al-Zukhruf 43:57-58

Wa lammā ḍuriba'bnu Maryama mathalan idhā qawmuka minhu yaṣiddūn · Wa qālū a-ālihatunā khayrun am huwa · Mā ḍarabūhu laka illā jadalā · Bal hum qawmun khaṣimūn

"And when the son of Mary was put forward as an example, there was your people clamouring about him. And they said: 'Are our gods better, or he?' They put him to you only for the sake of argument. Indeed they are a contentious people."

In treating this block I must set a limit from the outset, per the method (Method).

These verses issue no blanket ruling about a religious group, and neither shall I. What the verses work on is a stance taken at a particular moment of argument: an example being put forward, without its content being discussed, in order to win the argument. What the verdict is attached to is not the name of a community but an attribute: qawmun khaṣimūn — a contentious people.

And in the sixty-third verse Jesus's own words will be reported; in the sixty-fifth, those who fell into disagreement will be named al-aḥzāb — again an attribute, again not a name.

The root comes for the fourth time in the sūra. I complete here the table I set out at the head of the sūra (see "The structure of the sūra"):

The root four times, in three distinct pieces of work. This is a verifiable datum of the text.

And that the verb comes in the passive in the fifty-seventh verse must be recorded: ḍuriba — "was put forward". By whom it was put forward is not stated.

I give this as an observation about the arrangement: the verse does not name the one who put the example forward; it names the reaction.

Two readings of the word are transmitted, and the difference touches the meaning:

Both have been transmitted by the imams of the readings.

In the discussion of Muḥammad at 47/1 the two branches of the root ص-د-د were treated, and this verse was cited there:

"Intransitive — ṣadda ʿan: he himself turned away. 'When they see you they turn away from you' (in al-Zukhruf 43/57, yaṣiddūn from the same root)."

I rely on that treatment and add here the root's other branch.

The lexicographers record for ṣadīd / ṣadda the sense "noise, clamour" as well, and illustrate it with the sound of a camel. The lexicographers do not settle the link between the two branches; there are also those who count them two separate roots. I transmit this disagreement as it has been transmitted.

I do not impose a preference. But this can be recorded: on either reading what is described is not an argument but a reaction — either an uproar or a turned back. Neither goes into the content.

And the root occurs three times in the sūra:

The question is a comparison, and it is added to the sūra's patterns of comparison.

The comparisons in the sūra built with the word khayrun (better) are these:

Three comparisons in one sūra. Two of them a claim of superiority, one a correction of measure.

I record this as a datum of the text and add as an observation: the sūra does not refuse to make comparisons. It makes one itself (32). The objection is to what is being compared with what.

In the classical commentaries different accounts are transmitted about the conversation after which these verses came, and they do not agree with one another. I report them as far as they have been transmitted, without issuing a ruling:

I give none of these accounts as certain knowledge. Even in their sources it is stated that they are recorded in differing forms.

And the verse itself already delivers a verdict, and this verdict needs no accounts: mā ḍarabūhu laka illā jadalā.

The concrete sense of the root: to twist or plait a rope or a strap tightly. Jadala'l-ḥabl — he twisted the rope firm. Jadīl — a plaited strap, a camel's halter.

And from here comes the sense of dispute. The lexicographers make the link thus: two disputing parties each try to twist the other, to pull him over to their side — like mujādala in wrestling. Indeed jadala is also used in the sense of throwing someone to the ground.

The picture of the word is worth recording, and I give it as an observation: jadal, at its root, is not arriving at a truth but twisting the other side. The aim is not a conclusion but getting the upper hand.

And the Qurʾān's stance on jadal is not a blanket prohibition: in al-Naḥl 16/125 it commands wa jādilhum bi'llatī hiya aḥsan (dispute with them in the best manner). The issue, that is, is not disputation itself but the purpose of the disputation.

The root خ-ص-م — it occurred in the eighteenth verse as khiṣām. I complete here the comparison I set out above (in the discussion of 43/18): in one place, one counted small because she cannot contend; in the other, those who do nothing but contend.

Khaṣimūn is an intensive form (the plural of faʿil): one who contends much.