al-Ḥujurāt 49:15

Innama'l-muʾminūna'lladhīna āmanū bi'llāhi wa rasūlihī thumma lam yartābū wa jāhadū bi-amwālihim wa anfusihim fī sabīli'llāh, ulāʾika humu'ṣ-ṣādiqūn

"The believers are only those who have believed in God and His Messenger, then have not fallen into doubt, and have striven with their wealth and their lives in the way of God. It is they who are the truthful."

The fourteenth verse refused a claim. The fifteenth describes what the claim really answers to.

And the particle innamā (restriction) is used for the second time in the sūra:

49/10: innama'l-muʾminūna ikhwa — the believers are but brothers. 49/15: innama'l-muʾminūna 'lladhīna āmanū… — the believers are only these.

Two sentences, with the same pattern, saying two different things: the one gives the relation of the believers with one another, the other their definition. And the two stand in two different blocks of the sūra: one in the block of conflict, the other in the block of identity.

I record this parallel as an observation about the word order.

The verse counts three things, and the order of the three is meaningful:

The order runs from inside outward — the reverse of the sūra's general direction. From beginning to end the sūra narrowed from outside inward; in the last block the direction reverses: it begins in the heart and comes out to wealth and life.

I record this as an observation about the word order.

ثُمَّ in Arabic generally states sequence with an interval of time: then, after a while has passed.

But the grammarians record that thumma sometimes states sequence of rank (tartīb fi'l-rutba) as well: coming afterwards not in time but in importance.

Both readings are meaningful here:

• The reading by time: they believed, then time passed and they did not fall into doubt. The test of faith, that is, is duration.
• The reading by rank: to believe is one thing; not to fall into doubt is a weightier thing than that.

I impose no preference.

Root: ر-ي-ب. Rayb — doubt; and, according to what the lexicographers record, not merely doubt but doubt that disquiets: a misgiving that troubles one inwardly. Rība — a state that arouses suspicion.

And this root was treated in the second verse of Sūrat al-Baqara: dhālika'l-kitābu lā rayba fīh — "in that Book there is no doubt."

The link between the two places is worth recording and I record it as my own reading:

al-Baqara 2/2: There is no rayb in the Book. al-Ḥujurāt 49/15: The believers are those who do not fall into rayb.

The same word, once as the quality of the text and once as the quality of the reader. The doubtlessness of the Book and the doubtlessness of the person are stated with the same root.

And that the verb lam yartābū is in a negative form is striking. The verse does not say "they attained certainty" (ayqanū); it says "they did not fall into doubt". The condition, that is, is not to gain something but for something not to happen.

This is a workable measure: no ever-increasing certainty is demanded; what is asked is not to surrender to doubt.

Root: ج-ه-د. Its root sense is strength, capacity; and the straining of one's strength to its limit. Jahd — effort, exertion. Juhd — capacity, strength. Ijtihād — to use one's strength to the utmost on a question.

Form: Form III (mufāʿala) — jāhada. It states reciprocity or intensity.

And the order is worth recording: first wealth, then life.

This pair occurs in many places in the Qurʾān and almost every time wealth comes first. Several things are recorded in the classical commentaries as explanations of this:

I impose no preference.

And the place of this verse in the last block is important: in the fourteenth verse the bedouin said "we have believed", and in the seventeenth they will count their submission a favour. There is a claim on the table, that is, and the claim has no cost.

The fifteenth verse says what is given in return for faith: wealth and life. The difference between a claim and a cost is established here.

Root: ص-د-ق. To speak truly. Ṣidq — the conformity of a word to reality. From the same root come ṣadaqa (property given — it is recorded that it takes this name because it shows the truth of one's faith) and ṣadīq (a friend — one who keeps his word).

And the work of the word here is to complete the answer given to the fourteenth verse.

There a word had been spoken: āmannā — "we have believed". Here it is stated who those are who speak that word truly: ulāʾika humu'ṣ-ṣādiqūn — "it is they who are the truthful."

The matter, that is, is not set up as a question of lying; it is set up as a question of truthfulness. The word is the same word; what makes the difference is what stands behind it.

The root ص-د-ق will come once more in the seventeenth verse: in kuntum ṣādiqīn — "if you are truthful". The two occurrences frame the last block.

And the ḍamīr al-faṣl (the pronoun of separation) is used again: ulāʾika hum al-ṣādiqūn. Its third use in the sūra (7, 11, 15).