al-Jāthiya 45:12-15

"It is God who has made the sea subservient to you, so that ships may run upon it by His command… And He has made subservient to you all that is in the heavens and all that is in the earth, all of it, as a gift from Him."

The root carries two branches, and the lexicographers record them together: to make subservient, to set to a task, and to mock. The root was treated in al-Ḥāqqa and in al-Ḥujurāt at 49/11 (in its branch of mockery).

The branch here is the first, and the pattern is Form II: to arrange something in such a way that it is put into service.

What the word says and what it does not say must be kept apart — I record this as my own reading: taskhīr states not that man rules the sea but that the sea is so constituted that it can carry a ship. Buoyancy, the order of the winds, the shape of the coasts — none of these is man's work. Man's work is to build the ship.

This distinction is the very same line drawn in the four proofs at al-Wāqiʿa 56/58-72: man's share is granted, and the ground on which the outcome rests is set apart.

"Say to those who believe: let them forgive those who do not look for the days of God."

The placing of this verse in this block is striking. Before it, favours are enumerated; after it, it is said that everyone will meet his own deed (man ʿamila ṣāliḥan fa-li-nafsih). In the middle there is a command about conduct: forgiveness.

And the one addressed by the command and its object are distinct: those who believe are told to forgive those who do not believe.

أَيَّامَ ٱللَّهِ — "the days of God". It is transmitted that in the classical commentaries this construction is explained either as what befell communities in the past or as the day of reckoning. I transmit both explanations; I do not impose a preference.

I record this as my own reading: the verse does not forbid requital; it defers the ruling. The continuation of the sentence says as much: li-yajziya qawman bimā kānū yaksibūn — the one who will give the requital is another.