl — root ح-و-ل: to turn, to go round something. Ḥawla — the surroundings, the environs. Ḥāl (state) and taḥawwul (transformation) are from the same root; the shared picture is turning.

And the arrangement draws this circle:

I record this as my own reading: the sentence widens in space, then leaves space and leaps to time. And the day named where it leaps to time is "the day of gathering" — that is, the day on which all the circles of place are gathered in one place. The widening ends with a joining at a single point.

The root ج-م-ع: to bring together, to gather. Jumuʿa is from the same root and was treated in al-Jumuʿa.

This name is one of the names the Qurʾān uses for the day of resurrection. In Qāf a table was made of the three names Sūrat Qāf gives to the same day (yawmu'l-waʿīd, yawmu'l-khulūd, yawmu'l-khurūj). The name al-Shūrā gives brings forward another aspect: that day is the day on which those who were divided are brought together.

And this attaches to the sūra as a whole. The thirteenth verse will say lā tatafarraqū — "do not fall into division". The fourteenth will say mā tafarraqū — "they divided". Division is the subject of the sūra; and the name given to the day on which that division will be closed is "gathering".

The fifteenth verse will use the same root once more: Allāhu yajmaʿu baynanā — "God will gather us together."

And immediately after the gathering comes a dividing.

فَرِيق — root ف-ر-ق. It was treated in al-Qiyāma: to separate, to split, to open a space between; its derivatives are farq, firqa, tafriqa, farīq, iftirāq, furqān.

Now look at the uses within this sūra — this is the most striking weave of a word in it:

The same root, in three separate verses, doing three separate pieces of work: prohibition, breach, outcome.

I record this as an observation and make no claim of a deliberate play on words. What I record is what can be verified: in forbidding division, in reporting that division took place, and in describing the final separation, the sūra uses the same root.

And a point of arrangement: in the seventh verse farīq comes twice, both times indefinite — farīqun… wa farīqun. No number is given, no proportion. Two parties; which is how large is not said.

ٱلسَّعِير — root س-ع-ر: the kindling and rising of a flame. Siʿr (price) is from the same root — the lexicographers make the link by way of "rising".