Which Favour Do You Forget? · Arabic words from Al-A'raf 73–84

Which favour do you use every day without remembering who gave it?0:00

Sarah: Which favour do you use every day without remembering who gave it?

The word · ālāʾa.

ءَالَآءَ

Sarah: Ala'. You have heard this word thirty-one times in one surah.

Tonight: fourteen words from Surah Al-A'raf, ayat seventy-three to eighty-four. Each word on its own first, and its ayah last. About 23 minutes.

Assalamu alaikum. I'm Sarah.

Ala', the favours0:26

Sarah: In Surah ar-Rahman it comes inside a question: “So which of the favors of your Lord would you deny?” Here, in Surah Al-A'raf, it comes inside a command. The same word, doing two different jobs.

Three root letters: hamzah, laam, waaw. Lane gives the singular as “A benefit, benefaction, favour, boon, or blessing”, and ala' is its plural.

A plural: not one favour, many. And look at where the word sits. Salih alayhis salam first names what his people could do: palaces on the plains, homes cut into the mountains. Then one word gathers all of it.

Hud alayhis salam said the same to 'Ad, earlier in this surah: “So remember the favors of Allah that you might succeed.” And in Surah an-Najm: “Then which of the favors of your Lord do you doubt?”

Put the three side by side: deny, doubt, remember. That is our own reading of them. The opposite of remembering a favour is not only denying it. It can be doubting it, or simply forgetting.

Isti'adhah.

أَعُوذُ بِاللَّهِ مِنَ الشَّيْطَانِ الرَّجِيمِ

A'udhu billahi minash-shaytanir-rajim. — I seek refuge in Allah from the accursed Satan.

7:74 · the phrase.

فَٱذْكُرُوٓا۟ ءَالَآءَ ٱللَّهِ

Sarah: “Then remember the favors of Allah.” Remember: that is the verb this word comes with here.

Stud'ifu, held weak1:49

Sarah: Salih alayhis salam told them to remember. The next ayah is the answer he got. The chiefs did not answer him; they spoke to the believers, and the Qur'an has one word for them.

The word · stuḍʿifū.

ٱسْتُضْعِفُوا۟

Sarah: Stud'ifu. Saheeh has “to those who were oppressed”. The word does not say they were weak. It says someone counted them weak.

So who did the counting? The same ayah tells you.

Three root letters: daad, ayn, faa. The root is weakness.

It is form ten of the verb, and passive: something done to them. Lane gives this form a second sense, from the side of the one doing it: he “behaved proudly, haughtily, or insolently, towards him, in respect of worldly things, because of his poverty”.

In the same ayah, the chiefs are alladhina stakbaru, “who were arrogant”. Both words open with the same sound: the same form, pointing the other way. That pairing is our reading.

Surah an-Nisa gives the oppressed their own du'a: “the oppressed among men, women, and children who say, ‘Our Lord, take us out of this city of oppressive people’”.

And in this surah the land goes, in the end, to “the people who had been oppressed”. The last count is Allah's, 'azza wa jall.

7:75 · the phrase.

قَالَ ٱلْمَلَأُ ٱلَّذِينَ ٱسْتَكْبَرُوا۟ مِن قَوْمِهِۦ لِلَّذِينَ ٱسْتُضْعِفُوا۟

Sarah: “Said the eminent ones who were arrogant among his people to those who were oppressed.” One form, two directions.

Al-rajfah, the shaking3:30

Sarah: The chiefs would not believe. They hamstrung the she-camel and dared Salih alayhis salam to bring what he promised. What came is one word.

The word · al-rajfatu.

ٱلرَّجْفَةُ

Sarah: Al-rajfah: in Saheeh International, the earthquake.

Here it ends Thamud. But the word comes again in this same surah, and nobody is destroyed.

Three root letters: raa, jeem, faa. The root is shaking. Lane gives the verb as “The earth quaked”.

The word is the movement itself: a trembling, a shaking. Lane also passes on, from another authority, that in the Qur'an it is “any punishment that befalls a people”.

You meet the root near the end of the Qur'an. In Surah an-Nazi'at: “On the Day the blast of the Horn will convulse creation”. And in Surah al-Ahzab, “those who spread rumors in al-Madinah” are al-murjifun, from the same root. Calling them rumour-shakers is our own picture.

And the time it comes back in this surah: Musa alayhis salam chose seventy men, and “when the earthquake seized them”, he prayed and asked for forgiveness. The same shaking can end a people, or send a person to du'a.

7:78 in Arabic.

فَأَخَذَتْهُمُ ٱلرَّجْفَةُ فَأَصْبَحُوا۟ فِى دَارِهِمْ جَٰثِمِينَ

Sarah: “So the earthquake seized them, and they became within their home corpses fallen prone.” The ayah's last word has its own turn later tonight.

Yatatahharun, keeping pure5:06

Sarah: Then the passage turns to Lut alayhis salam. He spoke to his people, and they had only one answer: put them out of the town. Their reason was one word.

The word · yataṭahharūna.

يَتَطَهَّرُونَ

Sarah: Yatatahharun. In Saheeh, “men who keep themselves pure”. That was the charge.

Purity, given as the reason to drive people out. How does a word of praise become an insult?

Three root letters: taa, haa, raa. Lane gives “clean, free from dirt or filth, or pure”, of the body and of the spirit.

It is form five of the verb: a taa in front, and the middle letter doubled. Something you do to yourself, again and again. Not that they are pure, but that they keep making themselves pure.

You meet the root before every prayer: taharah, the purification. In Surah al-Baqarah the Qur'an says: “Indeed, Allah loves those who are constantly repentant and loves those who purify themselves.” And in Surah at-Tawbah, with this very verb: “Within it are men who love to purify themselves; and Allah loves those who purify themselves.”

The same verb is an insult in this ayah, and praise in at-Tawbah. That contrast is our observation.

7:82 · the phrase.

إِنَّهُمْ أُنَاسٌۭ يَتَطَهَّرُونَ

Sarah: “Indeed, they are men who keep themselves pure.” They meant it as an insult; Allah, 'azza wa jall, loves those who purify themselves.

Al-ghabirin, those who remained6:43

Sarah: So Lut alayhis salam and his family were saved, all but one. The Qur'an puts her with a group, and the group has a name.

The word · al-ghābirīna.

ٱلْغَـٰبِرِينَ

Sarah: Al-ghabirin. Saheeh has “those who remained”.

But Lane says the root has two meanings that point opposite ways: it “remained, lasted, or continued”, and it “passed, passed away, or went away”. Al-Qurtubi, rahimahullah, says the same. One root, staying and leaving.

Its root letters: ghayn, baa, raa.

How can one root hold both? Lane has a picture under the same root: ghabarah, dust, or “what remains of dust raised and spreading”. Something has passed, and the dust is what stays. Joining the two that way is ours, not Lane's.

You meet that word near the end of the Qur'an, in Surah 'Abasa: “And other faces, that Day, will have upon them dust.” The dust there is ghabarah.

The commentators read al-ghabirin four ways: those who stayed behind, those who remained in the punishment, those who had grown old, and those absent from the rescue.

7:83 in Arabic.

فَأَنجَيْنَٰهُ وَأَهْلَهُۥٓ إِلَّا ٱمْرَأَتَهُۥ كَانَتْ مِنَ ٱلْغَٰبِرِينَ

Sarah: “So We saved him and his family, except for his wife; she was of those who remained with the evildoers.” All seven times the Qur'an uses this word, it is about the one of his household who was left behind.

Naqatu llahi, the she-camel of Allah8:21

Sarah: That is where the passage ends. Now go back to where it begins: Salih alayhis salam, and the sign he brought his people. Two words name it.

The word · nāqatu llāhi.

نَاقَةُ ٱللَّهِ

Sarah: Naqatu llahi. “The she-camel of Allah.”

Two nouns side by side, and no little word between them meaning of. The Arabic does not need one.

For the nine words after the first five, the study notes give no root, so the roots tonight come from the Quranic Arabic Corpus. This one: noon, waaw, qaaf.

When Arabic puts a noun in front of a name like this, the name says whose the thing is. The noun comes seven times in the Qur'an, and every time it is this she-camel.

You say this shape every day: rasulullah, the Messenger of Allah, sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, in the adhan and in the shahadah; and baytullah, for the Ka'bah. Setting them beside the she-camel is our own parallel.

And her name came with one rule, in the same ayah: “do not touch her with harm”.

7:73 · the phrase.

هَٰذِهِۦ نَاقَةُ ٱللَّهِ لَكُمْ ءَايَةًۭ

Sarah: “This is the she-camel of Allah sent to you as a sign.” A sign, and four ayat later they hamstring her.

Wa-tanhituna, and you carve9:42

Sarah: In the next ayah, Salih alayhis salam reminds them what they could build: palaces on the plains, and homes in the mountains. One verb says how they made the homes.

The word · wa-tanḥitūna.

وَتَنْحِتُونَ

Sarah: Wa-tanhituna: and you carve.

Notice the tense. Not you carved: you carve. In the ayah they are still at it.

Its root letters: noon, haa, taa.

To cut into stone, and shape something out of it. The verb comes four times in the Qur'an, and three times it is the homes of Thamud.

In Surah al-Hijr: “And they used to carve from the mountains, houses, feeling secure.” In Surah ash-Shu'ara: “And you carve out of the mountains, homes, with skill.” And once, Ibrahim alayhis salam asks his people: “Do you worship that which you yourselves carve”.

Homes three times, and an idol once: the same hands, the same skill. What you make with it is the question. That reading is ours.

7:74 · the phrase.

وَتَنْحِتُونَ ٱلْجِبَالَ بُيُوتًۭا

Sarah: “And carve from the mountains, homes.” They could shape mountains; the next words of the ayah ask what they will do on the earth.

Wa la ta'thaw ... mufsidin, do not spread corruption11:01

Sarah: Right after the homes come the words we began with, remember the favors of Allah, and then one command, with a word at each end of it.

The words · wa-lā taʿthaw … mufsidīna.

وَلَا تَعْثَوْا۟ … مُفْسِدِينَ

Sarah: Wa la ta'thaw, and mufsidin: “Do not commit abuse on the earth, spreading corruption.”

This verb comes five times in the Qur'an, and every time in this same command. A verb the Qur'an only ever uses to forbid.

Two roots here: ayn, thaa, waaw for the verb; faa, seen, daal for mufsidin.

The first word is the doing. The last is the people it makes: mufsidin, those who spread corruption. The command holds the act and the doer together.

The first time, in Surah al-Baqarah, it comes straight after water from the stone. Musa alayhis salam strikes the stone with his staff, twelve springs gush out, and then: “Eat and drink from the provision of Allah, and do not commit abuse on the earth, spreading corruption.” Three of the other four are Shu'ayb alayhis salam's, in Surahs Hud, ash-Shu'ara and al-'Ankabut.

Water from the stone, homes from the mountains, and both times these words straight after. That is our own reading: a gift, and then, do not ruin the earth with it.

7:74 · the phrase.

وَلَا تَعْثَوْا۟ فِى ٱلْأَرْضِ مُفْسِدِينَ

Sarah: “And do not commit abuse on the earth, spreading corruption.” Remember the favours, and do not ruin the earth: one ayah, both halves.

Fa-'aqaru, they hamstrung12:40

Sarah: The chiefs refused to believe. Then they did the one thing the sign had come with a warning against: they touched her with harm.

The word · fa-ʿaqarū.

فَعَقَرُوا۟

Sarah: Fa-'aqaru. So they hamstrung.

To hamstring is to cut the tendon at the back of the leg, so the animal cannot stand. So why is this the word for what was, in the end, a killing?

Its root letters: ayn, qaaf, raa.

Al-Qurtubi, rahimahullah, explains it: to cut a leg so the animal falls; then the word was used for the killing itself. The cut that brings the camel down came to name the whole deed.

You may know it from Surah ash-Shams, one of the short surahs near the end of the Qur'an: “But they denied him and hamstrung her.”

The verb comes five times in the Qur'an, and every time it is this deed. The Qur'an keeps this one verb for it.

7:77 · the phrase.

فَعَقَرُوا۟ ٱلنَّاقَةَ

Sarah: “So they hamstrung the she-camel.” Two words, and the sign was gone.

Wa-'ataw, and were insolent13:46

Sarah: The same ayah does not stop at the deed. Its next word says how they stood toward the command of their Lord.

The word · wa-ʿataw.

وَعَتَوْا۟

Sarah: Wa-'ataw. “And were insolent.”

In another surah, the same root describes an old man. What does insolence have to do with old age?

Its root letters: ayn, taa, waaw.

Al-Tabari, rahimahullah, reports from Mujahid: they rose above the truth. Lane gives the verb as “He behaved proudly, and was immoderate, inordinate, or exorbitant”. And for the old man, Lane has “the extreme degree of old age”, like “the dry wood or branch”.

Surah adh-Dhariyat says it of Thamud too: “But they were insolent toward the command of their Lord”. And in Surah Maryam, Zakariyya alayhis salam asks how he will have a son “when my wife has been barren and I have reached extreme old age”. Extreme old age there is 'itiyy, from this root; and barren is from the root of the last word, fa-'aqaru. Two roots meeting in one ayah: that is ours to notice.

Pride past its limit, and years past their limit: that link between Lane's two meanings is ours, not his. Insolence is going past the line you were given.

7:77 · the phrase.

وَعَتَوْا۟ عَنْ أَمْرِ رَبِّهِمْ

Sarah: “And were insolent toward the command of their Lord.” That was the line they went past.

Jathimin, fallen prone15:17

Sarah: Then came al-rajfah, the shaking, the word we met earlier tonight. The same ayah ends on how it left them.

The word · jāthimīna.

جَـٰثِمِينَ

Sarah: Jathimin: fallen prone.

In English it takes two words, fallen prone. Arabic says it in one.

Its root letters: jeem, thaa, meem.

Al-Qurtubi, rahimahullah, gives the picture: stuck to the ground on their knees and faces, the way a bird crouches.

It comes five times in the Qur'an, always the end of Thamud or of Madyan: once more in this surah, twice in Surah Hud, and once in Surah al-'Ankabut. Every time, the same words around it: they became, in their homes, fallen prone.

Never on a battlefield. Always at home, where people feel safe. That reading of the five is ours.

7:78 · the phrase.

فَأَصْبَحُوا۟ فِى دَارِهِمْ جَٰثِمِينَ

Sarah: “And they became within their home corpses fallen prone.” That is how the shaking left them: jathimin.

Ablaghtukum ... wa-nasahtu, conveyed and advised16:28

Sarah: Then Salih alayhis salam turned away from them, and spoke one last time.

The words · ablaghtukum … wa-naṣaḥtu.

أَبْلَغْتُكُمْ … وَنَصَحْتُ

Sarah: Ablaghtukum, and wa-nasahtu: “I had certainly conveyed to you”, and “advised you”.

Four messengers in this surah say these two verbs: two while they are still calling, and two once it is over.

Two roots: baa, laam, ghayn; and noon, saad, haa.

The tense tells the story. Nuh alayhis salam, at the start, in the present: “I convey to you the messages of my Lord and advise you.” Salih alayhis salam, at the end, in the past: I had conveyed, and I advised.

Both roots come back in the words of the Prophet, sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. In Sahih Muslim, Tamim ad-Dari, radiyallahu anhu, narrates that he said: “The Religion is sincerity.” Sincerity there is al-nasihah, from the root of nasahtu. And in Sahih al-Bukhari, 'Abdullah ibn 'Amr, radiyallahu anhuma, narrates that he said: “Convey my teachings to the people even if it were a single sentence.” Convey there is ballighu, from the root of ablaghtukum, and sentence is ayah. Those two links are ours.

The ayah's last word, al-nasihin, advisors, is the word Iblis used of himself, much earlier in this surah. The word can be claimed; Salih alayhis salam lived it.

7:79 · the phrase.

لَقَدْ أَبْلَغْتُكُمْ رِسَالَةَ رَبِّى وَنَصَحْتُ لَكُمْ وَلَٰكِن لَّا تُحِبُّونَ ٱلنَّٰصِحِينَ

Sarah: “I had certainly conveyed to you the message of my Lord and advised you, but you do not like advisors.” His last words to his people, in this passage.

Al-fahishah, immorality18:20

Sarah: The passage then goes back to Lut alayhis salam, to his first words to his people. He names what they do with one word.

The word · al-fāḥishata.

ٱلْفَـٰحِشَةَ

Sarah: Al-fahishah: immorality.

The surah has used this word before. The first time, people do it and say Allah ordered them to.

Its root letters: faa, haa, sheen.

Here the word has al-, the. Not an immorality: the immorality, and the ayah goes on to say which. That reading of the article is ours.

Earlier in the surah, the answer is plain: “Indeed, Allah does not order immorality.” And with its plural: “My Lord has only forbidden immoralities”. In Surah al-Isra: “And do not approach unlawful sexual intercourse. Indeed, it is ever an immorality and is evil as a way.”

It comes seventeen times in the Qur'an, counting its plural. Each time it names a deed, and the Qur'an speaks of it plainly.

7:80 · the phrase.

أَتَأْتُونَ ٱلْفَٰحِشَةَ مَا سَبَقَكُم بِهَا مِنْ أَحَدٍۢ مِّنَ ٱلْعَٰلَمِينَ

Sarah: “Do you commit such immorality as no one has preceded you with from among the worlds?” His first words to them are a question.

Musrifun, a transgressing people19:43

Sarah: In the next ayah, Lut alayhis salam names them with one more word. It is the ayah's last.

The word · musrifūna.

مُّسْرِفُونَ

Sarah: Musrifun. “A transgressing people.”

Earlier in this surah, the same root sits at the dinner table.

Its root letters: seen, raa, faa.

Israf is going past the limit, and musrifun are the people who do it.

Earlier in this surah, at the table: “eat and drink, but be not excessive. Indeed, He likes not those who commit excess.” And in Surah az-Zumar, the mercy ayah: “O My servants who have transgressed against themselves by sinning, do not despair of the mercy of Allah.”

The same word at the table and in the mercy ayah: that link is our own. Going past the limit has a name in the Qur'an, and it also has a way back.

7:81 · the phrase.

بَلْ أَنتُمْ قَوْمٌۭ مُّسْرِفُونَ

Sarah: “Rather, you are a transgressing people.” That is the last of the fourteen words.

Fourteen words, once more20:50

Sarah: Fourteen words. Here they are once more, each on its own.

The word · ālāʾa.

ءَالَآءَ

Sarah: Favours, and the command to remember them.

The word · stuḍʿifū.

ٱسْتُضْعِفُوا۟

Sarah: Held weak, by someone else's count.

The word · al-rajfatu.

ٱلرَّجْفَةُ

Sarah: The shaking.

The word · yataṭahharūna.

يَتَطَهَّرُونَ

Sarah: Keeping pure, and working at it.

The word · al-ghābirīna.

ٱلْغَـٰبِرِينَ

Sarah: Those who remained.

The word · nāqatu llāhi.

نَاقَةُ ٱللَّهِ

Sarah: The she-camel of Allah, and a sign.

The word · wa-tanḥitūna.

وَتَنْحِتُونَ

Sarah: And you carve.

The words · wa-lā taʿthaw … mufsidīna.

وَلَا تَعْثَوْا۟ … مُفْسِدِينَ

Sarah: Do not spread corruption on the earth.

The word · fa-ʿaqarū.

فَعَقَرُوا۟

Sarah: So they hamstrung her.

The word · wa-ʿataw.

وَعَتَوْا۟

Sarah: Insolence, past the line.

The word · jāthimīna.

جَـٰثِمِينَ

Sarah: Fallen prone, at home.

The words · ablaghtukum … wa-naṣaḥtu.

أَبْلَغْتُكُمْ … وَنَصَحْتُ

Sarah: Conveyed, and advised.

The word · al-fāḥishata.

ٱلْفَـٰحِشَةَ

Sarah: Immorality, named plainly.

The word · musrifūna.

مُّسْرِفُونَ

Sarah: Going past the limit.

We began with the favours we use every day. Fourteen words later, the passage has shown what two peoples did with what they were given: the believers they counted weak, the sign they brought down, the purity they mocked. Learning the words is one small way of remembering.

Two questions to take to your circle. The first is where we began: Which favour do you use every day without remembering who gave it?

And the second: Whose voice in your family or community is easiest to overlook? What might they see that you do not?

The study notes for this passage, with every word and both questions, are on the halaqa website, for your own circle.

Jazakumullahu khayran for listening. Wassalamu alaikum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh.