al-Qamar 54:35

Niʿmatan min ʿindinā; kadhālika najzī man shakar "As a favour from Us. Thus do We recompense the one who gives thanks."

This verse carries the most striking choice of word in the sūra, and to see it one must recall the sūra as a whole.

Al-Qamar is a sūra of punishment. The greater part of its fifty-five verses is denial, warning, penalty and reckoning. The word "favour" occurs once in the sūra — and for a rescue.

نِعْمَة — Root: ن-ع-م. Its concrete sense: softness, ease. Naʿima — it became soft and easy. Nāʿim — soft, pleasant. Niʿma — a good thing given. Naʿīm — abundance, well-being. From the same root naʿam (yes) and anʿām (livestock — property given).

And the word's case-analysis is worth recording: niʿmatan is in the accusative and is an object of purpose (an accusative of cause). That is, "We saved them — as / because of a favour from Us."

The rescue could thus have been named in two different languages, and the text chose one:

And the difference is preserved in the continuation of the sentence too. The verse says "thus do We recompense", but the name of what is being recompensed is not obedience or faith: it is شُكْر.

This pattern occurs in several places in the Qurʾān, and in al-Raḥmān two of them were compared. I now complete the table by adding a third:

In al-Raḥmān the difference between the first two was recorded: "al-Mursalāt names the agent, al-Raḥmān the act." Al-Qamar takes a third path: it defines the person by his act — "whoever gives thanks".

And the relative pronoun مَنْ is indefinite here: not a name but a quality. This accords with the principle recorded in Method: "what the verse describes are qualities; whoever bears that quality is included in it."

And here the most direct link with al-Raḥmān is made.

شُكْر — Root: ش-ك-ر. The explanation the lexicographers transmit about its concrete sense: shakara'l-dābbatu — the animal grew fat on little fodder, its condition became visible. Shukr, that is, is the becoming visible of what has been received. From the same root shakūr (much given to thanks) and mashkūr (that for which a return is made).

And the exact opposite of thanks is كُفْر: to cover. Thanks makes visible, ingratitude covers over.

Now look at the refrain of al-Raḥmān:

fa-bi-ayyi ālāʾi Rabbikumā tukadhdhibān — "Which of your Lord's favours do you deny?"

Al-Raḥmān's whole question is about the denial of a favour. And in al-Raḥmān it was recorded that ālāʾ means "favour" and that the favour is "something asked to be remembered, something that can be forgotten": "The name of a favour carries within it the possibility of being forgotten."

Al-Qamar 54/35 is the exact other side. Here there is a favour (niʿmatan min ʿindinā) and the attitude that is recompensed is thanks — that is, making the favour visible.

I record this as my own reading. The wording and word-roots of the two sūras are verifiable data; setting up the contrast is my reading.

And one further conclusion follows, which I also record as my own reading: in describing the rescue al-Qamar uses the language not of law but of relation. In the language of punishment there are "seizing" (akhdh), "punishment" (ʿadhāb), "We sent" (arsalnā). In the language of rescue there are "favour" and "thanks".

The sūra works, that is, with two separate vocabularies: a vocabulary of act and force for destruction, a vocabulary of gift and return for rescue. And the second vocabulary lasts only one verse in the sūra — until verses fifty-four and fifty-five. There the same vocabulary will come back: jannāt, maqʿadi ṣidqin, ʿinda malīkin muqtadir.