لَعَمْرُكَ إِنَّهُمْ لَفِى سَكْرَتِهِمْ يَعْمَهُونَ · فَأَخَذَتْهُمُ ٱلصَّيْحَةُ مُشْرِقِينَ · فَجَعَلْنَا عَٰلِيَهَا سَافِلَهَا وَأَمْطَرْنَا عَلَيْهِمْ حِجَارَةً مِّن سِجِّيلٍ
La-ʿamruka innahum la-fī sakratihim yaʿmahūn · Fa-akhadhathumu'l-ṣayḥatu mushriqīn · Fa-jaʿalnā ʿāliyahā sāfilahā wa amṭarnā ʿalayhim ḥijāratan min sijjīl
"By your life, they were floundering in their drunkenness. · The blast seized them at sunrise. · We turned the place upside down and rained upon them stones of baked clay."
The ع-م-ر root: lifetime, life; and to make a place flourish (ʿimāra, maʿmūr are from the same root). The root was treated at al-Ṭūr 52/4 (al-bayti'l-maʿmūr). I rely on that treatment.
The grammatical structure of the sentence: la-ʿamruka is the subject and its predicate is elided (qasamī — "is my oath"). In Arabic this ellipsis in oaths is frequently spoken of.
What must be recorded is the object of the oath. The lexicographers differ over who is addressed by this expression:
And a note per the method (Method): various assessments are made in the classical commentaries about a human being's life being sworn by in the Qurʾān. I do not enter these assessments and record the wording of the verse as it stands.
سَكْرَة — root س-ك-ر: drunkenness. And the word is from the same root as the fifteenth verse of the sūra: innamā sukkirat abṣārunā.
| Verse | Word | About whom |
|---|---|---|
| 15 | Sukkirat abṣārunā | Those who disbelieve — a claim about themselves |
| 72 | Fī sakratihim yaʿmahūn | The people of Lot — the judgement of the text |
I record this as a weave within the sūra, and it can be verified: the same root, one as an excuse and one as a diagnosis.
The ع-م-ه root: to wander about in bewilderment, to be unable to find one's direction. The lexicographers record a difference between ʿamiha and ʿamiya (to be blind): the first is the loss of insight, the second of the eye.
The ص-ي-ح root: a loud sound, a cry. The word was treated at Yāsīn 36/29 and 36/49, and at al-Qamar 54/31. I rely on those treatments.
The note of time must be recorded: in the sixty-sixth verse muṣbiḥīn (as they entered upon the morning) had been said; here mushriqīn (as the sun rose). The two words point to two different points of the same stretch of time and both recount the same event. I record this as an observation about the word order: the hour announced and the hour that came to pass agree with one another.
A point of word order must be recorded: two words, two opposite attributes, active participles on the same pattern. The sentence gives not a description but an exchange of place.
سِجِّيل — the lexicographers differ over the sense and root of the word, and this was recorded in the index: at al-Muṭaffifīn it was stated that there are those who set up a kinship between sijjīn and sijjīl, but that this is counted weak and that the two words come from different roots; al-Anbiyāʾ relied on that record. I rely on those treatments.
At al-Dhāriyāt 51/33-34 it was recorded that ḥijāratan min ṭīn (stones of clay) is used for the same event, and that sijjīl is widely said to mean "baked clay, brick". I rely on that treatment and do not speak with certainty.