al-Raḥmān 55:10-12

Wa'l-arḍa waḍaʿahā li'l-anām · Fīhā fākihatun wa'l-nakhlu dhātu'l-akmām · Wa'l-ḥabbu dhu'l-ʿaṣfi wa'l-rayḥān

"And the earth He set down for the creatures · in it are fruit and palms with sheathed clusters · and grain with its husk, and fragrant herb."

After the sky, the earth. And the sūra's first refrain will come after these three verses.

It was recorded above: this is a repetition of the waḍaʿa of the seventh verse. The balance and the earth are set down by the same verb. And the sky is raised, while the two are set down.

The earth is thus established not as the opposite of the sky but as the partner of the balance. I record this as an observation about the word order.

Root: أ-ن-م. The word is very rare in the Qurʾān — it is recorded as occurring in this pattern only in this verse — and its exact extent is disputed.

The second view is of further importance because it solves the grammatical problem of the refrain, and it was entered in the table in the discussion of the dual form above. But the extent of the word in the dictionary does not make this necessary.

I do not impose a preference. And there is a point that must be recorded: whichever view is taken, the earth has been set down for someone. Beside the verb there is a lām — the lām of specification.

In the section on al-Baqara this matter was treated in the discussion of lakum ("for you") at 2/29, and the note recorded there holds here as well: that a thing is "for you" does not mean that it is "your property".

Root: ف-ك-ه. It was treated in the discussion of fawākih in the section on al-Mursalāt. What was recorded there: beneath the root lie pleasure and delight; fukāha — jesting, agreeable conversation; fākih — cheerful. Fruit took this name because it is not a necessary food: one lives without eating it, but eating it adds pleasantness.

And note: the verse names fruit before grain. Not the necessary (grain) but the surplus (fruit) has been put first. I record this as an observation about the word order.

Root: ك-م-م. To cover, to wrap, to enclose.

• كِمّ — the husk, the sheath that keeps the date cluster inside it. Its plural is أَكْمَام.
• كُمّ — the sleeve of a garment. The part that encloses the arm.
• كِمَامَة — the muzzle put on an animal's mouth.

The single idea beneath the root: a wrapping that covers a thing over.

And the choice of the word is meaningful: in naming the palm it is not its fruit that is named but the sheath that keeps the fruit hidden. The favour is counted, that is, in its still unopened state.

The finding recorded for the word janna in the section on al-Baqara — that the root (j-n-n) means to cover, and that janna means "a garden that covers the soil with its trees" — echoes here. The idea of covering will come up in more than one place in this sūra.

Root: ع-ص-ف. This root was treated in al-Fīl and taken up on its verbal side in al-Mursalāt. What was recorded there:

ʿAṣf is the part of a crop other than the grain — stalk, leaf, husk, chaff. The dry residue left in the field after the harvest and scattered by the wind. And from the same root comes ʿāṣif: a violent, scattering wind. The root carries the idea of being scattered within it.

And in the section on al-Fīl precisely this verse was pointed to:

Its clearest occurrence in the Qurʾān is in Sūrat al-Raḥmān: "grain together with its husks, and fragrant plants" (al-Raḥmān 55/12). There ʿaṣf is the worthless part beside the grain. Even while a favour is being counted, grain and husk are kept apart.

What is to be added here is this: the verse does not say "al-ḥabbu wa'l-ʿaṣfu" — it says ذُو ٱلْعَصْف, that is, "grain, the possessor of the husk". The husk comes as a quality of the grain, not as an item of its own.

And read together with Sūrat al-Fīl this says something. In al-Fīl an army was turned into "chewed-up ʿaṣf": into the worthless part. Here the same word stands beside a favour: the husk of the grain, a part of the grain.

The same thing is in one place an end and in another a part of a favour. The difference lies in what it stands beside. The husk itself does not change; beside the grain it is counted a favour, left alone in the field it becomes scattered residue.

I record this as my own reading. That the word in the two verses is from the same root, and where it stands in the two contexts, is data of the text.

Root: ر-و-ح. Beneath this root lies a wide family: rūḥ (spirit), rīḥ (wind), rāḥa (rest), rawḥ (relief), rayḥān.

On the meaning of the word there are two views:

The first view is the more widespread, and the word order supports it too: the verse has counted fruit, palms and grain — all things eaten. If the last item is not something eaten, the list is adding one thing more: scent.

And this completes the logic of the list. The three verses run in this order:

The list begins with pleasantness, descends to necessity, and rises to pleasantness again. Staple food in the middle, and at the two ends two things that are not required.

I record this as my own reading. The order of the words is in the text; the structure I draw from that order is an interpretation.

And this may be added: ʿaṣf is the only item in the list that man does not eat. The animal's share is counted inside man's list of favours.

A note on a variant reading. It is recorded that there is a difference of recitation in the vowelling of the last word of this verse (al-rayḥānu / al-rayḥāni). The difference changes the word's connection within the sentence but does not change the item counted. I do not name an imam, because I cannot give one with certainty.