ٱللَّهِ ٱلَّذِى لَهُۥ مَا فِى ٱلسَّمَٰوَٰتِ وَمَا فِى ٱلْأَرْضِ ۗ وَوَيْلٌ لِّلْكَٰفِرِينَ مِنْ عَذَابٍ شَدِيدٍ · ٱلَّذِينَ يَسْتَحِبُّونَ ٱلْحَيَوٰةَ ٱلدُّنْيَا عَلَى ٱلْءَاخِرَةِ وَيَصُدُّونَ عَن سَبِيلِ ٱللَّهِ وَيَبْغُونَهَا عِوَجًا
Allāhi'lladhī lahu mā fi's-samāwāti wa mā fi'l-arḍ · Wa waylun li'l-kāfirīna min ʿadhābin shadīd · Alladhīna yastaḥibbūna'l-ḥayāta'd-dunyā ʿala'l-ākhirati wa yaṣuddūna ʿan sabīli'llāhi wa yabghūnahā ʿiwajā · Ulāʾika fī ḍalālin baʿīd
"Of God, to whom belongs whatever is in the heavens and whatever is in the earth — to His path. And woe to those who deny, from a severe punishment! They are the ones who prefer the life of this world to the hereafter, who turn others away from the path of God and seek to make it crooked. Those are in a far straying."
The second verse hangs on the last word of the first: ṣirāṭi'l-ʿazīzi'l-ḥamīd → Allāhi'lladhī… That is, the question of who "the Mighty, the Praiseworthy" is, is answered by the giving of the name.
A difference in the variant readings is transmitted and it affects the sense: there are the readings Allāhi (with kasra — attached to the preceding construct) and Allāhu (with ḍamma — the beginning of a new sentence). On the first the sentence continues; on the second a new statement begins. I give no reciter's name; both readings are transmitted and on both the sense comes out at the same place.
The root ح-ب-ب: to love. The pattern here is istifʿāl (Form X), and this pattern generally conveys "to want, to seek." Istaḥabba — "he preferred to love, he set one above another."
And the particle must be recorded: ʿala'l-ākhira — "upon the hereafter." English renders it "they preferred"; but the picture in the word is a placing on top.
I record this as an observation about the language: the verse is not describing the love of this world but the placing of it on top of the hereafter. That is, what is charged is not the presence of the love but its ordering.
The root ع-و-ج: crookedness, deviation from the straight. The lexicographers record a distinction between ʿiwaj (with kasra) and ʿawaj (with fatḥa): the first is used for crookedness in a meaning, in an affair, in religion, the second for crookedness in bodies that is seen with the eye. The one here is ʿiwajā.
And the root had occurred at al-Zumar 39/28: qurʾānan ʿarabiyyan ghayra dhī ʿiwaj — "an Arabic Qurʾān with no crookedness in it."
| Place | Expression | What is being said |
|---|---|---|
| al-Zumar 39/28 | Ghayra dhī ʿiwaj | There is no crookedness in the text |
| Ibrāhīm 14/3 | Yabghūnahā ʿiwajā | Crookedness is being sought |
When the two verses are read together something comes out, and I give this as my own reading: the crookedness is not in the path itself but in the intention of the one who searches. The verb is yabghūna — "they seek, they go after it." That is, it is not a fault that is found but a fault that is looked for.
And the construct ḍalālin baʿīd (a far straying) will return word for word in the eighteenth verse of the sūra (dhālika huwa'ḍ-ḍalālu'l-baʿīd). What is set down in the third verse as an attribute is repeated in the eighteenth as a verdict.