ثُمَّ دَنَا فَتَدَلَّىٰ · فَكَانَ قَابَ قَوْسَيْنِ أَوْ أَدْنَىٰ
Thumma danā fa-tadallā · Fa-kāna qāba qawsayni aw adnā "Then he drew near and leaned down. And he was at the length of two bows, or nearer."
Root: د-ن-و. This root has occurred in many places in this commentary (al-Raḥmān, al-Ḥāqqa, al-Insān, al-Nāziʿāt, al-Aʿlā). Its concrete sense: to be near, to close a distance.
- دُنْيَا (dunyā) — the feminine of the elative: the nearest. The word "dunyā" is thus from this root and means "the near life". The Qurʾān uses it explicitly with its opposite: al-ḥayātu'l-dunyā (the near life) / al-ākhira (the later).
- أَدْنَىٰ (adnā) — nearer; and in another sense "lower, less".
- دَنِيء — base, vile. Note: this word is from the root د-ن-أ, that is, with hamza; it is not the same root as dunyā. In Turkish both are read as deni, which produces a confusion; they are separate roots.
And verse 9 ends with a word from the same root: aw adnā — "or nearer". Verses eight and nine, that is, use the same root at their opening and at their close.
دَلْو (dalw) — a bucket. The vessel tied to a rope and let down to draw water from a well. The Qurʾān uses this word: "He let down his bucket" (Yūsuf 12/19: fa-adlā dalwahu).
- أَدْلَىٰ (adlā) — he let down, he lowered. Form IV, transitive.
- تَدَلَّىٰ (tadallā) — Form V, reflexive: he leaned down, he let himself down.
- دَلِيل / دَلَالَة — a proof, an indicating. Some lexicographers establish the link thus: a proof is the rope let down towards what is unknown. I cannot say this derivation is beyond dispute; I transmit it with that reservation.
The image is this: a bucket is let down into a well. The rope is held above, the vessel goes down. The bond does not break — what descends descends while remaining attached to what is above.
At first sight the order looks reversed. The expected order is: first you lean down, then you draw near. Leaning is the means of drawing near; the means does not come after the result.
| Explanation | What it says |
|---|---|
| A fāʾ in the sense of wāw | Fa conveys no sequence here, it only joins: "he drew near and leaned down." The two verbs are two names for the same movement |
| Two separate stages | First a general drawing near (danā), then out of that nearness a further leaning (tadallā). The distance is closed twice |
The second explanation is worth dwelling on, and I wish to add an observation — which I record as my own reading.
- دَنَا — Form I, a simple verb. The closing of a distance. It may be horizontal or vertical.
- تَدَلَّىٰ — Form V, reflexive. And the sense of this form is: to perform the act upon oneself. Not "he was let down" but "he let himself down."
The difference is this: danā is about distance; tadallā is about will. A bucket does not fall into a well of itself; someone lets it down. Form V says that the letting down is his own act.
| هَوَىٰ (1) | تَدَلَّىٰ (8) | |
|---|---|---|
| Movement | From above downward | From above downward |
| Form | Form I, simple | Form V, reflexive |
| How | A fall — the pull of weight | A leaning — his own letting go |
| The bond | Broken | Attached (the bucket is tied to the rope) |
This is what the sūra does in eight verses: it compares two downward movements. One an uncontrolled fall, the other a controlled descent. The star falls; the other leans down.
I record this contrast as my own reading. The forms and roots of the verbs are data of the text; establishing a contrast between the two is work of my own.
قَاب. The definition the lexicographers give: the distance between the grip of the bow (maqbiḍ) and the curve at its end (siya). That is, a length close to half the bow.
But the word is also used more generally in the sense of "as much as, to the measure of": qāba qawsayn — "as much as two bows."
| Reading | Its sense | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Qāb in the technical sense | The span between a bow's grip and its end, twice over | About the length of one bow |
| Qāb in the sense of "measure" | The length of two bows | About the length of two bows |
On either reading the result comes out at the same place: a distance such that a man could touch it by stretching out his arm. The measure is small, and that is the point.
- تَقَوَّسَ — he bent like a bow, he became stooped. Shaykhun mutaqawwis — an old man bent at the back.
- قُوس — a measure, a length.
And a warning is needed. In Turkish the word kıyas ("analogy, comparison") is sometimes explained by attaching it to this verse, as though it meant "the measure of a bow". This is wrong, and the difference of root is plain:
The middle letter differs (wāw / yāʾ), and in Arabic this difference determines the root. The same warning made for kawwara / kura in the section al-Takwīr holds here as well. No meaning is to be drawn from the resemblance of two words in their Turkish pronunciation.
That the measure is a bow is not accidental, and to see this one must know the world of objects of that society.
The bow is an implement that, in a desert society, everyone has and whose length everyone knows. To describe a distance you need a shared unit in hand; and units such as the cubit, the mile, the parasang are either too large or not in everyone's possession. The bow is an object carried by hunter and warrior alike, of roughly standard length.
The verse, then, measures the most abstract event with the most concrete instrument. The distance of something happening in the sky is given by the thing hanging on the shoulder of the one addressed.
This is something the Qurʾān does regularly and it has been recorded in several places in this commentary: in al-Takwīr, the placing of the pregnant she-camel in the middle of a cosmic list; in al-Wāqiʿa, the building of the descriptions of the garden out of known trees. The greatest claim is attached to the nearest object.
And this is transmitted, which I convey with reserve: it is said that in Arab custom, when two men made a pact they leant their bows against each other and drew them as a single bow, and that this was counted the emblem of the alliance. Some exegetes attach the expression qāba qawsayn to this. The historical ground of this explanation is disputed and I build no interpretation upon it; I record it only because it occurs in the sources.
Aw — "or". In Arabic this particle conveys doubt, choice or indeterminacy. But since there can be no doubt where God is concerned, what is it doing here?
| Explanation | What it says |
|---|---|
| Speaking with the eye of the one addressed | "By your measure, about two bows, perhaps less" — the estimate belongs to the hearer |
| In the sense of "rather" | Aw here means "indeed": "as much as two bows, indeed nearer" — the measure is corrected downward, not upward |
| Announcing the insufficiency of the measure | The measure given is approximate in any case; the particle admits this |
All three arrive at the same place, and there lies the real matter: the expression takes back in the same sentence the measure it has given.
And this is worth recording as a choice of expression. A distance is stated, then "or less" is said. The result: the reader receives not a number but a sense of nearness. A measure is seemingly given and not given.
I record this as my own reading: the expression finds the way to describe what cannot be described by declaring the description insufficient. And because the last word of the ninth verse (adnā) is from the same root as the first verb of the eighth (danā), the two verses close a circle: he drew near… and nearer still.