al-Dukhān 44:53-54

Yalbasūna min sundusin wa istabraqin mutaqābilīn · Kadhālika wa zawwajnāhum bi-ḥūrin ʿīn

"They wear fine silk and brocade, facing one another. So it is. And We have paired them with wide-eyed companions."

The two words were treated at al-Insān 76/21. I do not repeat them. The record there:

- سُندُس (sundus) — fine, soft silk. - إِسْتَبْرَق (istabraq) — thick, glossy, figured silk; brocade.

And two further things were recorded in al-Insān, and both should be carried over here.

One — about the origin of the words:

"Some of the words used in this sūra's description of luxury entered Arabic from outside: zanjabīl, sundus, istabraq."

And in the closing record of al-Insān: "no ruling was issued as to which language they came from; it was recorded only that their having entered Arabic from outside is the widespread view." I keep the same record.

Two — about the meaning of silk in that world:

"silk was an imported good in that world. It came from China, passed from hand to hand along the road, and was a luxury of heavy price. The word, that is, is not the name of a fabric but the name of an unattainability."

I rely on that treatment.

There are two things peculiar to al-Dukhān.

One — al-Dukhān gives the two silks side by side. In al-Insān it was recorded that al-Insān 76/21 says thiyābu sundusin khuḍrun wa istabraq; in al-Dukhān there is no colour (khuḍr — green), only the two kinds.

Two — and here is the real point: the sentence does not end with the clothing.

The word is the active participle of Form VI (tafāʿul), and the basic contribution of Form VI in Arabic is reciprocity: two parties doing the same thing to one another.

Qabila — to meet, to come face to face. Qibla — the direction one faces. Mutaqābil — turned towards one another.

The word was treated at al-Wāqiʿa 56/16 (muttakiʾīna ʿalayhā mutaqābilīn) and this was recorded there:

"when these two states (muttakiʾīn and mutaqābilīn) come together, what emerges is a picture in which ease and being face to face are present at once. In this world these two mostly come apart: to be at ease one must be alone, and to be together one must be on one's guard."

In al-Dukhān the accompanying word is different, and this opens a separate reading.

In al-Dukhān mutaqābilīn comes at the end of a sentence about clothing.

And I give this as my own reading, its ground being the word order of the sentence: the sentence begins with clothing and ends with a gaze. Clothing does its work only if there is someone looking. A man's dressing is not meaningful on its own; dress establishes a relation of being seen.

The verse joins the two in a single sentence: the thing worn, and the facing of one another.

And one thing more must be recorded — as my own reading: mutaqābilīn is a state and it is plural. The description of the Garden, that is, is not built as a list of pleasures alone; reciprocity is added.

This sharpens when compared with the forty-first verse:

I present this as my own reading; the wording of the two verses is verifiable, but it is I who establish a contrast between them. The forty-first verse described the moment when relations are of no avail; the fifty-third the state in which relation is established.

It was recorded above (at verse 28) and is completed here:

The two sentences are in the same pattern and stand at the same place in the two tableaux.

I record this as a verifiable repetition within the sūra.

The verb is in Form II (zawwaja) and has been made transitive with bāʾ: zawwajnāhum bi-ḥūrin ʿīn.

And the lexicographers record this particle, because the verb zawwaja is normally directly transitive.

Two explanations are transmitted:

I issue no firm ruling.

And the same phrase occurs word for word at al-Ṭūr 52/20: wa zawwajnāhum bi-ḥūrin ʿīn. The expression, that is, is not peculiar to al-Dukhān.

This phrase was treated in al-Raḥmān, al-Ṭūr and al-Wāqiʿa. I do not repeat it. The record in al-Raḥmān:

"The word occurs in several places in the Qurʾān — at al-Dukhān 44/54, al-Ṭūr 52/20 and al-Wāqiʿa 56/22, in the form ḥūrun ʿīn (wide-eyed ḥūrs)."

I add here only a record of wording: ʿuyūn (springs, 52) and ʿīn (wide-eyed, 54) are from the same root — ع-ي-ن. In Arabic ʿayn means both eye and spring; the shared idea of the root is a source and an opening.

The sūra uses this root in both its branches two verses apart:

I record this as a verifiable datum of wording; I make no claim of a deliberate play on words.