رَبُّ ٱلْمَشْرِقَيْنِ وَرَبُّ ٱلْمَغْرِبَيْنِ
This construction was entered in a table in al-Maʿārij, together with the plural form that occurs there. I do not repeat what was recorded there; I recall the table and the explanation and confine myself to showing the difference.
The table drawn in the section on al-Maʿārij was this — the Qurʾān uses these two words in three different numbers:
| Number | Verse | Expression |
|---|---|---|
| Singular | al-Baqara 2/115, 2/142 and elsewhere | al-mashriqu wa'l-maghrib |
| Dual | al-Raḥmān 55/17 | Rabbu'l-mashriqayni wa Rabbu'l-maghribayn |
| Plural (one side) | al-Ṣāffāt 37/5 | wa Rabbu'l-mashāriq |
| Plural (both sides) | al-Maʿārij 70/40 | Rabbi'l-mashāriqi wa'l-maghārib |
- Singular: east and west as directions; the two basic bearings. - Dual: the sun's two extreme points of rising and setting in the summer and winter months. This is a phenomenon that can be seen with the eye. - Plural: the point of rising shifts a little every day of the year; the points of rising are therefore many in number.
And one further note was entered there which must be repeated here: this is not a claim of scientific miracle. What is described is no modern discovery; for a people living in the desert and reading the horizon like a calendar it is a phenomenon visible to the naked eye and known in that period as well.
| al-Raḥmān 55/17 | al-Maʿārij 70/40 | |
|---|---|---|
| Number | Dual | Plural |
| Structure | Rabbu is repeated twice | Rabbi once, governing both terms |
| Its place in the sentence | A statement — one link in the sūra's chain of favours | The object of an oath |
| What it stresses | Two extreme points — limits | Multiplicity — extent |
| The sūra's business | Counting the unerringness of the order | Defending the extent of the power |
The verse does not say "the Lord of the two easts and the two wests". It says "the Lord of the two easts and the Lord of the two wests". The word occurs twice.
| Explanation | What it says |
|---|---|
| For the sake of the verse-ending | The sound scheme of the sūra requires the repetition; when al-mashriqayn and al-maghribayn are named separately the verse falls into the rhyme |
| For the sake of the meaning | East and west come to be owned separately; the two extremes are named not as one pair but as two distinct domains of dominion |
Both are possible and they do not exclude each other. But I record this and present it as my own reading: this sūra is a text built on pairs from beginning to end, and in precisely this verse the two halves of the pair are made the objects of separate ownership. Within the sūra's own logic the repetition meets the meaning before it meets the sound.
As recorded above in the section on the sound structure, all the verse-endings of the sūra are on the pattern long ā + a single consonant: -ān, -ām, -ār.
This verse falls outside that scheme. Al-maghribayn — there is no long ā; there is the -ayn form of the dual ending.
And what is striking is this: the verse in which this exception occurs is the verse whose subject is twoness.
I record this as my own reading and do not count it a proof. But the observation can be verified: the one marked deviation in the sūra's sound scheme is found in the verse that speaks of two extreme points.