13. Sūrat al-Raʿd

Forty-three verses. Disagreement over the place of revelation is transmitted in the classical sources; no definite ruling is issued in this commentary. It takes its name from the word ٱلرَّعْد (thunder), which occurs in the thirteenth verse.

The backbone of the sūra is that different outcomes issue from the same conditions. This is established in the fourth verse by an observation drawn from agriculture (different crops watered with the same water) and repeated in the seventeenth verse by a similitude of a flood (water and scum in one and the same valley). All the comparisons of the sūra attach to these two verses.

"Alif-lām-mīm-rāʾ… It is God who raised up the heavens without pillars that you can see… In the earth there are neighbouring tracts, gardens of vines, fields of grain, and date palms growing several from one root and singly: all are watered with a single water, and yet We make some of them surpass others in what they yield."

The note on the disconnected letters has been entered many times in the index; I do not repeat it.

بِغَيْرِ عَمَدٍ تَرَوْنَهَا — the construction was treated at Luqmān 31/10, and two readings were tabulated there (there are no pillars that you could see / it has pillars but you do not see them). I do not repeat it, and I hold to the same limit: no conclusion about modern cosmology is to be drawn from this.

كُلٌّ يَجْرِى لِأَجَلٍ مُّسَمًّى — the construction ajalin musammā was treated at al-Aḥqāf 46/3, al-Zumar 39/42, Fāṭir 35/45, Luqmān 31/29 and al-ʿAnkabūt 29/53. In all six places the same thing is said.

The root ص-ن-و — it occurs here for the first time in the index. The sense the lexicographers give: ṣinw, more than one stem issuing from a single root; it is used of the paired stems that part from one root in the date palm. It is recorded that the word is used for brotherhood as well: ṣinwu abīk — your father's brother.

And the observation the verse sets up must be recorded:

I record this as my own reading, and its ground is the verse's own sentence: the same soil, the same water, even the same root — and still a different yield. The difference, that is, does not lie in the means that come from outside.

And this observation is the frame for the rest of the sūra: in the sixteenth verse the blind and the seeing, in the seventeenth water and scum, in the nineteenth the one who knows and the blind will be set against each other. All carry the same structure: the same thing was given, the outcome diverged.

At Fāṭir 35/27-28 the variety of colours (mukhtalifun alwānuhā) was treated across three domains, and it was tied there to ʿulamāʾ. The difference in al-Raʿd: there variety is given as a sign, here as a divergence.

"If you would wonder, then what is truly to be wondered at is this word of theirs: 'When we have become dust, shall we really be in a new creation?'… Those who disbelieve say: 'Should a miracle not have been sent down upon him from his Lord?' You are only a warner; and for every people there is a guide."

وَإِن تَعْجَبْ فَعَجَبٌ قَوْلُهُمْ — moving the place of the wonder.

The word ʿajab was treated at Qāf 50/2 (bal ʿajibū an jāʾahum mundhirun minhum), and it was recorded there: that the objection begins not with an argument but with astonishment, that is, that familiarity is made the measure. I rely on that treatment.

The difference here must be recorded: in Qāf it was the other side that was astonished; in al-Raʿd the astonishment is handed back to the one addressed — fa-ʿajabun qawluhum.

وَيَسْتَعْجِلُونَكَ بِٱلسَّيِّئَةِ قَبْلَ ٱلْحَسَنَةِ وَقَدْ خَلَتْ مِن قَبْلِهِمُ ٱلْمَثُلَٰتُ (6) — al-mathulāt: punishments that stand as a lesson.

I record this as an observation: the demand that the punishment be hastened was treated in several places in the index (Sabaʾ 34/29, al-ʿAnkabūt 29/53). What al-Raʿd adds: that this is a thing whose precedent is to be found in the past.

إِنَّمَآ أَنتَ مُنذِرٌ وَلِكُلِّ قَوْمٍ هَادٍ — "you are only a warner; and for every people there is a guide."

There is disagreement over the second half of the sentence:

Both readings are transmitted; I do not impose a preference. The principle that a warner has been sent was treated at Fāṭir 35/24 and al-Qaṣaṣ 28/59; the first reading sits on that line.

"God knows what every female bears, and what the wombs diminish and what they increase; with Him everything is by a measure… God does not change what is in a people until they change what is in themselves."

مَا تَغِيضُ ٱلْأَرْحَامُ وَمَا تَزْدَادُ — ghayḍ: to diminish, to recede (it is used of water receding). Per the method (Method): I draw no conclusion about modern embryology from this; the verse states the scope of the knowledge. The same field was treated at Fuṣṣilat 41/47 and Fāṭir 35/11; I rely on that treatment.

بِمِقْدَارٍ — the root ق-د-ر was treated at al-Qadr and al-Qamar 54/49 — the core sense is measure.

The root ع-ق-ب: to come after, to follow in another's track. Muʿaqqibāt — those who come one after another.

The construction min bayni yadayhi wa min khalfihi was treated in many places in the index (Fuṣṣilat 41/25 and 41/42, Maryam 19/64): to encompass every side of a thing.

The structure of the sentence must be recorded, and this is an observation about the language:

The two objects are different: one is bi-qawm (the state of the people), the other bi-anfusihim (what is in themselves).

I record this as my own reading, and its ground is that the two constructions differ: the verse ties the change of the outward condition to the change of the inward one. And the order runs one way only: what is inside comes first.

A note, per the method (Method): this verse is not to be pressed into current political argument, and it is not so used in this commentary. The context of the verse must also be recorded: the sentence occurs inside a verse in which the guardians are named, and it runs on with wa idhā arāda'llāhu bi-qawmin sūʾan fa-lā maradda lah. That is: in stating the responsibility of the human being, the sentence does not say that the outcome lies absolutely with the human being.

"It is He who shows you the lightning, as fear and as hope, and who raises up the heavy clouds. The thunder glorifies Him with praise, and the angels too, out of fear of Him."

خَوْفًا وَطَمَعًا — two opposed feelings, in a single event. The same expression was treated at al-Rūm 30/24 (yurīkumu'l-barqa khawfan wa ṭamaʿā). I rely on that treatment.

I record this as an observation: for one who lives in the desert, lightning is both the danger of the thunderbolt and the good news of rain. The verse does not separate the two — it gives two responses to one and the same event.

This is the verse that gives the sūra its name.

The root ر-ع-د — it occurs here for the first time in the index: to rumble, to tremble. The lexicographers record the sense of "shaking, trembling" in the root (irʿāda — trembling).

And the verb must be recorded: yusabbiḥu — it glorifies.

A limit, per the method (Method): I draw no claim about meteorology from this. This question was treated at al-Isrāʾ 17/44 (wa in min shayʾin illā yusabbiḥu bi-ḥamdihi wa lākin lā tafqahūna tasbīḥahum); the verse itself says that this glorification is not understood.

وَهُمْ يُجَٰدِلُونَ فِى ٱللَّهِ وَهُوَ شَدِيدُ ٱلْمِحَالِ — the root ج-د-ل was the backbone of Ghāfir (al-Muʾmin) (five occurrences were tabulated there) and at al-Kahf 18/54 it was named as the most marked trait of the human being. I rely on that treatment.

And the word order is worth recording: the glorification of the thunder and the disputing of the human being stand side by side in the same verse.

"The true call is to Him. Those they call upon besides Him answer them with nothing; they are like a man stretching out his palms towards water so that it may reach his mouth — and it will not reach it."

The comparison is worth recording, and its elements can be separated one by one:

I record this as my own reading: what is wrong in the similitude is neither the intention nor the target nor the effort — the water really is there, and the man really does reach out. What is missing is that the water does not come to the mouth of itself. The call, that is, is made not into a void but to a place that cannot answer.

And the same matter was treated in three stages at Fāṭir 35/13-14 (they do not hear; if they heard they could not answer; in the end they reject). Al-Raʿd gives the same thing in a single similitude.

وَمَا دُعَآءُ ٱلْكَٰفِرِينَ إِلَّا فِى ضَلَٰلٍ — ḍalāl: being lost, straying from the way. The prayer, that is, is not lost — it loses its way.

"Whoever is in the heavens and the earth prostrates to God — willingly or unwillingly — and their shadows too, morning and evening. Say: 'Are the blind and the seeing equal? Or are the darknesses and the light equal?'"

This pair was treated at Fuṣṣilat 41/11 (iʾtiyā ṭawʿan aw karhan), and it was recorded there: that a command offering two options is answered in one direction only (ataynā ṭāʾiʿīn). I rely on that treatment.

The difference here must be recorded:

In Fuṣṣilat the offer had two alternatives; in al-Raʿd the statement covers both sides. I record this as an observation about the language.

وَظِلَٰلُهُم بِٱلْغُدُوِّ وَٱلْـَٔاصَالِ — and the shadows too are named.

The sign of the shadow was treated in detail at al-Furqān 25/45-46 (kayfa madda'ẓ-ẓill) and taken up again at al-Naḥl 16/48 (yatafayyaʾu ẓilāluhu). I rely on that treatment.

I record this as my own reading: among the things that prostrate, shadows are counted — that is, a thing that has no existence of its own, that exists only through the existence of something else. And the movement of a shadow is not in the hands of the person. This is the point of its standing in the list of those that prostrate.

The "they are not equal" series was treated in many places in the index: Ghāfir (al-Muʾmin) 40/58, al-Jāthiya 45/21, Fāṭir 35/19-22, al-Sajda 32/18. Al-Raʿd is one link in that chain.

And its place within the sūra must be recorded: this comparison comes immediately before the flood similitude of the seventeenth verse. The question is put, that is, and then answered with a similitude.

"He sent down water from the sky, and the valleys flowed each according to its own measure; and the torrent carried a swelling scum… Thus does God set forth the true and the false: the scum is cast off and goes; what benefits people stays in the earth."

The verse sets up two separate comparisons: the scum of the torrent and the dross of metal (wa mimmā yūqidūna ʿalayhi fi'n-nāri'btighāʾa ḥilyatin aw matāʿin zabadun mithluh).

And what the two share must be recorded: the scum stands on top and is what is visible.

جُفَآء — root ج-ف-أ: to throw, to cast out. The word occurs only here in the Qurʾān.

I record this as my own reading, and its ground is the elements of the similitude: the verse separates the true from the false not by momentary visibility but by what lasts. And the measure set down is mā yanfaʿu'n-nās (what benefits people) — the distinction, that is, lies not in the claim itself but in what it leaves behind.

فَسَالَتْ أَوْدِيَةٌۢ بِقَدَرِهَا — "the valleys flowed each according to its own measure."

This detail is worth recording: the water is one, the valleys different. And this is the same observation as that of the fourth verse: a single water, a different yield. It is a repetition that can be verified within the sūra.

The similitude of water, plant and withering was treated at al-Kahf 18/45 and al-Zumar 39/21; what sets al-Raʿd apart is that its subject is not the water itself but the scum the water carries.

"For those who answer their Lord there is the best. As for those who do not answer Him: if all that is in the earth were theirs, and the like of it with it, they would offer the whole of it as a ransom."

The measure must be recorded: mā fi'l-arḍi jamīʿan wa mithlahu maʿah — the whole of the earth and the like of it again.

The same measure was treated at al-Zumar 39/47, and it was recorded there: an amount that goes beyond what exists — and even so it is not accepted. I rely on that treatment.

And the difference between the two verses is worth recording: in al-Zumar the ransom was offered to escape the punishment; in al-Raʿd the context of the ransom is not having answered the call.

I record this as my own reading, and its ground is the first half of the verse: what was given to the other side was al-ḥusnā (the best), and the only thing asked in return was istijāba (answering the call) — not a price, that is, but a response. The scene of the ransom shows what follows from that response not having been given.

"Is the one who knows that what has been sent down to you from your Lord is the truth like the one who is blind? Only those who possess understanding take heed."

The verses that follow enumerate the attributes of ulu'l-albāb, and the list can be set out as a table:

Sirran wa ʿalāniya was treated at Fāṭir 35/29 and at al-Baqara 2/271.

Wa yadraʾūna bi'l-ḥasanati's-sayyiʾa — it occurs word for word at al-Qaṣaṣ 28/54, and a table covering three sūras was set up there (Fuṣṣilat 41/34, al-ʿAnkabūt 29/46, al-Qaṣaṣ 28/54). This is the fourth link.

يَصِلُونَ مَآ أَمَرَ ٱللَّهُ بِهِۦٓ أَن يُوصَلَ — "they join what God has commanded to be joined."

The object of the sentence is not specified. It is widely transmitted that the classical commentaries explain it as the bond of kinship. I transmit this; and I record the following as an observation: by leaving the object open, the verse widens the scope.

أُو۟لَٰٓئِكَ لَهُمْ عُقْبَى ٱلدَّارِ — ʿuqba'd-dār: the end of the abode, its outcome. The construction occurs twice in the sūra (22 and 24) and returns in the thirty-fifth verse with its opposite: wa ʿuqba'l-kāfirīna'n-nār.

"Those who break God's covenant after its confirmation, who cut what God has commanded to be joined, and who work corruption in the earth…"

This verse is built as the exact opposite of the twentieth and twenty-first verses, and it can be compared word for word:

In all three items the same words, with opposite verbs. This is a symmetry that can be verified within the sūra, and I record this as my own reading: the sūra does not describe two groups separately — it reads one and the same list in two directions.

ٱللَّهُ يَبْسُطُ ٱلرِّزْقَ لِمَن يَشَآءُ وَيَقْدِرُ (26) — two verbs: to spread out and to give by measure.

The same pair was treated at al-Zumar 39/52 and al-Shūrā 42/27, and it was recorded there: abundance is no proof of merit, nor straitness a proof of having fallen from favour. I rely on that treatment.

وَفَرِحُوا۟ بِٱلْحَيَوٰةِ ٱلدُّنْيَا وَمَا ٱلْحَيَوٰةُ ٱلدُّنْيَا فِى ٱلْـَٔاخِرَةِ إِلَّا مَتَٰعٌ — the root ف-ر-ح was treated at Ghāfir (al-Muʾmin) 40/75 (bimā kuntum tafraḥūna … wa bimā kuntum tamraḥūn), and the difference between faraḥ and maraḥ was given there. I rely on that treatment.

قُلْ إِنَّ ٱللَّهَ يُضِلُّ مَن يَشَآءُ وَيَهْدِىٓ إِلَيْهِ مَنْ أَنَابَ (27) — the second half of the sentence carries a condition: man anāb — the one who turns.

The root أ-ن-ب was treated at Qāf 50/8 and Ghāfir (al-Muʾmin) 40/13. And what was recorded there holds here too: the sign is shown to everyone, while the taking of the lesson is tied to turning.

"Those who believe — their hearts come to rest in the remembrance of God. Know that it is in the remembrance of God that hearts come to rest."

The root ط-م-ن was analysed at al-Baqara 2/260 (to settle, to come to rest in its place; the picture the lexicographers record of sitting down into a hollow and being fixed there) and the difference between belief and iṭmiʾnān was recorded there: the one is acceptance, the other a settling inward. I rely on that treatment.

And the sentence being said twice is worth recording:

In the second sentence there is fronting: bi-dhikri'llāhi has been brought forward. In Arabic this conveys restriction: not with anything else.

"Blessed are those who believe and do righteous deeds; theirs is a good place of return. Thus have We sent you to a community before which many communities have passed away… while they deny al-Raḥmān."

طُوبَىٰ — root ط-ي-ب: to be pleasant, clean, good. The word occurs only here in the Qurʾān, and the lexicographers explain it as "goodness, pleasantness; a good state". In some explanations it is transmitted as the name of a tree in the Garden; I transmit this report, and I do not present it as established knowledge.

وَهُمْ يَكْفُرُونَ بِٱلرَّحْمَٰنِ — "they deny al-Raḥmān."

That the name al-Raḥmān became a matter of dispute was treated in detail at al-Furqān 25/60 (wa ma'r-Raḥmān) and in Maryam (the sixteen occurrences of the name). I rely on that treatment.

And the word order is worth recording: after stating the messenger's task, the sentence adds the condition of the other side with a circumstantial clause. The reciting goes on, that is, and the denial goes on too — the two at the same time.

قُلْ هُوَ رَبِّى لَآ إِلَٰهَ إِلَّا هُوَ عَلَيْهِ تَوَكَّلْتُ وَإِلَيْهِ مَتَابِ — and the answer is given without entering the dispute, by a statement of position.

"If by a Qurʾān the mountains were made to move, or the earth were torn open, or the dead were made to speak (they still would not believe). No — the whole affair belongs to God."

The verse answers the demand for a miracle, and the form of the answer must be recorded: three extraordinary events are enumerated and the sentence is cut off before it is completed (bal li'llāhi'l-amru jamīʿā).

The lexicographers record this cutting off (ḥadhf) and supply the rest of the unfinished sentence from the context: "they still would not believe."

I record this as an observation about the word order: that the consequence is left unsaid is itself the answer. And the same demand was treated at al-Furqān 25/21 (law lā unzila ʿalayna'l-malāʾika); al-Kahf 18/57 was on the same line. I rely on that treatment.

"Messengers before you were mocked as well… He who stands over every soul with what it has earned (is he like another?)… This is the likeness of the Garden promised to those who guard themselves: rivers flow beneath it, and its produce and its shade are unceasing."

أُكُلُهَا دَآئِمٌ وَظِلُّهَا — two things unceasing: the produce and the shade.

I record this as my own reading, and its ground is the sūra's own verses: in the fourth verse the difference in produce (ukul) was named as a testing; in the fifteenth verse the shadow was counted among those that prostrate. The thirty-fifth verse gives both of them as lasting. It is a weave that can be verified within the sūra.

A note, per the method (Method): the verse issues no blanket ruling about those who were given the Book — it says that some of them rejoice, and that among the parties there are some who deny part of it. The same care was treated at al-ʿAnkabūt 29/47; I rely on that treatment.

وَلَقَدْ أَرْسَلْنَا رُسُلًا مِّن قَبْلِكَ وَجَعَلْنَا لَهُمْ أَزْوَٰجًا وَذُرِّيَّةً (38) — "We sent messengers before you as well, and gave them wives and offspring."

This answer was treated at al-Furqān 25/20 (yaʾkulūna'ṭ-ṭaʿāma wa yamshūna fi'l-aswāq) and at al-Anbiyāʾ 21/7-8. Three sūras answer the same objection with the same structure: that the messengers were human beings is set down not as a defect but as the rule.

وَمَا كَانَ لِرَسُولٍ أَن يَأْتِىَ بِـَٔايَةٍ إِلَّا بِإِذْنِ ٱللَّهِ لِكُلِّ أَجَلٍ كِتَابٌ — and the answer to the demand for a miracle: the authority does not lie with the messenger. The same demand had occurred twice at al-Raʿd 13/7 and 13/27; here it comes a third time and closes with a ruling.

"God erases what He wills and confirms what He wills. With Him is the mother of the Book."

The root م-ح-و: to erase, to wipe out the trace of. The root ث-ب-ت: to fix in place and make firm.

أُمُّ ٱلْكِتَٰب — the construction was treated at al-Zukhruf 43/4 (the root أ-م-م: origin, source, the place returned to). I rely on that treatment.

There is disagreement in the classical commentaries over the scope of the verse:

All three readings are transmitted; I do not impose a preference, and I do not enter the debate on the divine decree. What the verse says in its own wording is that the erasing and the confirming are in one and the same hand.

"Whether We show you part of what We promise them or take you in death: yours is only the delivering of the message; the reckoning is Ours."

The sentence draws a firm division between two tasks:

And both clauses are built on the same pattern (innamā ʿalayka … wa ʿalaynā) — the division, that is, is shown by the word order as well.

The word balāgh was treated in detail at al-Aḥqāf 46/35, and it was recorded there: the sūra limits its own task to a single word. I rely on that treatment.

And this limit has occurred in many sūras in the index under different words; a table covering seven sūras was set up at al-Qaṣaṣ 28/56 (balāgh, wakīl, jabbār, ḥasarāt, lā yaḥzunka, lā tahdī man aḥbabta, musayṭir). What al-Raʿd adds is this, and it is worth recording: here it is not only the limit that is set down — what lies on the other side of the limit is stated too: wa ʿalayna'l-ḥisāb.

I record this as my own reading: in the others it was said "this is not your task"; here "whose task it is" is stated as well. The place to which the responsibility passes is not left empty.

"Have they not seen that We come to the earth and diminish it at its edges?… Those who disbelieve say: 'You are not one who has been sent.' Say: 'God is sufficient as a witness between me and you, and whoever has the knowledge of the Book.'"

نَنقُصُهَا مِنْ أَطْرَافِهَا — "we diminish it at its edges."

There is disagreement in the classical commentaries over what the expression describes:

All three readings are transmitted; I do not impose a preference. Per the method (Method): I draw no conclusion about geology or about current politics from this.

وَمَنْ عِندَهُۥ عِلْمُ ٱلْكِتَٰبِ — the sūra closes with the phrase "whoever has the knowledge of the Book".

I record this as an observation, and its ground is the first verse of the sūra: the sūra had opened with tilka āyātu'l-kitāb (these are the verses of the Book). At the close the Book is named again — this time as a witness.