al-Zukhruf 43:19-21

Wa jaʿalu'l-malāʾikata'lladhīna hum ʿibādu'r-Raḥmāni ināthā · A-shahidū khalqahum · Sa-tuktabu shahādatuhum wa yusʾalūn · Wa qālū law shāʾa'r-Raḥmānu mā ʿabadnāhum · Mā lahum bi-dhālika min ʿilmin in hum illā yakhruṣūn · Am ātaynāhum kitāban min qablihi fa-hum bihi mustamsikūn

"They reckoned the angels, who are the servants of al-Raḥmān, to be female. Were they witnesses to their creation? Their testimony will be written down, and they will be questioned. And they said: 'Had al-Raḥmān willed, we would not have served them.' They have no knowledge of this; they are only guessing. Or did We give them a Book before this, so that they are holding fast to it?"

In the middle of the verse there is a relative clause, and the sense would have held even without it. But it is there, and its work must be recorded.

Malāʾika is not simply said and passed over; what is said is "the angels who are the servants of al-Raḥmān".

I give this as an observation about the structure: the claim is refuted not by an argument against it but by putting the right name to the being that is claimed about. What is a servant cannot be an offspring.

The root ع-ب-د has been treated in the corpus (al-Kāfirūn, al-Najm, al-Dhāriyāt and others). At its core stand the picture of submission and of a road levelled by the tread of feet (ṭarīqun muʿabbad).

And the word stands at a key point in the sūra: in the fifty-ninth verse the same word will be used of the son of Mary — in huwa illā ʿabdun anʿamnā ʿalayh. The sūra, that is, puts the same name to both the angels and Jesus: servant. Two separate ascriptions are met with a single answer.

The question is a question about evidence, and its form must be recorded: a-shahidū — "were they present?"

The root ش-ه-د: to be present at an event; and from there, eyewitness testimony. At the core of the root lies being there — testimony, therefore, comes not from hearsay but from being present in person.

The verse asks this: were you there when you passed this verdict?

And it passes on without giving the answer. In its place it states a consequence: sa-tuktabu shahādatuhum wa yusʾalūn — "their testimony will be written down, and they will be questioned".

What is to be recorded is this: the verse does not name the claim "a lie"; it names it "testimony" and enters it on the record. The word, that is, is bound to the one who said it.

This stands on the same line as verse 80 at the end of the sūra: wa rusulunā ladayhim yaktubūn — "and Our messengers are with them, writing". The same root (ك-ت-ب), the same work: what is said being put on record. The question of the record was treated in al-Infiṭār and al-Muṭaffifīn; I rely on those treatments.

This is an objection the Qurʾān records in many places (al-Anʿām 6/148, al-Naḥl 16/35). Its structure is this: had God not willed it, we would not have done this; since we have done it, He willed it.

The answer the verse gives looks not at the content of the objection but at its ground:

I record this as my own reading, and its ground is that all three answers look in the same direction: the verse does not enter into the argument about decree. It does not argue whether the objection is right or wrong; it says that the one who advances the objection has no source of knowledge on the matter.

This is exactly the method of Sūrat al-Aḥqāf. It was recorded in al-Aḥqāf at 46/4: "the verse asks for two kinds of evidence: observation and transmission. It leaves no third way." In al-Zukhruf the same two ways are asked for: were you witnesses (observation — 19), was a Book given (transmission — 21).

That even the order is the same is worth recording.

The concrete sense of the root comes, in the lexicographers, from agriculture: kharaṣa'n-nakhl — he estimated by eye the crop on the date palm before it had been gathered.

The root thus conveys an estimate made without measuring. Khāriṣ — an estimator of crops. And from there: to lie, to make things up — because a statement made without measuring, if it hits the mark, does so by chance.

This word was treated in al-Dhāriyāt, and this verse was cited there too: "They are only guessing." (al-Anʿām 6/116; Yūnus 10/66; al-Zukhruf 43/20). I rely on that treatment.

I add here the word's place within the sūra, and I record this as my own reading: kharṣ is measuring by eye. The subject of the sūra is measure. The verse describes the other side's verdict not as "wrong" but as "unweighed". And in the eleventh verse it was said that the water was sent down bi-qadarin (by a measure). Water sent down by measure and a verdict passed by eye stand at the two ends of the same sūra.

The sense of the root: to hold, to grasp, to keep in hand. Form X (istimsāk): to hold on tightly, not to let go.

And the word will return in the sūra: in the forty-third verse, fa'stamsik bi'lladhī ūḥiya ilayk — "hold fast to what has been revealed to you".

The two occurrences must be compared, and this is a datum of the text:

The same pattern (Form X), the same root, twenty-two verses apart. I record this as a pattern: the sūra uses the verb "to hold fast" twice, and in both places asks what the thing held to is.