لَأَنتُمْ أَشَدُّ رَهْبَةً فِى صُدُورِهِم مِّنَ ٱللَّهِ ذَٰلِكَ بِأَنَّهُمْ قَوْمٌ لَّا يَفْقَهُونَ
"In their breasts the dread of you is stronger than the dread of God. That is because they are a people who do not understand."
And the form of the expression is striking. The verse does not say "they do not fear God". They do fear — but less. The matter is not an absence but a matter of ordering.
This is a far more accurate diagnosis. Nobody says "I do not fear God". But when two fears collide in front of a decision, which of them weighs heavier shows what the person actually believes.
رَهْبَة — Root: ر-ه-ب. Fear; but a particular fear. The lexicographers draw this distinction between rahba and khawf: khawf is fear in general; rahba is fear combined with avoidance and shrinking back — the fear that pulls a person away.
From the same root rāhib (the man who withdraws himself from the world) and rahbāniyya. And tarhīb (frightening) occurs in the Qurʾān as the opposite of raghba (turning towards something with desire).
فِى صُدُورِهِمْ — "in their breasts". Again the inner place. In this sūra the breast occurs three times: in verse 9 for ḥāja, in verse 10 for ghill, here for rahba. The sūra insistently takes as its subject the layer that is not visible from outside.
فِقْه — Root: ف-ق-ه. To understand; but the definition the lexicographers give is narrower: to know a thing by what it points to, to grasp the fine point beneath what is visible. That is, fiqh is knowing not the knowledge on the surface but the connection underneath it.
It is for this reason, indeed, that Islamic law is called fiqh: to pass from the text to the ruling, to draw out the ruling that lies beneath the visible wording.
And the next verse will end with a different verb: لَّا يَعْقِلُونَ (they do not use their reason). The verse-endings of the two verses differ, and the difference is meaningful.
عَقْل — Root: ع-ق-ل. The concrete sense of the root is to tie: the ʿiqāl is the hobble put on a camel's knee — it keeps the animal from running off.
1. To set up a connection — to tie the parts to one another. 2. To hold back — to keep a person from what is harmful.
| فِقْه | عَقْل | |
|---|---|---|
| Concrete sense | Grasping in depth | To tie |
| What it does | To see beneath the visible | To join the parts together |
| What its absence leads to | Staying on the surface | Being unable to set up a connection |
- In verse 13 the lack of fiqh: they confuse the visible power (the army of the believers) with the real power (God). They cannot see beneath the surface.
- In verse 14 the lack of ʿaql: they cannot connect the fact that a crowd which looks united has scattered hearts. They cannot join the appearance and the reality together.