al-Ṭūr 52:16

Iṣlawhā fa'ṣbirū aw lā taṣbirū sawāʾun ʿalaykum; innamā tujzawna mā kuntum taʿmalūn "Enter it! Whether you are patient or not, it is one for you. You are only being repaid for what you used to do."

This verse was cited in the section on al-Nabaʾ and shown there as an example when it was recorded that the imperative mood can be used for rebuke, mockery or the carrying out of a sentence.

And the same use was treated in the discussions of al-Dhāriyāt 51/14 (dhūqū) and 51/43 (tamattaʿū).

I do not repeat it here. What is to be added here is the second half of the sentence.

And this is one of the most unusual sentences in the Qurʾān.

Both the positive and the negative of the same verb are commanded: "be patient or do not be patient."

In grammar this is not a command but a statement that there is no option. And the rest of the sentence says so plainly: sawāʾun ʿalaykum — "it is one for you."

The Qurʾān uses this pattern in other places too:

"It is one for them whether you warn them or do not warn them; they do not believe." (al-Baqara 2/6; Yāsīn 36/10) — sawāʾun ʿalayhim.

And al-Baqara 2/6 has been treated in this commentary. The finding recorded there: "the matter is not ignorance but the covering of what is known."

But there is a difference between the two usages and the difference matters:

And the second column is the heavier, because what is equated is the person's own inner attitude.

Patience serves a purpose in this world: it makes pain bearable, and though it does not shorten the term it makes it endurable. The verse says that this mechanism does not work there.

And the root of the word for patience explains this. Root: ص-ب-ر — its concrete sense is to hold a thing in a place, to confine, to bind. Ṣabr is holding oneself in.

And for holding oneself in to serve any purpose, the one held must be able to get free. For a person already held, holding himself in has no return.

I record this as my own reading; the meaning of the root is what the lexicographers record in common.

Root: س-و-ي. Its concrete sense: flatness, equivalence, two things being on the same level.

• سَوَاء — equal, matching; and the middle of a thing (sawāʾu'l-jaḥīm — the midst of the Blaze, al-Ṣāffāt 37/55).
• سَوَّىٰ — he set straight, he made even. This verb was treated in the discussions of al-Shams 91/7 and 91/14, and the contrast "the one who balances, then levels flat" was recorded there.
• ٱسْتَوَىٰ — he straightened up, he found his balance.

And the root's sense of "levelling" says something here.

If there is a difference between two options, the choice is meaningful. If the difference disappears, the choice disappears too — the options have been levelled flat.

And this is exactly what the verse says: the difference of height between being patient and not being patient has been erased.

And this is the reverse of the situation in this world. In this world there is a choice; and because the choice has a consequence the choice is meaningful. The sixteenth verse of the sūra speaks of a place where the consequence of choice has been removed.

I record this as an observation about a word.

And what the places where the Qurʾān uses this pattern have in common is worth recording: the expression sawāʾun ʿalayhim is used at al-Baqara 2/6 and Yāsīn 36/10 in this world, and what is equated there is the effect of the warning. At al-Ṭūr 52/16 it is used of that day, and what is equated is the effect of patience.

That is, the same pattern states at two times that two different things are without effect: the warning in this world, patience on that day.

And a relation can be set up between the two, and I record it as my own reading: the first equating prepares the second. Where the warning is left without effect, a situation arises in which patience too will in the end be without effect. The verse does not set up this link; it is a reading I draw from the two verses sharing the same pattern, and it is not binding.

And there is a contrast within the sūra: in the forty-eighth verse the Prophet will be told وَٱصْبِرْ — "be patient".

The same root, at the two ends of the sūra, with two opposite verdicts. In one patience serves no purpose, in the other it is commanded.

And what makes the difference is what the patience is towards. Patience towards the fire produces no outcome; patience towards the judgement is exercised under a watching over.

I record this as a link within the sūra.

جَزَاء — root ج-ز-ي: to give a return, to be equivalent. The word is used both for reward and for punishment; it is neutral. In Turkish the borrowed word ceza comes from this root, but its sense has narrowed to "punishment".

And innamā here is a particle of restriction: "only, no more than". That is, no more than that is being given.

This record says that the punishment is measured, and it is a regular emphasis of the Qurʾān: the return is the equivalent of what was done.

And mā kuntum taʿmalūn — "what you used to do". The verb ʿamal has been chosen, not kasb (to earn). The difference between the two words was recorded in the discussion of al-Muddaththir 74/38 and will meet us again below at 52/21.