al-Aʿrāf 7:137-141

Wa awrathna'l-qawma'lladhīna kānū yustaḍʿafūna mashāriqa'l-arḍi wa maghāribaha'llatī bāraknā fīhā, wa tammat kalimatu rabbika'l-ḥusnā ʿalā banī Isrāʾīla bimā ṣabarū, wa dammarnā mā kāna yaṣnaʿu Firʿawnu wa qawmuhū wa mā kānū yaʿrishūn

"And We gave the people who had been made weak the easts and the wests of the land We had blessed as their inheritance. The good word of your Lord to the Children of Israel was fulfilled, because they had been patient. And We levelled what Pharaoh and his people had been making and what they had raised up."

This expression was treated at 17/1 in al-Isrāʾ, where it was recorded; I rely on that treatment: the blessing is attached not to the soil itself but to what is in it. The same expression is used in the Qurʾān for this region in other places too (al-Anbiyāʾ 21/71, 21/81). I do not repeat it.

And the note that belongs here is this: the verse gives no place-name. Mashāriqa'l-arḍi wa maghāribahā — "the easts of the land and its wests". No border is drawn.

I record this as an observation about word order: the text does not set up a geographical title deed; it states an outcome. And per the method I write plainly: no support for any present-day political claim is to be drawn from this verse. This commentary takes no side in current politics (Method).

And the qualification the verse itself lays down must be recorded: bimā ṣabarū — "because they had been patient". The inheritance is tied not to a lineage but to a conduct. And this lies on the same line as the note wa'l-ʿāqibatu li'l-muttaqīn in the hundred and twenty-eighth verse.

And the note fa-yanẓura kayfa taʿmalūn in the hundred and twenty-ninth verse is at work here too: the sūra will show the same community, a few verses later, asking for a calf (138). The text does not conceal it.

The root د-م-ر: to destroy, to level.

The root ع-ر-ش: to raise a thing up, to build a bower or a vault. The word ʿarsh is from the same root — and it occurred in the fifty-fourth verse.

This is a weave that can be verified within the sūra, and it must be recorded:

The same root, two different heights. And a note of tanzīh was entered concerning the first (in the section on 54); the second is levelled to the ground.

I record this as my own reading and it is not binding; its ground is the two occurrences of the root: the sūra uses a word from the same root both as the announcement of sovereignty and as the name of the structures that are brought down. This is an explanation, not a ruling.

The hundred and thirty-eighth verse comes immediately after the crossing of the sea, and a point of word order must be recorded: there is no verse between the two events.

Three sentences, one verse. I record this as an observation about word order, and its ground is the verse itself: the ground of the demand is not a need but a seeing. Kamā lahum — "like theirs".

And the scene of the calf was treated at 20/88 in Ṭāhā. The difference here must be recorded: at 138 there is as yet no calf; only a demand. The calf will come at verse 148. That is, the sūra puts the demand and its fulfilment in different places, and between them stands Moses's departure (142).

The root ع-ك-ف: to stand constantly by a thing, not to leave it. The root was treated at 20/91 in Ṭāhā and at 26/71 in al-Shuʿarāʾ; I rely on those treatments.

The root ت-ب-ر: to be broken to pieces, to be reduced to fragments. Tibr — unworked, scattered gold. That is, the word carries the idea of "valuable but scattered, without wholeness".

And the construction of the answer must be recorded, and this is a point of word order: before rejecting what is asked for, Moses characterises what is being taken as a model.

That is, the answer is in three steps, and the three do different work. I record this as an observation about word order, and its ground is the three verses themselves.

And the word in the third step must be recorded: faḍḍalakum ʿala'l-ʿālamīn. This expression occurs in several places in the Qurʾān of the Children of Israel (al-Baqara 2/47, 2/122; al-Jāthiya 45/16) and was treated at 2/47 in al-Baqara. I rely on that treatment.

And the note entered there holds here too, and I repeat it, because it is required by the method: the expression does not establish a superiority of lineage; it states a means that was given. And the sūra itself will divide this expressly in verses 159 and 168: within the same community groups will be counted, separated out as ummatun yahdūna bi'l-ḥaqq (159) and minhum dūna dhālik (168). No blanket judgement is issued about an ethnic or religious group (Method).

Wa idh anjaynākum min āli Firʿawna yasūmūnakum sūʾa'l-ʿadhāb, yuqattilūna abnāʾakum wa yastaḥyūna nisāʾakum, wa fī dhālikum balāʾun min rabbikum ʿaẓīm "Remember when We delivered you from the people of Pharaoh, who were inflicting on you the worst of punishment: slaying your sons and sparing your women. In that there was a mighty test from your Lord."

A point of word order must be recorded, and this is the most striking transition in the block: the verse passes from the third person to the second.

This is iltifāt (a shift in the direction of address), and it was treated in many places in the index.

And its work here is worth recording, and I give it as my own reading: the story being told is turned, in a single sentence, directly upon the addressee. And straight after this verse come Moses's departure (142) and the calf (148). That is, immediately after saying "this was done to you", the sūra tells "what you did".

And the word of the last sentence must be recorded: wa fī dhālikum balāʾun min rabbikum ʿaẓīm.

The root ب-ل-و: to try, to test; and to wear a thing out. Balāʾ in Arabic takes in both the good and the ill — "one is tested with bounty as well as with hardship". This was recorded in many places in the index.

And the object of the word here is worth recording: the sentence counts the deliverance itself as a test. This lies on the same line as the two-stage test in the ninety-fifth verse: there hardship and ease, here affliction and deliverance.