Taken from Neal Robinson’s book “The Qur’an: A Contemporary Approach to a veiled
text”
Introduction
As a result of my efforts at identifying the principal formal elements in these Meccan
revelations, and at demonstrating the various ways in which these elements are
combined in individual surahs, the reader should have begun to find the Qur’an more
coherent. Nevertheless, in some instances, even though I succeeded in summarising the
structure of a surah, the surah itself may still seem somewhat disjointed when read in
translation. A recitation of the same surah in Arabic, however, is much more likely to
seem balanced and harmonious. This is because the structure sound and meaning are
often intimately related. I now wish to explore this issue at great length, and have
purposely chosen surahs whose unity is far from obvious. I propose, in this chapter, to
analyse in detail three (two will be shown here) surahs which Noldeke ascribed to the
first Meccan period.
The integrity of Surah 103
Surah 103, which is entirely devoted to polemic, comprises three ayahs of unequal
length. Although the third ayah has the same rhyme as the others, it is by far the
longest. Moreover, the phraseology of this ayah is characteristic of relatively late
revelations. For these reasons most European Scholars (including Noldeke, Bell,
Blachere, Paret and Neuwirth) think it must have been added later to introduce an
exception to the categorical denunciation in v.2.
Here is the whole surah in transliteration, together with a literal translation:
Impersonal oath
1. wa-’l-‘asr
By the late afternoon!
Categorical denunciation
2. inna’-l-insaana la-fi ‘l-khusr
Lo! Humankind is indeed in loss!
Exception clause
3. illa’l-ladhina aamanu
Except those who believe
Wa-‘amilu’s-saalihaati
And do good works,
Wa-tawaasaw bi-‘l-haqqi
And encourage one another in truth,
Wa-tawaasaw bi-‘s-sabr
And encourage one anotherr in endurance
The noun ‘aSR is derived from the verb ‘aSaRa, to press or squeeze, which is used in
12.36 and 49 to denote the action of pressing grapes to make wine. From this verse we
also get the non-Qur’anic word ‘aSiR, ‘juice’ – so-called because it is extracted by
pressing or squeezing fruit. Highly appropriately, the very production of these words
requires considerable pressing and squeezing in the throat and the mouth. Use your
muscles to tighten your throat and squeeze your larynx before pronouncing a short a.
this will give you ‘a. nw press the tip of your tongue against your lower teeth while
squeezing the blade up against the teeth ridge to pronounce the emphatic ‘s’ –‘as.
Finally, follow this up with a rolled ‘r’ – ‘as. The precise meaning of ‘asr is disputed. In
pre-Islamic times, it sometimes meant ‘age’ or ‘destiny’, but here it probably has the
sense of ‘late afternoon’. As that is the time of day when merchants add up their
takings, and when Muslims meet for prayer, the message of the surah would thus be
quite simple: no matter how great their financial profit, human beings are in danger of
eternal loss unless they are believers. Mere belief is not, however, sufficient. What is
required is explained in the second half of the third ayah which, phonologically speaking,
is squeezed out of the initial oath. The first of the three consonants of ‘asr recurs at the
beginning of ‘amilu; the second recurs no less than six times in the next few words; and
the surah ends on the third:
Late afternoon
Do good works, encourage truth and encourage endurance.
‘sr
‘a s’s s s s-s r
I have indicated this by printing all three consonants in bold type in the original
transliteration. The extreme length of the third ayah is thus entirely exlpicable, and there
is no need to suppose that it was added later.
The role of word play in Surah 104
Surah 104 is likewise devoted exclusively to polemic. It rhymes in –ah throughout, and
consists of two subsections: an initial woe and lampoon (vv.1-4), followed by a didactic
question and answer (vv.5-9) which take up the word hutamah with which the lampoon
ends. Bell thought that this word was not well-understood and that vv.5-9 were therefore
added later to explain it. Let us examine the surah in transliteration:
Woe and lampoon
1. waylul-li-kulli humazati’l-lumazah
woe to every backbiter faultfinder!
2. al-ladhi jama’a maalan wa-‘addada-h
who gathers his wealth and endlessly counts it out
3. yahsabu anna maala-hu akhlada-h
he reckons his wealth has rendered him immortal.
4. kallaa la-yumbadhanna fi’l-hutamah
indeed not! He’ll be tossed into the Hutamah!
Didactic qusestion and answer
5. wa maa adraa-ka maa’l-hutamah
and what will make thee comprheend what the Hutamah is?
6. naaru ‘llahi ‘l-muqadah
the fire of Allah kindled
7. al-lati tattali’u ‘ala ‘l-af’idah
which rises above the hearts.
8. inna-haa ‘alay-him mu’sadah
Lo! It is vaulted over them
9. fi ‘amadim mumaddadah
in columns endlessly strechted out.
The two sub-scetions, vv.1-4 and vv.5-9, are rhytmically balanced: the first has 46
syllables and the second 45 – which is increased to 46 in continuous recitation of the
quran, hwne the final word is pronounced mumaddadatim to form a liason with the
bismillah of the next surah. The opening ayah is very expressive and makes use of
onomatopoeia. The shrill note of the initial interjection wayl (‘Woe!’ or “Alas!’) is
maintained by the subsequent six fold repetition of its final consonant l in combination
with the short vowels u and I
Waylu-l-li…ulli…il-lu…
Whereas the mutterings of the critics are echoed in the two terms used to describe them:
HuMaZah and LuMaZah. The former should probably be translated ‘backbiter’. It is
derived from the verb HaMaZa which means to squeeze, pinch or goad. The only other
Qur’anic words from this root both occur in Meccan surahs. They are HaMmaZ (‘habitual
backbiter’?), which occurs in 68.11, and HaMaZaat, which denotes the ‘promptings’ or
‘goadings’ of Satan in 23.97. The other term, LuMaZah, may be rendered ‘faultfinder’ or
‘slanderer’. It is derived from the verb LaMaZa, which means to make a sign with the eye,
with the head or with the lips in low speech, and thus, by extension, to find fault with or
speak evil of. This verb occurs in three late Madinan passages: in 49.11, where
believers are forbidden to find fault with one another; in 9.58, in connection with those
who criticized Muhammad over the distribution of charity; and in 9.79, with reference to
those who mocked the believers for making voluntary contributions. If the fault-finders
who feature in the present surah were also critical of the Islamic commitment to charity,
this might explain why they are lampooned for hoarding and counting their wealth.
The word maal, in v.2, can denote any kind of wealth, including gold, silver, wheat,
barley, clothes, weapon and livestock. The verb ‘aDdaDa maybe the intensive form of
‘aDDa, ‘to count’, and hence mean ‘has counted it over and over again’. Alternatively, it
may be derived from the noun ‘uDDah, ‘property prepared for casualties of fortune’, in
which case it would mean ‘has laid [it] up in preparation for calamity’. Both ideas are
perhaps present.
The third ayah does not pose any problems. The Arabic verb yahsabu means both ‘he
thinks’ and ‘he calculates’, like the English ‘he reckons’. The irony is patent: Muhammad’
s materialistic critics, who seek security in their worldly possessions, have failed to take
into account the final reckoning, on the basis of which Allah will decide who is worthy of
true immortality. This is underscored by the way in which the diplomacy ay of the initial
woe inverts the ya of yahsabu.
The sound patterns of the fourth ayah echo those of both the first and the third. It opens
with kalla la-yu- ‘rather he will…’ – which brings us back to the Waylu-l-li kulli – ‘woe to
every…’- with which the surah began. Notice in particular the recurrence of the dipthong
ay, and of the k followed by a short vowel and ll, neither of which are found in the
intervening ayahs. The word yumbadhanna – ‘he will certainly be cast’ – echoes
yahsabu anna – ‘he reckons that’ – but reverses the fault- finders expectations. Finally,
hutamah recalls humazah and lumazah, because it has the same unusual form as them.
To achieve the same effect in english one would have to say something like: ‘calumniator
incriminator’ will be tossed into the ‘incinerator’. However, this would hardly do justice to
the enigma attached to the word HuTaMah. From the context, one may guess that it is a
synonym either for hell – the view taken by the classical commentators – or for the
approaching calamity. But what precisely does it signify? It is presumably linked in some
way with the verb HaTiMa, which means to break, hence Arberry’s translation ‘the
Crusher’, Irving’s ‘the Bone-Crusher’, and Yusuf Ali’s ‘that which Breaks to Pieces’.
Nevertheless the link may not e quite so straightforward. The only other word in the
Quran derived from this verb HuTaaM, which occurs in 39.21; 56.65 and 57.20 in the
sense of the withered remains of vegetation , probably thus named because it was so
desiccated that it crumbled when touched. That Allah gives the vegetation its luxuriant
growth and then reduces it to this fragile (and highly flammable) state is set forth as a
parable of human life – a reminder of the fate in store for all.
The second sub-section opens with the didactic question ‘And what will make thee
comprehend what the HuTaMah is?'’if, as seems likely, HuTaMah is a neologism, it would
have required clarification from the first. Moreover, if I am correct in linking it with
HuTaMah – the vegetation which Allah dedicated by means of the intense heat of the
sun – the description of it as ‘the fire of Allah kindled’ would be entirely appropriate.
The seventh ayah states that the fire ‘rises above (or ‘penetrates’) the hearts’. There is
a double irony here: the verb taTtaLi’u is a derived form of TaLa’a, which is used in the
Qur’an to denote the rising of the sun, and the noun aF’iDah is the plural of Fu’aD,
which signifies the heart as the seat of human ardour, the organ which is kindled with
desire. Furthermore, the feminine relative pronoun al-lati, with which the ayah begins,
echoes the masculine relative pronoun al-ladhi, which occupies the same position in the
second ayah.
If the al-lati of the seventh ayah takes us back to the al-ladhi of the second, the word
‘alay-him (‘over them’) of the eighth takes us back to the first, by echoing both the ay of
wayl and the hum of humaza. Finally the last ayah, the description of the columns of fire
as mummaddadah (‘endlessly stretched out’) parodies that of the fault-finder who
gathers his wealth and ‘addada-h (‘endlessly counts it out’).
Careful attention to the sound pattern thus suggests that the surah, as it
stands, is a remarkable unity. I conclude that although it is possible that vv. 5-9 were
added later, as Bell supposed, they are much more intimately related to the previous
ayahs than is generally recognised.
text”
Introduction
As a result of my efforts at identifying the principal formal elements in these Meccan
revelations, and at demonstrating the various ways in which these elements are
combined in individual surahs, the reader should have begun to find the Qur’an more
coherent. Nevertheless, in some instances, even though I succeeded in summarising the
structure of a surah, the surah itself may still seem somewhat disjointed when read in
translation. A recitation of the same surah in Arabic, however, is much more likely to
seem balanced and harmonious. This is because the structure sound and meaning are
often intimately related. I now wish to explore this issue at great length, and have
purposely chosen surahs whose unity is far from obvious. I propose, in this chapter, to
analyse in detail three (two will be shown here) surahs which Noldeke ascribed to the
first Meccan period.
The integrity of Surah 103
Surah 103, which is entirely devoted to polemic, comprises three ayahs of unequal
length. Although the third ayah has the same rhyme as the others, it is by far the
longest. Moreover, the phraseology of this ayah is characteristic of relatively late
revelations. For these reasons most European Scholars (including Noldeke, Bell,
Blachere, Paret and Neuwirth) think it must have been added later to introduce an
exception to the categorical denunciation in v.2.
Here is the whole surah in transliteration, together with a literal translation:
Impersonal oath
1. wa-’l-‘asr
By the late afternoon!
Categorical denunciation
2. inna’-l-insaana la-fi ‘l-khusr
Lo! Humankind is indeed in loss!
Exception clause
3. illa’l-ladhina aamanu
Except those who believe
Wa-‘amilu’s-saalihaati
And do good works,
Wa-tawaasaw bi-‘l-haqqi
And encourage one another in truth,
Wa-tawaasaw bi-‘s-sabr
And encourage one anotherr in endurance
The noun ‘aSR is derived from the verb ‘aSaRa, to press or squeeze, which is used in
12.36 and 49 to denote the action of pressing grapes to make wine. From this verse we
also get the non-Qur’anic word ‘aSiR, ‘juice’ – so-called because it is extracted by
pressing or squeezing fruit. Highly appropriately, the very production of these words
requires considerable pressing and squeezing in the throat and the mouth. Use your
muscles to tighten your throat and squeeze your larynx before pronouncing a short a.
this will give you ‘a. nw press the tip of your tongue against your lower teeth while
squeezing the blade up against the teeth ridge to pronounce the emphatic ‘s’ –‘as.
Finally, follow this up with a rolled ‘r’ – ‘as. The precise meaning of ‘asr is disputed. In
pre-Islamic times, it sometimes meant ‘age’ or ‘destiny’, but here it probably has the
sense of ‘late afternoon’. As that is the time of day when merchants add up their
takings, and when Muslims meet for prayer, the message of the surah would thus be
quite simple: no matter how great their financial profit, human beings are in danger of
eternal loss unless they are believers. Mere belief is not, however, sufficient. What is
required is explained in the second half of the third ayah which, phonologically speaking,
is squeezed out of the initial oath. The first of the three consonants of ‘asr recurs at the
beginning of ‘amilu; the second recurs no less than six times in the next few words; and
the surah ends on the third:
Late afternoon
Do good works, encourage truth and encourage endurance.
‘sr
‘a s’s s s s-s r
I have indicated this by printing all three consonants in bold type in the original
transliteration. The extreme length of the third ayah is thus entirely exlpicable, and there
is no need to suppose that it was added later.
The role of word play in Surah 104
Surah 104 is likewise devoted exclusively to polemic. It rhymes in –ah throughout, and
consists of two subsections: an initial woe and lampoon (vv.1-4), followed by a didactic
question and answer (vv.5-9) which take up the word hutamah with which the lampoon
ends. Bell thought that this word was not well-understood and that vv.5-9 were therefore
added later to explain it. Let us examine the surah in transliteration:
Woe and lampoon
1. waylul-li-kulli humazati’l-lumazah
woe to every backbiter faultfinder!
2. al-ladhi jama’a maalan wa-‘addada-h
who gathers his wealth and endlessly counts it out
3. yahsabu anna maala-hu akhlada-h
he reckons his wealth has rendered him immortal.
4. kallaa la-yumbadhanna fi’l-hutamah
indeed not! He’ll be tossed into the Hutamah!
Didactic qusestion and answer
5. wa maa adraa-ka maa’l-hutamah
and what will make thee comprheend what the Hutamah is?
6. naaru ‘llahi ‘l-muqadah
the fire of Allah kindled
7. al-lati tattali’u ‘ala ‘l-af’idah
which rises above the hearts.
8. inna-haa ‘alay-him mu’sadah
Lo! It is vaulted over them
9. fi ‘amadim mumaddadah
in columns endlessly strechted out.
The two sub-scetions, vv.1-4 and vv.5-9, are rhytmically balanced: the first has 46
syllables and the second 45 – which is increased to 46 in continuous recitation of the
quran, hwne the final word is pronounced mumaddadatim to form a liason with the
bismillah of the next surah. The opening ayah is very expressive and makes use of
onomatopoeia. The shrill note of the initial interjection wayl (‘Woe!’ or “Alas!’) is
maintained by the subsequent six fold repetition of its final consonant l in combination
with the short vowels u and I
Waylu-l-li…ulli…il-lu…
Whereas the mutterings of the critics are echoed in the two terms used to describe them:
HuMaZah and LuMaZah. The former should probably be translated ‘backbiter’. It is
derived from the verb HaMaZa which means to squeeze, pinch or goad. The only other
Qur’anic words from this root both occur in Meccan surahs. They are HaMmaZ (‘habitual
backbiter’?), which occurs in 68.11, and HaMaZaat, which denotes the ‘promptings’ or
‘goadings’ of Satan in 23.97. The other term, LuMaZah, may be rendered ‘faultfinder’ or
‘slanderer’. It is derived from the verb LaMaZa, which means to make a sign with the eye,
with the head or with the lips in low speech, and thus, by extension, to find fault with or
speak evil of. This verb occurs in three late Madinan passages: in 49.11, where
believers are forbidden to find fault with one another; in 9.58, in connection with those
who criticized Muhammad over the distribution of charity; and in 9.79, with reference to
those who mocked the believers for making voluntary contributions. If the fault-finders
who feature in the present surah were also critical of the Islamic commitment to charity,
this might explain why they are lampooned for hoarding and counting their wealth.
The word maal, in v.2, can denote any kind of wealth, including gold, silver, wheat,
barley, clothes, weapon and livestock. The verb ‘aDdaDa maybe the intensive form of
‘aDDa, ‘to count’, and hence mean ‘has counted it over and over again’. Alternatively, it
may be derived from the noun ‘uDDah, ‘property prepared for casualties of fortune’, in
which case it would mean ‘has laid [it] up in preparation for calamity’. Both ideas are
perhaps present.
The third ayah does not pose any problems. The Arabic verb yahsabu means both ‘he
thinks’ and ‘he calculates’, like the English ‘he reckons’. The irony is patent: Muhammad’
s materialistic critics, who seek security in their worldly possessions, have failed to take
into account the final reckoning, on the basis of which Allah will decide who is worthy of
true immortality. This is underscored by the way in which the diplomacy ay of the initial
woe inverts the ya of yahsabu.
The sound patterns of the fourth ayah echo those of both the first and the third. It opens
with kalla la-yu- ‘rather he will…’ – which brings us back to the Waylu-l-li kulli – ‘woe to
every…’- with which the surah began. Notice in particular the recurrence of the dipthong
ay, and of the k followed by a short vowel and ll, neither of which are found in the
intervening ayahs. The word yumbadhanna – ‘he will certainly be cast’ – echoes
yahsabu anna – ‘he reckons that’ – but reverses the fault- finders expectations. Finally,
hutamah recalls humazah and lumazah, because it has the same unusual form as them.
To achieve the same effect in english one would have to say something like: ‘calumniator
incriminator’ will be tossed into the ‘incinerator’. However, this would hardly do justice to
the enigma attached to the word HuTaMah. From the context, one may guess that it is a
synonym either for hell – the view taken by the classical commentators – or for the
approaching calamity. But what precisely does it signify? It is presumably linked in some
way with the verb HaTiMa, which means to break, hence Arberry’s translation ‘the
Crusher’, Irving’s ‘the Bone-Crusher’, and Yusuf Ali’s ‘that which Breaks to Pieces’.
Nevertheless the link may not e quite so straightforward. The only other word in the
Quran derived from this verb HuTaaM, which occurs in 39.21; 56.65 and 57.20 in the
sense of the withered remains of vegetation , probably thus named because it was so
desiccated that it crumbled when touched. That Allah gives the vegetation its luxuriant
growth and then reduces it to this fragile (and highly flammable) state is set forth as a
parable of human life – a reminder of the fate in store for all.
The second sub-section opens with the didactic question ‘And what will make thee
comprehend what the HuTaMah is?'’if, as seems likely, HuTaMah is a neologism, it would
have required clarification from the first. Moreover, if I am correct in linking it with
HuTaMah – the vegetation which Allah dedicated by means of the intense heat of the
sun – the description of it as ‘the fire of Allah kindled’ would be entirely appropriate.
The seventh ayah states that the fire ‘rises above (or ‘penetrates’) the hearts’. There is
a double irony here: the verb taTtaLi’u is a derived form of TaLa’a, which is used in the
Qur’an to denote the rising of the sun, and the noun aF’iDah is the plural of Fu’aD,
which signifies the heart as the seat of human ardour, the organ which is kindled with
desire. Furthermore, the feminine relative pronoun al-lati, with which the ayah begins,
echoes the masculine relative pronoun al-ladhi, which occupies the same position in the
second ayah.
If the al-lati of the seventh ayah takes us back to the al-ladhi of the second, the word
‘alay-him (‘over them’) of the eighth takes us back to the first, by echoing both the ay of
wayl and the hum of humaza. Finally the last ayah, the description of the columns of fire
as mummaddadah (‘endlessly stretched out’) parodies that of the fault-finder who
gathers his wealth and ‘addada-h (‘endlessly counts it out’).
Careful attention to the sound pattern thus suggests that the surah, as it
stands, is a remarkable unity. I conclude that although it is possible that vv. 5-9 were
added later, as Bell supposed, they are much more intimately related to the previous
ayahs than is generally recognised.
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