al-Aʿrāf 7:175-177

Wa'tlu ʿalayhim nabaʾa'lladhī ātaynāhu āyātinā fa'nsalakha minhā fa-atbaʿahu'sh-shayṭānu fa-kāna mina'l-ghāwīn · Wa law shiʾnā la-rafaʿnāhu bihā wa lākinnahū akhlada ila'l-arḍi wa'ttabaʿa hawāh, fa-mathaluhū ka-mathali'l-kalbi in taḥmil ʿalayhi yalhath aw tatrukhu yalhath, dhālika mathalu'l-qawmi'lladhīna kadhdhabū bi-āyātinā, fa'qṣuṣi'l-qaṣaṣa laʿallahum yatafakkarūn · Sāʾa mathalan i'l-qawmu'lladhīna kadhdhabū bi-āyātinā wa anfusahum kānū yaẓlimūn

"Recite to them the tidings of the man to whom We gave Our signs: he slipped out of them, and Satan took him in tow, and he became one of those who go astray. · Had We willed, We would have raised him by them; but he clung to the earth and followed his own craving. His likeness is the likeness of the dog: if you set upon it, it lolls out its tongue and pants; and if you leave it alone, it lolls out its tongue and pants. That is the likeness of the people who called Our signs lies. So tell the story — perhaps they will think. · Evil is the likeness of the people who called Our signs lies and were wronging themselves."

A great many mutually inconsistent reports and names are conveyed about this verse in the classical sources. In this commentary no name is given and no report is transmitted, because:

One — the Qurʾān gives no name. The verse says alladhī (the man); that is all.

Two — the names transmitted do not agree with one another, and their soundness cannot be established (Method).

Three — and the verse itself says that the matter does not remain particular to one man: dhālika mathalu'l-qawmi'lladhīna kadhdhabū bi-āyātinā — "that is the likeness of the people who called Our signs lies."

That is, the verse draws a kind out of a single story. This is a datum that can be verified from the text, and the text itself states that looking for a name is unnecessary.

The root س-ل-خ: to separate the skin from the body, to flay. Salakha'sh-shāt — he flayed the sheep. Form VII (insalakha) is reflexive: to slip out, to come out of itself.

And the root's other use in the Qurʾān must be recorded: fa-idha'nsalakha'l-ashhuru'l-ḥurum (al-Tawba 9/5) — "when the sacred months have passed". It was treated in al-Tawba. There the passing away of time, here a man's coming out of the signs.

And the direction of the picture must be recorded, and this is the most striking place in the verse:

That is, the signs are pictured as something worn upon him; and the man comes out of them like a skin.

I record this as my own reading and it is not binding; its ground is the concrete sense of the root: a skin is not a thing taken off like a garment — it belongs to the body itself. The picture the root chooses intimates that what is parted with was not something fastened on from outside.

And this connects with the second and third blocks of the sūra. This link is read from the text:

The sūra uses the picture of putting on and taking off in four separate places. I record this as an observation, and its ground is the words of the four verses.

The root خ-ل-د: permanence, remaining for ever. Form IV (akhlada) here means "to cling to a place, to incline towards it and settle there".

And the particle ilā must be recorded: the verb is tied to a direction.

I give this as a note about the word: the word comes from the root of everlastingness and describes clinging to a place that does not last. That is, a search for permanence is directed at a place that is not permanent.

And the first half of the verse must be recorded: wa law shiʾnā la-rafaʿnāhu bihā. The raising too would have been by those same signs (bihā). The same thing can both raise and pass out of the hand.

This likeness is a place that must be undone with care, and it is the point most open to being misunderstood.

The sentence of the verse is this:

Fa-mathaluhū ka-mathali'l-kalbi in taḥmil ʿalayhi yalhath aw tatrukhu yalhath

The root ل-ه-ث: to loll out the tongue and pant — the breathing of a dog with its mouth open and its tongue hanging out.

And the point at which the likeness works is read from the structure of the sentence itself. This is an indisputable datum of the text:

Two opposite cases, one result.

That is, the point on which the likeness rests is not the dog itself but the fact that the condition does not change. And the structure of the verse says so: two conditional clauses are built and the apodosis of both is given with the same word.

I record this as my own reading, and its ground is the structure of the sentence: the likeness is not a debasement but a description of unresponsiveness. Whatever is done to the man — whether he is set upon or left alone — his behaviour does not change. And this is exactly the description of the signs becoming useless: warning and letting alone give the same result.

And this reading overlaps directly with another verse of the sūra:

The two verses build the same structure: whatever the input, the output does not change. This is an overlap that can be verified within the sūra.

And per the method (Method) I enter one further note, because this likeness can be used with wounding language: the verse does not turn a group of human beings into animals; it describes a manner of behaving. And the verse itself says who is described: alladhīna kadhdhabū bi-āyātinā — an attribute. Whoever carries that attribute is included in it; this is the sūra's own principle.

And a point of word order must be recorded: the likeness is made not to the man but to the case — fa-mathaluhū ka-mathali'l-kalb: "his case is like the case of the dog". On both sides stands the word mathal.

This is the same choice of word order recorded at 47/12 in Muḥammad (yaʾkulūna kamā taʾkulu'l-anʿām — the likeness is made not to the person but to the act). I rely on that treatment.

And the command at the end of the verse must be recorded: fa'qṣuṣi'l-qaṣaṣa laʿallahum yatafakkarūn.

The root ق-ص-ص: to follow a trace. Qaṣaṣ is what is told by following its trace. The root had occurred in the seventh verse of the sūra (fa-la-naquṣṣanna ʿalayhim bi-ʿilm) and in the thirty-fifth as well (yaquṣṣūna ʿalaykum āyātī).

That is, in the sūra the same root is ascribed to three different subjects:

Three links. This is a weave that can be verified within the sūra, and I record it as an observation.