وَيَحْلِفُونَ بِٱللَّهِ إِنَّهُمْ لَمِنكُمْ وَمَا هُم مِّنكُمْ وَلَٰكِنَّهُمْ قَوْمٌ يَفْرَقُونَ
Wa yaḥlifūna bi'llāhi innahum la-minkum wa mā hum minkum wa lākinnahum qawmun yafraqūn · Law yajidūna maljaʾan aw maghārātin aw muddakhalan la-wallaw ilayhi wa hum yajmaḥūn · Wa minhum man yalmizuka fi'l-ṣadaqāt; fa-in uʿṭū minhā raḍū wa in lam yuʿṭaw minhā idhā hum yaskhaṭūn · Wa law annahum raḍū mā ātāhumu'llāhu wa rasūluhū wa qālū ḥasbuna'llāhu sa-yuʾtīna'llāhu min faḍlihī wa rasūluhū innā ila'llāhi rāghibūn
"They swear by God that they are of you; but they are not of you — rather they are a people who take fright. · Could they find a refuge, or caves, or a hole to creep into, they would turn to it and bolt. · And among them is one who finds fault with you over the alms. If they are given some of them they are pleased; if they are not given some of them, at once they are angry. · Had they been content with what God and His Messenger gave them, and said, 'God is enough for us; God will give us of His bounty, and His Messenger too; to God we turn in hope' …"
The root was treated in al-Furqān at 25/1 and in al-Anfāl at 8/29 (to separate, to distinguish). Here the verb has another sense: faraq — fear.
The lexicographers tie this sense to the root's idea of "separating": fear's tearing a person from his place, scattering him. I convey this derivation as the lexicographers give it, not in a language of certainty.
| Word | Root | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| مَلْجَأ | ل-ج-أ | A refuge — a place where a person shelters |
| مَغَٰرَٰت | غ-و-ر | Caves — a natural hollow |
| مُدَّخَل | د-خ-ل | A hole to creep into — a place merely squeezed into |
I record this as my own reading, and its ground is the order of the three words: the list descends from shelter to hole. And the expression lā maljaʾa mina'llāhi illā ilayh will come again in verse 118 of the sūra — there the same word will stand in an entirely different place.
يَجْمَحُونَ — root ج-م-ح: a horse taking no heed of the bit and bolting off. The lexicographers use the word of an animal that cannot be reined in.
I record this as an observation about the language: the flight is pictured as an unbridled gallop — a movement in which the control does not lie with the person.
The root was analysed in detail in al-Humaza by way of the sūra's name (humaza–lumaza), and it was recorded there: "The ground common to the two words is the act itself — belittling someone — and the difference lies in the instruments of that act." I rely on that treatment and do not repeat it here.
The same root will occur again in verse 79 of the sūra (alladhīna yalmizūna'l-muṭṭawwiʿīna) and will be compared there.
And the word order must be recorded: in the verse raḍū (they were pleased) and yaskhaṭūn (they grow angry) are set against one another. And the measure is stated openly: in uʿṭū minhā / wa in lam yuʿṭaw minhā — whether or not they are given.
I record this as my own reading: the verse diagnoses what contentment is tied to. And the fifty-ninth verse says what ought to be, with the same word: wa law annahum raḍū mā ātāhumu'llāh — contentment is tied to what is given.
The root ر-غ-ب: to turn towards a thing, to want it; and as the concrete sense of the root, raghba carries the idea of "breadth" — the lexicographers record raghīb in the sense of "wide".