al-Ḥijr 15:80-84

Wa laqad kadhdhaba aṣḥābu'l-Ḥijri'l-mursalīn · Wa ātaynāhum āyātinā fa-kānū ʿanhā muʿriḍīn · Wa kānū yanḥitūna mina'l-jibāli buyūtan āminīn · Fa-akhadhathumu'l-ṣayḥatu muṣbiḥīn · Fa-mā aghnā ʿanhum mā kānū yaksibūn

"The people of al-Ḥijr too called the messengers liars. · We gave them Our signs; they turned away from them. · They used to carve secure houses out of the mountains. · The blast seized them as they entered upon the morning. · What they had earned availed them nothing."

The ح-ج-ر root was analysed in detail at al-Ḥujurāt (relying there on al-Fajr), and what was recorded there is decisive here; I rely on that treatment:

The root's basic idea is not stone but to hinder, to hold back, to enclose, to draw a boundary. Ḥajar (stone) is a member of this family because a stone is what sets a boundary and blocks passage. Ḥijr — what is forbidden, made inviolable. Ḥajr — the restriction of a person's power of disposal. Ḥijr — the lap: the area the arms enclose. Ḥujra — a room: a place separated and enclosed by a wall.

And it was further recorded in the section on al-Ḥujurāt: ح-ج-ر and ه-ج-ر are separate roots; muhājir is from the second. I preserve this note here too.

Now what belongs here:

One. Al-Ḥijr occurs in the Qurʾān only in this verse and is the name of the homeland of Thamūd.

Two. And there is a fittingness between the sense of the root and the sūra as a whole. I record this as my own reading, its ground being the core of the root analysed in al-Ḥujurāt: the root means to enclose, to draw a boundary, to take into protection. And the sūra is from beginning to end about boundary and protection: the sky was guarded (17), the reminder was guarded (9), a limit was set to Iblīs's power (42), a measure was set to the sending down of everything (21), an end was set to Iblīs's term (38), a share was allotted to the gates of hell (44).

Three. And the people who carry the name of the sūra are named precisely with a claim of "protection": yanḥitūna mina'l-jibāli buyūtan āminīn. They are making themselves a shelter out of stone.

It is hard to count this link a coincidence; but it must also not be forgotten that the name of the sūra was given later, from the word in the eightieth verse. That is, the name is not a claim of the text but a choice of the tradition. I can say that the choice was apt; I record this as my own reading. The same note was entered at al-Ḥujurāt as well.

The ن-ح-ت root: to carve, to shape a hard body by cutting.

The same verb was treated at al-Shuʿarāʾ 26/149: wa tanḥitūna mina'l-jibāli buyūtan fārihīn. I rely on that treatment.

The difference between the two sūras lies in a single word, and this is a comparison that can be verified:

And the mode of the verb differs too: in al-Shuʿarāʾ tanḥitūna (second person plural — Ṣāliḥ is speaking to them), in al-Ḥijr kānū yanḥitūna (kāna + imperfect — a habit continuing in the past).

I record this as my own reading, and its ground is the difference between the two words: al-Shuʿarāʾ recounts their state while doing the work; al-Ḥijr recounts the result they expected from the work. And the next verse cancels that result.

The word occurs for the second time in the sūra, and its opposite is in the forty-sixth verse. It was set out in a table above; here it closes:

Two securities, two results. I record this as my own reading, and its ground is the two occurrences of the same word together with the sentences that follow each: the sūra compares by two examples where security comes from. And it says that what was made of stone was brought down by a sound.

The غ-ن-ي root: needlessness; and from this, "to avail, to be of use". The root was treated at Ibrāhīm 14/8 (la-ghaniyyun ḥamīd) and at al-Masad 111/2 (mā aghnā ʿanhu māluhu). I rely on those treatments.

And the object of the verb must be recorded: mā kānū yaksibūn — "what they were earning."

I record this as an observation about the word order: the verse does not say "their houses", it says "what they earned". The scope is widened — not only houses of stone but everything acquired. And this joins with the third verse of the sūra: dharhum yaʾkulū wa yatamattaʿū — leave them, let them take their enjoyment. What the sūra left at the start it weighs here.