al-Ḥadīd 57:11

Man dha'lladhī yuqriḍu'llāha qarḍan ḥasanan fa-yuḍāʿifahu lahu wa lahu ajrun karīm "Who is it that will lend God a goodly loan, so that He may multiply it for him many times over? And for him there is a noble reward."

One of the boldest expressions in the Qurʾān. One must not pass on without noticing what the sentence says: God is asking His servants for a loan.

Root: ق-ر-ض. And the original sense of the root gives the whole colour of the word: to cut, to break off, to separate a piece with the teeth or with shears.

Let us look at the derivatives:

• قرض (qaraḍa) — he cut, he gnawed off. This verb is used when a mouse gnaws at something
• مقراض (miqrāḍ) — shears
• قراضة (qurāḍa) — a piece cut off and fallen, a clipping (especially clippings of gold and silver)
• انقرض (inqaraḍa) — it was cut off, it ran out, its line died out. The word used today in Turkish, inkıraz (extinction), and the Arabic term for an extinct species come from this same root
• قرض (qarḍ) — a loan, a debt

That the word for a loan should come from this root is striking. For the word pictures lending thus: to cut a piece off the whole in one's hand and give it.

This is a different image from the neutral tone of the English word "loan". In English, to lend is for part of one's property to change hands for a time; the Arabic root rests on the verb to cut. What is given is a piece subtracted from the giver's whole.

And the sense of "comparison" comes out of the same root. The lexicographers also record for qarḍ the sense of "mutual cutting / matching": to set two things side by side and measure them, to cut one to match the other. This suits the nature of a loan — what is given and what is taken back are matched.

This second sense is consistent with the general texture of the sūra too: al-Ḥadīd is a sūra of measure; in verse 25 the mīzān (the balance) will come.

حسن — root ح-س-ن: beauty, goodness. It was recorded at al-Baqara 2/112: iḥsān is both "to do good" and "to do a thing well".

What, then, makes a loan "goodly"? The conditions listed in the classical commentaries are these, and all of them are drawn not from the wording of the verse but from the Qurʾān's other verses on spending:

• That it be from lawful earnings — "Spend of the good things you have earned" (al-Baqara 2/267)
• That it not be followed by reproach — "Do not void them by reproach and by injury" (al-Baqara 2/264)
• That it be given with a willing heart — not under compulsion
• That no return be expected — from human beings; it is expected from God
• That it be given from the good of what one has — "You will not attain to goodness until you spend of what you love" (Āl ʿImrān 3/92)

That these are listed as conditions is an inference, and I do not present it as an ijmāʿ. But because it rests on the Qurʾān's own verses it is a sound inference.

That the word comes indefinite is meaningful as well: qarḍan ḥasanan — "a goodly loan." No amount is stated. The verse sets no threshold.

Now let us look at what the sentence does.

The verse places a being who is absolutely rich in the position of one asking for a loan. And it does this directly, without noting that it is a figure of speech.

This was startling for the first hearers as well. It is reported that when the verse came down some people said, "Is God poor, that He asks a loan of us?" I do not speak with certainty about the soundness of these reports and I ascribe them to no source; but the reaction is meaningful for showing the tension the expression carries. The Qurʾān itself records a similar objection: "God has certainly heard the word of those who said: God is poor and we are rich" (Āl ʿImrān 3/181).

What, then, does the expression do? It carries over into spending the three elements a loan relation holds:

One. The certainty of return. A loan differs from a gift: its coming back is expected. By naming spending a loan, the verse lodges the certainty of its return inside the language. A gift is one-directional; a loan is two-directional.

Two. The obligation of the receiver. The lender has a right over the borrower. The expression makes the return not a favour but an undertaking.

Three. The ownership of what is given. To be able to lend, the thing given must belong to the giver. And here an interesting tension arises: verse 7 said that the property does not belong to the human being (mustakhlafīn), while verse 11 puts him in a position to lend it.

This is not a contradiction but an act of honour. To entrust what is one's own and then, when asking for a part of it back, to say "lend me this" — is to raise the giver's standing. In the classical commentaries this point is generally put thus: the expression shows not God's need but the servant's encouragement.

We may also put it thus: to say "loan" when asking back something that was a trust is the greatest courtesy language can offer.

ضعف — root ض-ع-ف. The root has two groups of senses, and they are interestingly opposite to one another: weakness (ḍaʿf) and doubling (ḍiʿf).

The lexicographers connect the two thus: a thing's being folded over on itself both multiplies it and carries a sense of bending or slackening. This connection is the lexicographers' interpretation; it is not certain.

ضِعْف (ḍiʿf) in Arabic is "the like of a thing" — that is, its being doubled. مضاعفة (muḍāʿafa) is a folding again and again.

The verb here is not the verbal noun of the mufāʿala form but stands in a transitive pattern derived from mufāʿala, and the amount of the increase is not stated. The same sentence occurs at al-Baqara 2/245, and there is an addition there: "…that He may multiply it for him, many times over" (aḍʿāfan kathīra). Here that addition is absent; the amount is left indefinite.

The expression occurs in several places in the Qurʾān and has the same structure in all of them:

• Al-Baqara 2/245 — "Who is it that will lend God a goodly loan, that He may multiply it for him many times over?" This verse is almost word for word the same as al-Ḥadīd 57/11.
• Al-Muzzammil 73/20 — "…establish the prayer, give the alms, and lend God a goodly loan." Here in the imperative.
• Al-Ḥadīd 57/18 — it will be repeated in this same sūra, this time together with those who give alms.

That al-Baqara 2/245 should be so close to this verse is striking, and the context of the two verses is similar as well: both come in the context of fighting and spending.

The sentence opens with a question: مَّن ذَا ٱلَّذِى — "who is it that…"

This is a strong pattern of emphasis in Arabic. Instead of a simple "who?" (man), the threefold man + dhā (demonstrative) + alladhī (relative pronoun) has been used. Its approximate sense: "come now, who is the one who…"

The function of the pattern is this: the question is asked not to receive an answer but to call for candidates. Like the announcement of an offer. The tone of the English "who is there?" or "is there such a one?"

And this tone separates the verse from a command. In verse 7 the command anfiqū (spend) was given. Here there is no command; there is an invitation. The same act is asked for once with a command and once with a call.

كريم — root ك-ر-م: to be precious, to be superior, to be generous. One of the concrete uses of the word is for soil and plants: arḍ karīma — fertile ground; karm — the vine.

Karīm is different from "great". Greatness reports quantity, karam reports quality. That is, what is promised is not much but of a superior kind.

This looks like a deliberate difference from ajrun kabīr (a great reward) in verse 7. In the seventh verse faith and spending were named together and the return was called great; here a loan is named and the return is called precious. A move from quantity to kind.

I do not present this as a firm distinction; whether the Qurʾān separates adjectives this finely is open to debate. But that the words differ must be recorded as an observation.

A single scene is built across four verses, and this is the most visual part of the sūra. The elements of the scene are: a running light, a light asked for as a loan, a command to turn back, and a wall drawn between them.

The structure of the section is symmetrical:

And the nearest relative of this scene in the Qurʾān is verse 17 of Sūrat al-Baqara. This link is central and will be taken up in detail below.