Qāf 50:23

Wa qāla qarīnuhū hādhā mā ladayya ʿatīd

"His companion said: here is what I have, ready."

Its concrete sense: to bind two things together, to pair them.

• قَرَنَ بَيْنَ شَيْئَيْن — he brought two things together, he bound them.
• قِرَان — joining together; it is used of the marriage contract as well.
• قَرْن — a horn; and a generation (those who live together at one time).
• قِرْن — an equal, a peer.
• قَرِين — one who is constantly together with another, an inseparable companion.

The picture beneath the word is two animals yoked to the same beam. A qarīn is not one who walks beside you; it is one bound to the same bond.

In the classical commentaries there are two main views, and the disagreement must not be concealed:

And the question is this: is the qarīn of 23 the same being as that of 27?

In this disagreement I do not impose a preference. Both readings have support: the first is supported by the repetition of the word, the second by the content of the clauses.

One observation that can be recorded: the clause in the twenty-third verse is a clause of delivery (here it is, ready), the one in the twenty-seventh a clause of defence. Two different tasks.

The clause is extremely short, and the shortness shows that the work is finished.

Hādhā (here is) — mā ladayya (what I have) — ʿatīd (ready).

And the word ʿatīd, as recorded above, comes back from the eighteenth verse. The same adverb is repeated too: ladayhi → ladayya.

The adverb ladā occurs four times in the sūra, and all four have to do with the reckoning:

The adverb rises as it shifts place: from beside the person to beside the qarīn, and from there into the presence.

I record this as an observation; all four occurrences stand in the text.