كَلَّآ إِنَّ كِتَٰبَ ٱلْفُجَّارِ لَفِى سِجِّينٍ
Kallā inna kitāba'l-fujjāri la-fī sijjīn "No! The book of those who break every bound is in sijjīn."
The function of the particle kallā was taken up in the section on al-Takāthur: it conveys both rejection and restraint.
In this sūra the particle occurs four times: in verses 7, 14, 15 and 18. That is a high number for one sūra, and it settles the sūra's rhythm.
| Verse | What kallā cuts off |
|---|---|
| 7 | Not the picture in the preceding verse, but the failure to consider that picture. "No, it is not so" — the matter is not unknown, the record has already been kept |
| 14 | The claim in the preceding verse: "tales of the ancients" |
| 15 | Not a continuation of the preceding verse but the beginning of a new verdict — reinforcement |
| 18 | It opens the opposite of the verdict in verse 7 |
Here, that is, in verse 7, there is disagreement over the target of the particle. Some exegetes attach kallā to the question in verse 4: they do not consider — no, they ought to have considered. Others count it a reinforcement of the following sentence and give it the sense حَقًّا (truly).
That inna follows the particle appears to support the second reading: the structure kallā inna… produces a cutting off and a fresh start of the form "no! truly…". This is a preference, and it is not binding.
The analysis of the root was made at al-Baqara 2/2, and what was recorded there is decisive here: the original sense of the root is not "to write" but "to bring together, to join, to stitch". Katība — a military unit gathered, not scattered. And the conclusion reached there: "a book means, at bottom, what has been compiled, what has been brought together."
In the section on al-Infiṭār, moreover, kātibīn was dwelt on and the difference between writing and memory was taken up: writing makes what it carries independent of the one who carries it, and makes it producible afterwards.
Now these two findings come side by side. In al-Infiṭār the scribes were writing; in al-Muṭaffifīn we are told where what is written is kept.
| View | Sense |
|---|---|
| The record of deeds | The record of what a person has done. Consonant with al-Infiṭār 82/11 and al-Isrāʾ 17/13-14 |
| What has been written, that is, the decree | Kitāb in the sense of "what is decreed"; the verdict given concerning them |
The first view appears better suited to the context, because verse 9 speaks of a concrete document, saying kitābun marqūm — "a marked writing". This is a preference, and it is not binding.
The word occurred in the preceding sūra (al-Infiṭār 82/14) and was taken up there: the root is ف-ج-ر, a fājir is "a person who breaks through the bound that holds him", fujūr is not a lack but an overflowing (treated in the section on al-Shams).
The first three verses of the sūra had related a violation of a boundary: shaving off the edge of the measure. Ṭaff, in the root of the word, already means "edge". So the sūra opens by relating those who violate the edge.
| Word | Concrete sense of the root |
|---|---|
| مطفف (ط-ف-ف) | The edge of a thing; the small quantity left at the edge |
| فاجر (ف-ج-ر) | One who splits the bound and overflows it |
The difference between them is one of scale: taṭfīf is shaving off the edge, fujūr is tearing down the dyke. The sūra gathers the one who shaves off the edge under the same name as the one who tears down the dyke. This is the explanation of the disproportion in the first verse: between the small violation and the large one there is no difference of kind, only of degree.
I offer this link as my own reading; that the two roots have to do with a boundary is a datum of the language, the relation I set up between them is an interpretation.
The word occurs in the Qurʾān only here, in two verses (7 and 8). And the sūra itself leaves it unexplained, saying "what will make you know?" This is the main cause of the disagreement in the exegesis.
| View | Derivation | Sense |
|---|---|---|
| An intensive from the root س-ج-ن | Sijjīn is an intensive pattern on the measure فِعِّيل (like sikkīr — a heavy drinker, shirrīb — a great drinker). Sijn — prison | "That which imprisons much" or "that which is imprisoned". The place where the book is confined, from which it cannot be taken out |
| A place name | The word is the proper name of a particular place | A place beneath the earth, at the very bottom. On this view the word is not derived but is directly a name |
| Related to س-ج-ل | Some lexicographers set up a kinship with sijjīl (the stone that occurs in al-Fīl 105/4) | It has been counted weak; the two words are from different roots |
| An attribute conveying lowness | What is meant is not the place where the book is but its condition | "Their book is in a low, worthless position" |
The first view is the soundest in point of language, and the fiʿʿīl intensive measure is common in Arabic. And read together with its opposite — ʿilliyyūn (verse 18) — the sense becomes clear: the one is below, the other above.
There is a description much transmitted in the sources: sijjīn is said to be in the lowest layer of the earth, and ʿilliyyīn at the top of the heaven. This description is traced to early exegetical reports; since I cannot give the soundness of those reports with certainty, I make no attribution of a source.
In my judgement what the text itself says with certainty is this: the word conveys a position, and that position is below. Beyond this — whether it is a place, a register or a state — cannot be settled, because in the next verse the sūra plainly declares it unknowable.
To imprison is to put a thing where it cannot get out. And the imprisoning of a document is not its destruction; it is its being made unreachable. That is, the record stands, but the person can do nothing to it.
Its connection with the first three verses of the sūra is set up here: the muṭaffif was the person who held the measure in his hands. To hold the measure is to be able to decide which side the difference falls on.
The seventh verse speaks of a record he cannot hold in his hands. A document that cannot be altered, cannot be shaved, cannot be taken from at the edge.