al-Ṭūr 52:48-49

Wa'ṣbir li-ḥukmi rabbika fa-innaka bi-aʿyuninā; wa sabbiḥ bi-ḥamdi rabbika ḥīna taqūm · Wa mina'l-layli fa-sabbiḥhu wa idbāra'n-nujūm "And be patient for the judgement of your Lord; you are before Our eyes. And glorify your Lord with praise when you rise. And in part of the night glorify Him, and when the stars withdraw."

I set up this link above in the discussion of 52/16; I do not repeat it here. Its summary: the sūra uses the same root at its two ends with two opposite rulings — patience towards the fire is of no use, patience towards the judgement is commanded.

What is to be added here is the choice of the particle.

Iṣbir li-ḥukmi rabbik — with the particle لِ.

And this distinction was treated in the discussion of al-Muzzammil 73/10 and al-Muddaththir 74/7 and it was recorded there:

"the same verb iṣbir, two particles: ʿalā states the subject of the patience, li its address."

That is, the lām here gives the address of the patience: be patient for your Lord's judgement.

And this may also carry the sense not of "endure the judgement" but of "wait until the judgement is given" — because the word can be used both of a judgement given and of a judgement to be given.

Both readings are transmitted in the classical sources and I do not impose a preference.

And the link with the thirty-first verse: there it had been said tarabbaṣū (wait) and the Prophet had been counted among those who wait. The command to be patient in the forty-eighth verse gives that waiting its name.

I record this as a link within the sūra.

Root: ع-ي-ن — eye. Aʿyun is the plural of ʿayn.

And the construct is of the form "you are within Our eyes" and in Arabic it states watching over and protection. The Qurʾān uses it in another place too: "Build the ship before Our eyes" (Hūd 11/37; al-Muʾminūn 23/27) — iṣnaʿi'l-fulka bi-aʿyuninā.

And the Qurʾān uses the same idea of Moses as well: "so that you might be reared before My eye" (Ṭāhā 20/39) — wa li-tuṣnaʿa ʿalā ʿaynī.

That is, the expression is not a surveillance but a protection. The English "under our eye" carries the same doubleness: both watched and looked after.

And a comparison with the finding recorded in the section on al-Ṭāriq is instructive: there 86/4 (over him there is a watcher) was treated and modern surveillance was discussed as what it says to the present.

The two verses state two different kinds of watching:

The same field of the root, two opposite feelings. And what makes the difference is the context.

I record this as a comparison.

And this expression was treated in the discussion of al-Naṣr 110/3. I do not repeat it here. The summary of the findings there:

• سَبِّحْ — glorification; the concrete sense of the root (to swim) and its link with tanzīh were given and attributed to the lexicographers.
• بِحَمْدِ رَبِّكَ — the particle bāʾ states accompaniment or state: the glorification's being done together with praise. And what was recorded there: "The two together build a complete two-sided expression: 'He is far from all deficiency' + 'praise belongs to Him.'"

What is to be added here is the difference between the two verses.

Al-Naṣr ties it to an event; al-Ṭūr to a time.

And the report recorded in the section on al-Naṣr — that after the sūra came down the Prophet repeated certain words much in his bowing and prostration — was given there and I do not repeat it.

And what this expression means is disputed:

All four views are transmitted in the classical sources. And in some sources it is associated with particular supplications; because I cannot give the chains of these reports with certainty I do not go into their detail.

I do not impose a preference. But this can be recorded: the word has come unrestricted, and the lack of restriction makes all four readings possible at once.

And the link with al-Muzzammil: there the command was qumi'l-layl — "rise for the night". Here ḥīna taqūm — "when you rise". The same root (ق-و-م), two different patterns.

And the forty-ninth verse names the night explicitly: wa mina'l-layli fa-sabbiḥh.

The rising by night was treated in the discussion of al-Muzzammil 73/2-4 and the night of the god-fearing was taken up in the discussion of al-Dhāriyāt 51/17-18; I do not repeat them here.

And when the three texts are read together:

Three texts name the same hour in three different moods. I record this as a comparison.

Root: د-ب-ر. The back, to turn one's back. Idbār — withdrawing, turning one's back and going.

This root was treated in the discussion of al-Muddaththir 74/23 and 74/33 and it was recorded there:

"أَدْبَرَ with two subjects: a man's turning his back opens on to denial, the night's withdrawing opens on to the morning."

And here there is a third subject: the stars.

Idbāru'n-nujūm — the withdrawing of the stars, that is, close to morning, the hour when the stars fade and disappear.

That is, the sūra names the hour before dawn — but without giving the hour's name, describing it by something that happens in the sky.

And the same hour had been named at al-Dhāriyāt 51/18: wa bi'l-asḥāri hum yastaghfirūn.

Two neighbouring sūras name the same hour by two different roads. I record this as a comparison.

And the sūra ends with a picture of the sky.

The sūra opened with an oath by a mountain (52/1) and closes with the withdrawing of the stars (52/49). The first is the highest thing on earth, the second the farthest thing in the sky.

And between the two ends stand all the objects of the sūra's oaths: mountain, book, house, roof, sea.

I record this as an observation about word order; it is no claim of a deliberate arrangement.