al-Maʿārij 70:42

Fa-dharhum yakhūḍū wa yalʿabū ḥattā yulāqū yawmahumu'lladhī yūʿadūn "So leave them to plunge and to play until they meet the day they are promised."

In the fifth verse it had said "be patient"; here it says "leave". The sūra's two commands, at its two ends.

And the two commands together describe a stance: hold yourself in (patience), do not interfere with them (leaving).

فَذَرْ — Root: و-ذ-ر. Wadhara — to leave, to abandon. The verb has a curious feature: in Arabic its perfect and its verbal noun are not used; only the imperative and the imperfect forms are in service. The missing places are filled by the verb taraka.

This command occurs in several places in the Qurʾān, and always in the same context:

• "Leave them to eat and to enjoy themselves, and let hope distract them." (al-Ḥijr 15/3)
• "Leave Me and the deniers." (al-Muzzammil 73/11)
• "Leave those who have taken their religion as play and amusement." (al-Anʿām 6/70)

And this command is not a giving up. The Qurʾān at the same time commands the conveying of the message. The sense of the command is this: stop forcing, stop taking the outcome on yourself.

The measure recorded in this commentary in the sections on al-Ghāshiya 88/22 and al-Fajr 89/14 holds here too: "the watch-post belongs not to the messenger but to the Lord"; "your task is to convey."

Root: خ-و-ض. And the concrete sense of the root sets the image.

خَاضَ ٱلْمَاءَ — he entered the water, he walked in the water, he sank into mud. This is the primary sense of the root: to enter a liquid and walk in it.

And from here the metaphor arises: khāḍa fi'l-ḥadīth — he plunged into talk; especially empty, groundless, irresponsible talk.

The logic of the metaphor: one who walks in water does not see where he sets his foot; the bottom is murky, he does not know what he is treading on. So it is with one who plunges into empty talk: he does not see where he is arriving.

I transmit this explanation; the concrete sense of the root is set down in the dictionaries, and the logic of the metaphor is an explanation of the kind the lexicographers give.

And this word occurs in a verse mentioned in the section on al-Māʿūn.

In the section on al-Māʿūn al-Muddaththir 74/42-46 was transmitted: the four-item confession of those in the Fire. The third item was this:

"We used to plunge into vain talk with those who plunged." (al-Muddaththir 74/45 — wa kunnā nakhūḍu maʿa'l-khāʾiḍīn)

So al-Maʿārij 70/42 describes what is confessed in al-Muddaththir 74/45.

And note a detail in the sentence in al-Muddaththir — "with those who plunged". That is, the act is not done alone; it is a collective business.

And so it is in al-Maʿārij: "yakhūḍū" is plural, and two verses earlier it had said ʿizīn (scattered groups). People gathered in clumps, plunging together.

I record this as my own reading. The wordings of the two verses and the transmission in the section on al-Māʿūn are data that can be verified.

The root's other occurrences: "You plunged as they plunged" (al-Tawba 9/69); "When you see those who talk idly about Our signs, turn away from them" (al-Anʿām 6/68).

Root: ل-ع-ب. Laʿiba — to play. Luʿba (a game), malʿab (a playing-ground).

And there is a definition of this word in the Qurʾān: play is work that has no result. The Qurʾān qualifies the life of this world with this word in several places:

• "The life of this world is only play and amusement." (al-Anʿām 6/32; al-ʿAnkabūt 29/64; Muḥammad 47/36; al-Ḥadīd 57/20)

Why are the two verbs side by side?

So one describes their tongues, the other their hands. Together the two take in a whole life: what is said and what is done.

I record this as my own reading.

And one more thing: both verbs are in the jussive as the response to a command (yakhūḍū, yalʿabū). That is, grammatically the structure "leave them so that they may plunge" is built. This is not permission; it is the statement of a consequence.

The verse does not say "allow them to plunge"; it says "if you leave them, they plunge".

Root: ل-ق-ي. To meet, to encounter. مُلَاقَاة (mufāʿala) — a mutual meeting.

This pattern was treated in the section on al-Ḥāqqa 69/20 (mulāqin ḥisābiyah) and was also taken up in the section on al-Inshiqāq 84/6. I do not repeat it; in summary: the mufāʿala form conveys reciprocity, that is, a person comes face to face with his reckoning.

حَتَّىٰ is a particle of limit: "until". That is, the plunging and the playing come to an end at a point.

And this sets the tone of the whole verse. The command is "leave", but the leaving is not without term; it has a limit.

So the verse says: this state is temporary; its end point is fixed.

And the possessive construction here is noteworthy.

The verse does not say "that day". It says "their day": yawma-hum.

That is, the day is attributed to them. As though the day were their property.

There are two readings, and both are possible:

The second is a reading and goes further; I do not present it as certain. But the presence of the possessive construction is in the text.

يُوعَدُونَ — Root: و-ع-د. Waʿd — to promise. Passive: "which they are promised".

And the verb is imperfect: the promise continues, it is renewed.