al-Zukhruf 43:33-35

Wa law lā an yakūna'n-nāsu ummatan wāḥidatan la-jaʿalnā li-man yakfuru bi'r-Raḥmāni li-buyūtihim suqufan min fiḍḍatin wa maʿārija ʿalayhā yaẓharūn · Wa li-buyūtihim abwāban wa sururan ʿalayhā yattakiʾūn · Wa zukhrufā · Wa in kullu dhālika lammā matāʿu'l-ḥayāti'd-dunyā · Wa'l-ākhiratu ʿinda rabbika li'l-muttaqīn

"Were it not that people would become a single community, We would have made, for the houses of those who reject al-Raḥmān, ceilings of silver and stairways by which they might climb; and doors to their houses, and couches on which to recline — and gold ornament. All of this is nothing but the passing enjoyment of the life of this world. The hereafter, with your Lord, is for those who guard themselves."

The name of the sūra occurs in this verse, and the whole block is the summit of the question of measure.

The sentence opens with a law lā condition — this time not in the sense "why was it not so" but in the sense "were it not so" (the law lā of prevention, imtināʿ): the presence of one thing has caused another not to happen.

What does the expression ummatan wāḥidatan describe? Here the exegetes differ:

The first reading is the reading of the majority; I give it as it has been transmitted.

And this must be recorded: the word umma occurs for the third time in the sūra, and this time in its primary sense: a community. In the twenty-second and twenty-third verses it was in the sense "the line followed".

The verse says this: were there no objection to it, houses with silver ceilings would be given to those who reject.

Wealth, that is, is named not as a sign of nearness but in exactly the opposite context.

I record this as my own reading, and its ground is the conditional structure of the sentence: the verse does not merely say that the distribution of wealth is not an indicator of value; it says that it is withheld because giving it would carry an objection.

And this is the final answer to the objection in the thirty-first verse: the objection said that the message ought to have been given to "a great man". This verse shows how cheap the thing counted as the measure of greatness is: something that could have been handed out wholesale, were there no objection to it.

The root س-ق-ف: to cover, to close over. Saqf — a ceiling, a roof. The Qurʾān names the sky saqf as well: wa jaʿalna's-samāʾa saqfan maḥfūẓā (al-Anbiyāʾ 21/32).

This link is worth recording, and I give it as an observation: the same word indicates in one place the sky and in another the ceiling of a house. What the verse describes is a house that puts a silver ceiling between itself and the sky.

فِضَّة — root ف-ض-ض: to scatter, to separate, to break up. Infaḍḍa — it dispersed. The use of this word for silver is explained by the lexicographers by the metal's being workable and divisible into parts. Fiḍḍa, the metal that can be poured out and scattered.

The root ع-ر-ج: to rise, to climb; and aʿraj — lame (one who rises to one side as he walks).

This verse was already cited in al-Maʿārij, and this was recorded there:

"مَعَارِج — it occurs once more in the Qurʾān, and there in its concrete sense: '…[We would have made] ceilings of silver for their houses, and stairways by which they might climb' (al-Zukhruf 43/33). Al-Zukhruf 43/33 gives the concrete form of the word: the stairway by which a house is climbed."

I rely on that treatment and add here the link within the sūra.

Yaẓharūn — from the root ظ-ه-ر: to come out on top, to become visible. The same root occurred in the thirteenth verse as ẓuhūrihi (their backs).

I record this as a datum of the text: in the thirteenth verse a human being climbed onto the back of a mount and glorified God. In the thirty-third he climbs by a stairway onto the top of his house. The same root, two ascents — one named with thanks, the other with display.

سُرُر — the plural of sarīr. The root س-ر-ر: the lexicographers reckon this word to be from the same root as surūr (joy) and make the link thus: a sarīr is a place of joy and ease.

The word occurred in al-Wāqiʿa in a description of the Garden (ʿalā sururin mawḍūna). And this leads to the most striking aspect of the block.

Yattakiʾūn — Form VIII from the root و-ك-أ: to recline, to lean. The same verb occurs again and again in the Qurʾān's descriptions of the Garden (al-Kahf 18/31, Yā-Sīn 36/56, al-Raḥmān 55/54, al-Wāqiʿa 56/16).

What is enumerated in the thirty-fourth verse, then — couches, reclining — are the words of the descriptions of the Garden.

I record this as my own reading, and its ground is that the words are shared: in describing what could be given in this world, the verse speaks with the words of what will be given in the hereafter. And immediately afterwards it sets down the difference: wa in kullu dhālika lammā matāʿu'l-ḥayāti'd-dunyā.

The difference is not in the object; it is in how long the object lasts.

The root ز-خ-ر-ف is analysed here for the first time in the corpus.

The root is quadriliteral, and the senses the lexicographers give are these:

• زُخْرُف — gold; and from there ornament, decoration, gilding.
• زَخْرَفَ البَيْت — he adorned the house, decked it out.
• زُخْرُف القَوْل — the ornamented kind of speech, polished speech. The Qurʾān uses this construct in al-Anʿām 6/112: yūḥī baʿḍuhum ilā baʿḍin zukhrufa'l-qawli ghurūrā — "they whisper to one another gilded speech, to deceive."
• أَخَذَتِ الأَرْضُ زُخْرُفَهَا — the earth took on its ornament; the Qurʾān uses this in Yūnus 10/24: ḥattā idhā akhadhati'l-arḍu zukhrufahā wa'zzayyanat — and there too what immediately follows is the account of everything being mown down and gone.

The word's relation to the verb zakhara (ز-خ-ر) is recorded by the lexicographers, and the relation is worth dwelling on.

Zakhara'l-baḥr — the sea swelled, its water rose, it brimmed over. Zakhara'n-nabt — the plant grew rank, shot up.

Some of the lexicographers attach the word zukhruf to this root and explain it thus: ornament is a thing's swelling, its appearing fuller than it is. I transmit this derivational relation as the lexicographers record it; I do not present it as a settled etymological ruling.

But once the relation is made, the picture of the word becomes this, and I give it as my own reading:

Swollen water is not as deep as it looks. When the sea swells its volume grows, but the swelling does not come from the water itself — it comes from the motion beneath it. Ornament likewise enlarges a thing's volume, not the thing.

And this explains why the sūra's name is this word — I record it as an observation: from beginning to end the sūra works the difference between the volume a thing appears to have and its own weight.

The arrangement must be recorded too: wa zukhrufā comes as a separate verse, as a one-word addition.

After the enumeration is finished — ceiling, stairway, door, couch — "and gold ornament" is said, as a verse standing on its own.

I record this as an observation about the arrangement: what is added when the list is done is not a thing that does any work. A ceiling covers, a stairway raises, a door admits, a couch supports. Zukhruf does no work at all. And that is the name of the sūra.

The construction of the sentence carries a question of variant readings, and it must be transmitted:

Both readings have been transmitted, and the sense comes out at the same place. The difference is at the level of structure: in the first the sentence is negation plus exception, in the second affirmation plus emphasis.

I give this as a note on the readings; since it produces no change in meaning I do not set up a question of preference.

The root م-ت-ع occurred in the twenty-ninth verse as mattaʿtu. The core of the word: to draw a passing benefit from something. Matāʿ — provision for the road, portable goods, a temporary advantage.

And the lexicographers record one more branch of the root: amtaʿa'l-ḥabl — the rope stretched, drew out. In the root, that is, there is an idea of lengthening and then ending.

And the block closes with a single sentence.

The arrangement must be recorded:

The interposed ʿinda rabbika is worth recording. The sentence could have been built as "the hereafter is for those who guard themselves". "With your Lord" comes in between.

I record this as my own reading, and its ground is the seemingly unnecessary position of the expression: the things enumerated throughout the block were in houses — ceiling, stairway, door, couch. The closing sentence gives the name of another place: "with your Lord". Two locations are set side by side.

The root و-ق-ي: to protect, to set a shield in front of something. Taqwā, in the picture of the root, is to protect oneself with something. The root has been treated in many places in the corpus.

And the choice of word closes the question of measure: throughout the block the measures that separate people were enumerated — wealth, rank, lineage, appearance. The measure enumerated at the close is an act: guarding oneself. Not something given, but something done.

And this completes the distinction between the two darajāt in the thirty-second verse: the ranking in this world is given (qasamnā, rafaʿnā); the recompense in the hereafter is attached to an attribute (li'l-muttaqīn).

The fifth block (31-35) makes a complete turn in five verses:

I record this as an observation about the structure: the block opens with an objection and closes with a measure, and in between the thing itself on which the objection rests is taken up — not by rejecting it, but by stating its price.