al-Ṭūr 52:45-47

Fa-dharhum ḥattā yulāqū yawmahumu'lladhī fīhi yuṣʿaqūn · Yawma lā yughnī ʿanhum kayduhum shayʾan wa lā hum yunṣarūn · Wa inna li'lladhīna ẓalamū ʿadhāban dūna dhālika wa lākinna aktharahum lā yaʿlamūn "So leave them — until they meet their day, on which they will be struck down. The day their plotting will avail them nothing and they will not be helped. And for those who do wrong there is a punishment before that one; but most of them do not know."

Root: و-ذ-ر. A feature of this root was recorded in the discussion of al-Dhāriyāt 51/42: in Arabic the perfect conjugation is not used; only the imperfect and the imperative patterns are at work.

And this command was treated in the section on al-Maʿārij: there the two commands of that sūra (fa'ṣbir and fa-dharhum) were set side by side and this was recorded: "both come out of the same acceptance — the outcome is not in your hands."

And in the discussions of al-Muzzammil 73/11 and al-Muddaththir 74/11 the pattern dharnī was treated: "the reckoning is taken out of the addressee's hands."

I do not repeat it here. What is to be added here is the place of the command within the sūra.

The sūra gives two commands and they run in opposite directions:

29: fa-dhakkir — remind. 45: fa-dharhum — leave them.

And between the two there are fifteen questions.

That is, the order is this: remind → close every possibility → leave them.

This is the reversed form of the pair seen at al-Dhāriyāt 51/54-55 (fa-tawalla ʿanhum + wa dhakkir):

The two sūras give the same two commands and change the order. I record this as a comparison; I do not claim that the two sūras were deliberately built this way.

And al-Ṭūr's order carries a logic: the leaving comes after the proofs have been exhausted. That is, the command "leave them" is not a giving up; it is the work being finished.

Root: ص-ع-ق. This root was treated in the discussion of al-Dhāriyāt 51/44 (al-ṣāʿiqa, the destruction of Thamūd); I do not repeat it here. Its summary: at the centre of the root there is being struck by a violent sound, falling and lying still.

And two neighbouring sūras use the same root at two different times:

Al-Dhāriyāt gives an example from history; al-Ṭūr places the same word in the future of the one addressed.

I record this as a comparison.

And the construct "their day" is the same as the last verse of al-Dhāriyāt:

al-Dhāriyāt 51/60: min yawmihimu'lladhī yūʿadūn — from their day which they are promised. al-Ṭūr 52/45: yawmahumu'lladhī fīhi yuṣʿaqūn — their day on which they will be struck down.

Almost word for word the same construct. In both, the day is ascribed to them.

In the section on al-Dhāriyāt I recorded the function of this ascription: "the day is no longer a general event but a personal appointment."

And that the two sūras use this construct in the same position (near the close) is striking. I record this as a comparison.

Root: غ-ن-ي. Wealth, freedom from need. Aghnā — it availed, it met the need.

This root was treated in the discussions of al-ʿAlaq 96/6-7 and al-Layl 92/8, 11 (istaghnā); I do not repeat it here. Its summary: "the source of overweening is not wealth but the supposition of needing nothing."

And the word kayd comes back from the forty-second verse. Two verses apart:

42: am yurīdūna kaydā 46: lā yughnī ʿanhum kayduhum shayʾā

The forty-second verse had said that the plot turns back on itself; the forty-sixth says that the same plot is of no use.

The two sentences say two separate things: one that the plot returns to its owner, the other that it serves no purpose at all.

I record this as an observation about word order.

And this verse is one of the least discussed and most noteworthy in the sūra.

Wa inna li'lladhīna ẓalamū ʿadhāban dūna dhālika — "for those who do wrong there is a punishment before / other than this one."

دُون — in Arabic it can state three separate things and all of them have been argued here:

All three explanations are transmitted in the classical sources and they do not exclude one another: it is widely said that a punishment coming in this world or occurring in the grave is meant.

I do not impose a preference.

And the most interesting place in the verse is its last sentence: wa lākinna aktharahum lā yaʿlamūn — "but most of them do not know."

And note what this sentence says. The verse speaks of a punishment and then says immediately that this punishment is not noticed.

That is, what is spoken of is not a visible catastrophe. Had it been visible it would have been known.

I record this as an observation about word order; the verse does not say what the punishment is, and I propose no content for it either.

And there is a link within the sūra: the twelfth verse had described the one addressed as fī khawḍin yalʿabūn — playing in a plunge. And what was recorded for khawḍ in the section on al-Muddaththir: churning about in muddy water.

When the two verses are read together a reading becomes possible and I record it as my own reading: the speaking of a punishment that is not noticed and the speaking of an occupation that is not noticed may be looking in the same direction. But the verse does not say this and this is an inference; it is not binding.