al-Ḥijr 15:43-44

Wa inna jahannama la-mawʿiduhum ajmaʿīn · Lahā sabʿatu abwābin li-kulli bābin minhum juzʾun maqsūm

"Hell is the appointed meeting place of them all. · It has seven gates; for each gate there is an allotted portion of them."

A noun of place or time from the و-ع-د root: a place or time of meeting, an appointed point.

The choice of the word is worth recording, and I give this as an observation: hell is named here not as a place of punishment but as a place of appointment. The word carries a sense announcing that the parties come there by agreement — and this agrees with the verb ittabaʿaka (they followed) of the preceding verse.

The number is in the wording of the verse and I record it as it stands.

Various explanations of what the gates are and by what they are divided are transmitted in the classical commentaries. The wording of the verse gives no classification; for this reason I set up no table and do not enter into description.

I record it further per the method (Method): no calculation is built upon this number. The same boundary was set at al-Qadr for the thousand months; I rely on that treatment.

The ق-س-م root: to divide, to apportion. Qisma — the share set apart.

Maqsūm is a passive participle and its pattern must be recorded: the same pattern as the maʿlūm weave of the sūra. It was set out in a table in the section on the structure: maʿlūm at 4, 21, 38, and maqsūm here.

I record this as my own reading, and its ground is the shared pattern: throughout the sūra time, measure and respite were named as determined; here, with the same pattern, a share is determined. All four words say "not at random".