Qāf 50:27-29

Qāla qarīnuhū rabbanā mā aṭghaytuhū wa lākin kāna fī ḍalālin baʿīd — qāla lā takhtaṣimū ladayya wa qad qaddamtu ilaykum bi'l-waʿīd — mā yubaddalu'l-qawlu ladayya wa mā anā bi-ẓallāmin li'l-ʿabīd

"His companion said: Our Lord, I did not make him transgress; he was himself in a far-gone error. — He said: do not quarrel in My presence; I sent the threat ahead to you. — With Me the word is not changed, and I am no wronger of the servants."

Three verses build one scene: accusation, defence, verdict.

And the form of the defence is striking: the qarīn does not say that he did nothing, but that his influence was not decisive.

طُغْيَان — root ط-غ-ي. Its concrete sense: to overflow, to spread past a limit. The overflowing of water from its vessel. The Qurʾān uses this plainly: "When the water overflowed (lammā ṭagha'l-māʾu) We carried you in the ship" (al-Ḥāqqa 69/11).

Aṭghā — the ifʿāl form: to make overflow. The accusation, that is, is: "you made him overflow."

And the defence does not deny the overflowing; it denies being the one who caused it.

The same defence is transmitted in another place in the Qurʾān, at much greater length:

"When the matter was decided Satan said: God promised you what is true; I promised you too, and I broke my word. I had no compelling power over you; I only called, and you answered me. So do not blame me, blame yourselves." (Ibrāhīm 14/22)

In the section on al-Nās the principle this verse carries was recorded: "the whisperer has no compelling power in his hand. The only thing he has is a call — an invitation, a word, a whisper. Since there is no compulsion, the responsibility stays with the person."

Qāf 50/27 is the shortest form of the same defence.

And a note is needed: these verses transmit Satan's defence not in order to confirm it but in order to show where responsibility lies. Indeed the next verse cuts the dispute off — that is, the defence is neither accepted nor argued with.

And the key word of the sūra comes for the third time.

In the third verse what was "far" was the resurrection. In the twenty-seventh what is "far" is the error.

And this is one of the clearest corrections the sūra makes by way of a word, and I give it as my own reading: what was far was not the resurrection; what was far was the place they had fallen into.

Ḍalāl — root ض-ل-ل. To lose the way, to stray. The concrete sense of the root is losing the track in the desert. And the adjective baʿīd brings that concrete sense to life: having strayed far from the road.

اِخْتِصَام — root خ-ص-م. To go to law, to contend. Khaṣm — an adversary, a litigant; khuṣūma — contention.

The verb is plural: takhtaṣimū — "do not quarrel (you, a group)". Yet there are two parties in the scene. The plural either takes in the crowd both parties represent, or is the general form of prohibition used in Arabic for more than two.

And the place in which the prohibition is set matters: ladayya — "in My presence". What is forbidden, that is, is not quarrelling itself but quarrelling there.

I give this as my own reading: the dispute had its place and its time; that place was this world. At the moment of judgement dispute is pointless, because it does not change the judgement.

قَدَّمْتُ — root ق-د-م. To bring forward, to send ahead. Taqdīm — to put forward; qadīm — what comes before; qadam — a foot (what is put forward).

And the verb is in the tafʿīl form: to send ahead, to convey beforehand.

This clause is the ground of the justice of the verdict. The punishment is not a surprise; the announcement had been made.

And it has a link with the fourteenth verse: there it was said "my threat came true" — of the peoples of the past. Here it is said that the threat had been announced beforehand. The two together: notice was given, and then it came to pass.

بَدَّلَ — root ب-د-ل. To change, to put another thing in the place of a thing. Badal — what takes a thing's place.

The verb is passive and in the imperfect: yubaddalu — "is not changed". It states a general ruling.

ٱلْقَوْل — the word. Definite: "that word" — that is, the one announced beforehand.

And this sets up an interesting echo with the eighteenth verse. There a person's word yalfiẓu (is thrown from his mouth) and is taken. Here God's word lā yubaddalu (is not changed).

Two words, two fates: a person's word is thrown out and recorded; God's word does not change.

I record this as my own reading.

Here there is a question the grammarians and exegetes dwell on at length.

ظَلَّام is on the faʿʿāl pattern and conveys intensity: "one who wrongs much". The verse negates this: "I am no great wronger of the servants."

The objection is plain: does "I am no great wronger" mean "I wrong a little"?

The classical answers are these:

These three explanations are widely transmitted in the classical sources and complete one another. The first is the closest to the text, because it rests on the word's coming together with li'l-ʿabīd (of the servants — plural).

And this principle is established by the Qurʾān's own words: "God does not wrong anyone by so much as a speck" (al-Nisāʾ 4/40).

عَبِيد — a servant. And something in the word order is striking: the clause ends with li'l-ʿabīd.

The one who gives the verdict, that is, names those he addresses not as "the guilty" or "the deniers" but as servants. The same word was used in the eighth verse (ʿabdin munīb) and in the eleventh (li'l-ʿibād).

I record this as an observation: even at the moment of judgement the sūra keeps the common name.