وَلَقَدْ جَآءَتْ رُسُلُنَآ إِبْرَٰهِيمَ بِٱلْبُشْرَىٰ قَالُوا۟ سَلَٰمًا قَالَ سَلَٰمٌ فَمَا لَبِثَ أَن جَآءَ بِعِجْلٍ حَنِيذٍ
wa laqad jāʾat rusulunā Ibrāhīma bi'l-bushrā, qālū salāman, qāla salām, fa-mā labitha an jāʾa bi-ʿijlin ḥanīdh
"Our messengers came to Abraham with the good news. They said 'Peace'; he said 'Peace', and without delay he brought a roasted calf."
This scene was treated in detail at al-Dhāriyāt 51/24-30, and I rely on that treatment without reservation. In summary, the entries there were these:
The concrete sense of the root ض-ي-ف: to incline to one side, to draw near, to join. Ḍayf — "one who draws near, who joins". A guest is not one who enters the house from outside but one who is added to the house. In the exchange of greetings the two sides do not say the same word: the guests say salāman (accusative — a verbal clause, coming to be), Abraham says salāmun (nominative — a nominal sentence, fixity). Abraham returns the greeting given to him in a more lasting pattern. رَاغَ — "to withdraw to one side quietly, without being noticed". The verse does not say "he went". سَمِين — "fat". Abraham slaughters the best of the flock for three travellers he does not know. The question a-lā taʾkulūn and the gravity of refusing food as a sign in the Arab custom of hospitality.
And in al-Dhāriyāt this verse (Hūd 11/69) was already cited: "The telling in another sūra of the Qurʾān adds one detail: 'without delay he brought a roasted calf' — the note mā labitha (he did not delay) there is consistent with the speed the fāʾ conjunctions give here."
| Element | al-Dhāriyāt 51/24-30 | Hūd 11/69-73 |
|---|---|---|
| Opening | hal atāka ḥadīthu ḍayfi Ibrāhīma'l-mukramīn — the form of a question | wa laqad jāʾat rusulunā Ibrāhīma bi'l-bushrā — a statement |
| What the comers are called | ḍayf — "guests" | rusulunā — "Our messengers" |
| The reason for the visit | Not stated at the outset — disclosed in verse 32 | bi'l-bushrā — stated from the start |
| The greeting | qālū salāman · qāla salām | qālū salāman · qāla salām — word for word the same |
| The first reaction | qawmun munkarūn — "a people not known" | Absent |
| The verb of withdrawing | fa-rāgha ilā ahlih — he slipped away quietly | Absent |
| The adjective of the calf | samīn — fat | ḥanīdh — roasted |
| The note of speed | The fa- conjunctions | fa-mā labitha — "he did not delay" |
| The verb of offering | fa-qarrabahū ilayhim + a-lā taʾkulūn | Absent — straight to the noticing |
| The noticing | fa-awjasa minhum khīfa | nakirahum wa awjasa minhum khīfa |
| The wife's reaction | fa-aqbalati'mraʾatuhū fī ṣarratin fa-ṣakkat wajhahā — she came with a cry and struck her face | fa-ḍaḥikat — she laughed |
| The content of the good news | bi-ghulāmin ʿalīm | bi-Isḥāq wa min warāʾi Isḥāqa Yaʿqūb |
| The going to Lot | 32-37 — in detail | 74-83 — in greater detail |
One — the two sūras open up different parts of the same scene. al-Dhāriyāt gives detail on the manners of hospitality (slipping out quietly, the fatness, the offering, "will you not eat?"). Hūd compresses the hospitality into a single sentence and moves on to the good news and to Lot.
Two — Hūd names the comers rusulunā from the start; al-Dhāriyāt says ḍayf. Hūd, that is, gives the reader the information from the outset, and al-Dhāriyāt does not.
Three — the content of the good news is given differently. al-Dhāriyāt states an attribute (ʿalīm — knowing); Hūd states two names: Isaac (Isḥāq) and Jacob (Yaʿqūb).
I record this as my own reading, and its ground is the table above: the two tellings do not conflict — they are two different frames on the same scene. The frame of al-Dhāriyāt is the receiving of guests, the frame of Hūd is the continuation of the line and the deliverance of Lot. This also suits the whole of each sūra: Hūd is a sequence of narratives, and the links of the sequence are being tied to one another.
The root ح-ن-ذ. The root occurs here for the first time in this series, and in the Qurʾān it is found only in this verse.
The sense the lexicographers give: ḥanīdh — meat cooked on hot stones, or in a pit with fire beneath it. Some of the lexicographers explain it as "cooked so well that it drips"; others say "roasted on stone".
| Explanation | What it says |
|---|---|
| 1 | Meat cooked in a pit with heated stones |
| 2 | Well roasted meat, dripping with its own fat |
| 3 | Roasted whole |
And what the word adds to the verse must be recorded: samīn (al-Dhāriyāt) reported the quality of the animal; ḥanīdh reports the manner of the cooking. The two sūras give two different details of the same act of hospitality.
The root ل-ب-ث: to stay in a place, to linger, to wait. The root was treated at al-Kahf 18/12 and 18/25 (labithū).
And the construction of the sentence must be recorded: fa-mā labitha an jāʾa — "he did not delay in bringing it".
I record this as an observation about the word order: the verse makes the measure not the size of the hospitality but its speed. And in al-Dhāriyāt this was conveyed by three fāʾ conjunctions. The two sūras say the same thing by two different means of language.