وَهَدَيْنَٰهُ ٱلنَّجْدَيْنِ
Root: ه-د-ي. The analysis of this root was made in Sūrat al-Fātiḥa on the occasion of ihdinā (show us); the root's sense of "to show the way, to direct towards the right side, to go in front" was treated there. Hadiyya (gift) is from the same root — that which is directed towards someone.
What has to be added here is this: the verb is perfect. Not "We shall show" or "We are showing", but "We showed". The work of showing the way, that is, is a thing completed; man was furnished with that knowledge at the moment he was created.
This corresponds to one of the two distinct usages of the root in the Qurʾān. The word hidāya means in the Qurʾān sometimes "to show the way" (given to everyone), sometimes "to bring onto the way" (given to particular persons). The usage here is the first: showing, not choosing. To show the way does not mean to put someone on that way; the verse states this already by showing the two ways together.
"We showed him the way; he is either grateful or ungrateful" (al-Insān 76/3)
The structure is almost the same: innā hadaynāhu'l-sabīl. In al-Balad, hadaynāhu'l-najdayn. The two verses say the same thing.
"By the self and Him who shaped it; and inspired it with its wickedness and its guarding against evil" (al-Shams 91/7-8)
Here the verb is alhama (inspired) and what is given is again twofold: the knowledge both of the wickedness and of the guarding. Read together, the three verses yield this picture: man is born knowing what both ways are.
1. A high place, an upland, a rise. Najd is the opposite of ghawr (a hollow), which is low and level. The inner plateau of Arabia is called Najd for this reason — the inner region that stays high, as against the low coastal region of Tihāma. This naming rests on a geographical fact and is still in use today.
2. What appears plainly, what is conspicuous. What is high is seen from far off. Najd therefore also comes to mean "a plain road".
3. To help, to come to the rescue. Najda — help, rescue. Najda also means valour. This branch comes from the first sense: the one who looks out from a height, who sees the danger first, who runs to help.
The verse does not say "ṭarīqayn" (two roads) or "sabīlayn" (two paths) for the two ways. It says "najdayn" — and najd is by definition a high place.
The meaning of this is: both ways are an ascent. Good is hard and evil is hard too. It is not said that one is uphill and the other downhill.
This stands squarely against a widespread picture. In speaking about morals the picture generally drawn is this: goodness is a toilsome climb, while evil is simply letting go — a man who lets himself go goes down. The word of the verse does not say this.
And this agrees with observation. Evil does not come free: keeping up a lie takes memory, holding up an injustice takes force, protecting an unjust gain requires being always on the alert. The man in the sixth verse of the sūra is not idle either — he has earned wealth, spent it, related it, established his position. All of these are labour.
What the verse says, then, may be this: both ways are toilsome; the difference is in where the toil arrives. This reading agrees exactly with the diagnosis in the fourth verse — if man was created inside hardship, then neither of the two options before him can be free of toil. There is no escape from hardship; there is only which hardship will be chosen.
I offer this as my own reading. In the classical commentaries najdayn is generally explained as "the way of good and the way of evil", and the "height" sense of the word is not dwelt on this much. But the sense stands in the root and is not forced.
| View | What it means | Ground | Its weak side |
|---|---|---|---|
| The two ways: good and evil (the majority) | The way of goodness and the way of evil | Exactly parallel to al-Insān 76/3 and al-Shams 91/8; the context of the sūra is moral | — |
| The two breasts | The mother's breasts; the first place the infant turns to | The "rise" sense of najd; the newborn's finding them is a guidance | The context of the sūra is moral; besides, the verb hadā is not used in the Qurʾān for physical turning of this kind. It is a minority view |
| Two manifest proofs | The signs seen and shown | The "conspicuous" sense of najd | It does not explain why the dual form was chosen |
The view of the majority is by a wide margin the stronger, and it is supported by parallels within the Qurʾān. I record the second view because it really is transmitted in the classical sources; but it has to be said that it has been found weak.
| What was given | What it serves for |
|---|---|
| Two eyes | To see — to take in knowledge |
| A tongue, two lips | To say — to give out knowledge |
| Two heights | To choose — what is to be done with the knowledge |
The series moves from matter towards decision. The last element is not an organ but knowledge: the knowledge of which way goes where.
And this sets up the sūra's reproach in the next verse. He has the instrument, the knowledge, the choice. And so?