وَمَا هُوَ عَلَى ٱلْغَيْبِ بِضَنِينٍ
| Reading | Root | Its sense | What it means |
|---|---|---|---|
| ضَنِين (with ḍād) | ض-ن-ن | Niggardly, withholding | "He does not withhold the unseen from you, does not hide it, does not give it short" |
| ظَنِين (with ẓāʾ) | ظ-ن-ن | Under suspicion, one who is doubted | "He is not under suspicion in the matter of the unseen, not someone to be accused" |
Both are sound readings, and both are recorded in the sources. Since I am not certain which reading belongs to which imam, I give no name.
A note: this is not a matter of copying. In Arabic script ض and ظ are separate letters, and they were distinguished from one another in the early period as well. What we have before us, then, is a genuine variant reading.
ضَنِين — root ض-ن-ن. Ḍanna bi'sh-shayʾ — he withheld a thing, could not bring himself to give it, did not want it out of his hand. Ḍinn — what a person counts most precious and gives to no one. Ḍanāna — niggardliness.
What is peculiar to the word: not an ordinary miserliness, but withholding because one finds a thing precious. A man will give his property but not his secret; this is what ḍanīn is.
ظَنِين — root ظ-ن-ن. Ẓann — to suppose, to conjecture; and ẓanīn (the faʿīl pattern, with the sense of a passive participle) — one who is suspected, accused, held untrustworthy. In Arabic shāhidun ẓanīn — a suspect witness; a person whose testimony is not accepted. A legal term.
| The ضَنِين reading | The ظَنِين reading | |
|---|---|---|
| Which objection it answers | "He is not telling us everything; he hides a part, he gives selectively" | "He is making it up; he cannot be trusted" |
| Its ground in the context | The preceding word أَمِين (21). One who is amīn delivers his trust without diminution. Ḍanīn is the exact opposite of amīn | Before it the charge of مَجْنُون (22), after it the refusal of قَوْلِ شَيْطَانٍ (25). Both are imputations |
| What kind of claim | The completeness of the transmission | The honesty of the transmitter |
In the classical tradition it is counted not a defect but a richness that two sound readings should each yield a solid sense: as much meaning is found in one place as in two verses. This is an approach widely voiced in the literature on the variant readings; I ascribe it to no particular person.
My own preference — it is not binding — is towards ضَنِين, and its ground is the word order: the word stands in the same rhyme and in the same field of ideas as amīn three verses earlier. Amīn (one who can be entrusted) and ḍanīn (one who withholds) set up a natural opposition: he who takes a trust does not diminish it.
But the ظَنِين reading has a strong ground too: verses 22, 24 and 25 together form a series refusing three imputations, and ẓanīn fits that series exactly.
The claim of access to the unseen has been a source of power throughout history — soothsaying, divination, esoteric knowledge. And this power arises precisely from the knowledge not being distributed. If knowledge is open to everyone it produces no privilege. The soothsayer's position depends on his giving what he knows selectively and in part.
What the verse says is this: the carrier does not do this. He gives what he has entire, gives it to everyone, gives it to his opponents too.
And this is behaviour contrary to the carrier's own interest. Someone who wants to build a position does not distribute what he has received in this way.
I record this as an observation, not as proof. A similar observation was made in the section on ʿAbasa, and the same qualification was entered there too: the text contains elements that do not work in its carrier's interest. The reader decides for himself where to place this in his own reasoning.
Fronting (taqdīm). The phrase ʿala'l-ghaybi comes before bi-ḍanīn. The normal order would be wa mā huwa bi-ḍanīnin ʿala'l-ghayb. Its being brought forward conveys specification (ikhtiṣāṣ): "in the matter of the unseen precisely".
The particle عَلَى. The usage is not ḍanna bi- but ḍanna ʿalā. ʿAlā conveys being over something and having the mastery of it (istīlāʾ). The unseen, that is, is pictured as something he holds under his hand — and he does not withhold it.
ٱلْغَيْب — root غ-ي-ب. This root was treated in the section on al-Baqara 2/3; I do not repeat it here. In summary: to vanish from sight, to be covered over. The unseen is not what does not exist but what is not seen — this distinction is critical, and it is often confused.
And it settles into place in the weave of the sūra: in the fifteenth verse an oath was sworn by the stars that hide; in the twenty-fourth verse a report that comes from what is hidden is defended. An oath by things that vanish and come back, on behalf of a report that comes from the place of vanishing.