فَأَسْرِ بِأَهْلِكَ بِقِطْعٍ مِّنَ ٱلَّيْلِ وَٱتَّبِعْ أَدْبَٰرَهُمْ وَلَا يَلْتَفِتْ مِنكُمْ أَحَدٌ وَٱمْضُوا۟ حَيْثُ تُؤْمَرُونَ · وَقَضَيْنَآ إِلَيْهِ ذَٰلِكَ ٱلْأَمْرَ أَنَّ دَابِرَ هَٰٓؤُلَآءِ مَقْطُوعٌ مُّصْبِحِينَ
Fa-asri bi-ahlika bi-qiṭʿin mina'l-layli wa'ttabiʿ adbārahum wa lā yaltafit minkum aḥadun wa'mḍū ḥaythu tuʾmarūn · Wa qaḍaynā ilayhi dhālika'l-amra anna dābira hāʾulāʾi maqṭūʿun muṣbiḥīn
"Set out with your family in a part of the night; and follow behind them. Let none of you turn to look back. Go on to where you are commanded. · And We made known to him this decree: that by morning the last of these would be cut off."
| Order | Command | What it regulates |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Asri bi-ahlika bi-qiṭʿin mina'l-layl | Time — a part of the night |
| 2 | Wa'ttabiʿ adbārahum | Order — Lot at the rear |
| 3 | Wa lā yaltafit minkum aḥad | Gaze — no turning back |
| 4 | Wa'mḍū ḥaythu tuʾmarūn | Direction — to where you are told |
I record this as an observation about the word order: the commands determine time, order, gaze and direction separately. Nothing is left to decision.
The س-ر-ي root: travelling by night. Sarā / asrā — he walked by night. The root was analysed at al-Isrāʾ in connection with the name of that sūra. I do not repeat it here.
ٱتَّبِعْ أَدْبَٰرَهُمْ — "follow behind them." That is, Lot is to walk last. I record this as an observation: the command asks the leader to be not in front but behind — the reason is not stated, but read together with the next command it lends itself to meaning that the company can be seen. I give this as an inference, not as the wording of the verse.
The ل-ف-ت root: to turn a thing, to change its direction. Iltifāt — to turn and look. (The same word is used in the index as a term of rhetoric in the sense of "a shift in the direction of address"; the picture in the root is the same.)
The د-ب-ر root: the back, the end of a thing. Dābir — the last remaining of a company, its root, its remnant.
The construction must be recorded: dābira hāʾulāʾi maqṭūʿun — "the back or root of these is cut." That is, the expression recounts that no one is left behind.
And ittabiʿ adbārahum (65) and dābira hāʾulāʾi (66) are from the same root. Two verses apart, one the back of those delivered and one the back of those destroyed. I record this as a weave within the sūra, and it can be verified.
مُّصْبِحِين — root ص-ب-ح: to enter upon the morning. The word will come once more in the eighty-third verse for the people of al-Ḥijr: fa-akhadhathumu'l-ṣayḥatu muṣbiḥīn. The same word, at the hour of destruction of two peoples.