al-Muddaththir 74:32-37 — The oaths

Kallā wa'l-qamar / Wa'l-layli idh adbara / Wa'l-ṣubḥi idhā asfara / Innahā la-iḥda'l-kubar / Nadhīran li'l-bashar / Li-man shāʾa minkum an yataqaddama aw yataʾakhkhar

"No! By the moon, by the night as it retreats, by the morning as it whitens: it is one of the great things — a warner to human beings; for those among you who wish to go forward or to hold back."

That a series of oaths should open with kallā is striking.

Two explanations are given in the classical commentaries:

I impose no preference. The first explanation agrees with the function of kallā recorded in al-Fajr.

And the series has a direction: the moon (the middle of the night) → the withdrawal of the night → the opening of the morning. A movement from darkness towards light.

A point of word order, easy to miss.

• For the night: إِذْ — an adverb of past time, pointing to a moment that has happened.
• For the morning: إِذَا — future or repeated time, conveying certainty.

That is, the night is mentioned as having "retreated", the morning as "about to open".

Whether this difference carries a meaning is disputed, and a variant reading is transmitted in this word too (idh adbara / idhā adbara). I give no definite list as to which reading belongs to which imām; in the widespread printed muṣḥaf (the transmission of Ḥafṣ) it is read إِذْ أَدْبَرَ.

I therefore draw no conclusion from the difference of particle. What I record is the existence of the difference.

As recorded above (74/23), this verb occurs in the sūra for the second time: once of a man, once of the night. And the contrast set up there is completed here:

After the man's turning of his back comes denial; after the night's turning of its back comes the morning.

I state again that I record this reading as my own inference.

Moreover: in al-Ḍuḥā the oaths by the night were gathered in a table, and this verse (74/33) was recorded as "idh adbara — when it turns its back — withdrawal". I do not contradict the table there; what I add is that the same verb occurs once more within the sūra.

Root: س-ف-ر. This root was treated in detail in ʿAbasa as the backbone of that sūra. The core recorded there:

"Under this root there is a single idea: to lift the covering, to bring into the open."

And the distribution of the derivatives was given there: safara (he opened, he lifted the covering), safar (a journey — "a journey was given this name because it brings people's characters into the open"), sifr (a large book), safīr (an envoy), sufra (a table), misfara (a broom).

And one of the examples given there is exactly this verse: asfara'l-ṣubḥu — the morning whitened, its covering was lifted.

ʿAbasa also recorded a turn within that sūra: safara (80/15, the scribes) → musfira (80/38, faces made bright), and this finding was made: "The same root, the same work, on two storeys." And of musfira: "That is, the face is likened to the morning. The moment at which the darkness withdraws, the covering is lifted, the light appears."

Here the original of the likeness stands: the morning itself.

Now a weave can be set up, and this is one of the most striking structures of the sūra.

The sūra opened with ٱلْمُدَّثِّر — its root د-ث-ر, its sense to cover oneself; and its second branch, to have one's trace effaced.

In the thirty-fourth verse there is أَسْفَرَ — its root س-ف-ر, its sense to lift the covering, to bring into the open.

Two roots naming exactly opposite works:

The sūra opens by calling out to a man who has covered himself, and reaches its height by swearing by a morning that opens.

I record this as my own reading. I claim no kinship between the two roots — the roots are entirely separate; the link set up is conceptual and rests on the opposition of the concrete senses of the two roots.

"It is one of the great things."

To what does the pronoun (hā) refer? The classical explanations: to saqar (the most widespread), or to the events recounted in general.

ٱلْكُبَر — the plural of al-kubrā (fuʿlā → fuʿal): "the greatest things".

And the ك-ب-ر root occurs in the sūra for the third time. The table set up above for 74/3 and 74/23 is now completed:

Three positions: a greatness commanded, a greatness usurped, and a greatness that comes as requital.

I record this weave as an observation; I do not claim that it is a deliberate design of the sūra. But all three occurrences stand in the text.

A detail: the verse does not say "it is the greatest", it says "it is one of the greatest".

That is, no ranking is being made; a placing in a category is being made.

And this agrees with the principle recorded in al-Balad: "what is named is limited" (that expression occurred in al-Aʿlā). Here too no complete ranking is given.

"A warner to human beings."

And the second verse of the sūra returns here.

74/2: qum fa-andhir — "rise and warn." 74/36: nadhīran li'l-bashar — "a warner to human beings."

The same root (ن-ذ-ر), in two separate places in the sūra. In the first a command to the addressee, in the second an attribute.

And whose attribute is nadhīr? Two explanations in the classical commentaries:

The first explanation fits the context better — the pronouns refer to saqar. But the second is also defended in the classical sources and sets up a link with 74/2.

I state no preference; but I record this: when the two explanations are joined, the work of warning becomes the work both of the text and of the one who carries it.

And the word ٱلْبَشَر occurs in the sūra for the fourth and last time. The table given above (74/25) is now complete.

"For those among you who wish to go forward or to hold back."

The plainest sentence of release in the sūra.

• تَقَدَّمَ — from the ق-د-م root, the tafaʿʿul form: to go forward, to advance.
• تَأَخَّرَ — from the أ-خ-ر root, the tafaʿʿul form: to fall behind, to hold back.

Both verbs are in the same form. And the tafaʿʿul form, as has been recorded many times in this commentary, states that the act is done by the person himself, to himself.

That is, both going forward and holding back are the person's own work.

This pair occurs once more in the Qurʾān, exactly in the context of the reckoning:

• "Every soul knows what it has sent ahead and what it has left behind" (al-Infiṭār 82/5) — mā qaddamat wa akhkharat. Treated in al-Infiṭār.
• "That day man will be told of what he has sent ahead and what he has left behind" (al-Qiyāma 75/13).

And the same root occurred in al-Muzzammil 73/20 as well: wa mā tuqaddimū li-anfusikum min khayr — "whatever good you send ahead for yourselves".

That is, both sūras use the ق-د-م root to name the work a person does for his own benefit.

Li-man shāʾa minkum — "for whoever among you wills".

And here two things happen at once:

1. Iltifāt (a shift in the direction of address): the address turns to the plural again (minkum — "of you"). Throughout the sūra a third-person narrative had been running; here it turns directly to the addressee. 2. Release: man shāʾa — "whoever wills".

The same pattern was treated in al-Muzzammil 73/19, and what was recorded there holds here as well: after the sequence of commands a door is shown, and no compulsion is laid down.

And note: both options are enumerated. The verse does not say "for those who wish to go forward"; it says "for those who wish to go forward or to hold back".

That is, the warning is presented as a door open to both. The warning itself does not force a choice; it sets up the ground on which a choice can be made.

I record this reading as my own inference.