وَمَا خَلَقْنَا ٱلسَّمَٰوَٰتِ وَٱلْأَرْضَ وَمَا بَيْنَهُمَآ إِلَّا بِٱلْحَقِّ ۗ وَإِنَّ ٱلسَّاعَةَ لَءَاتِيَةٌ ۖ فَٱصْفَحِ ٱلصَّفْحَ ٱلْجَمِيلَ · إِنَّ رَبَّكَ هُوَ ٱلْخَلَّٰقُ ٱلْعَلِيمُ
Wa mā khalaqnā'l-samāwāti wa'l-arḍa wa mā baynahumā illā bi'l-ḥaqq · Wa inna'l-sāʿata la-ātiyatun fa'ṣfaḥi'l-ṣafḥa'l-jamīl · Inna Rabbaka huwa'l-Khallāqu'l-ʿAlīm
"We created the heavens and the earth and what is between them only with the truth. The hour is surely coming. So forgive with a beautiful forgiveness. · Your Lord is the great creator, the knowing."
The word order must be recorded: the verse is built of three sentences and the third is joined to what precedes with fāʾ.
| Order | Sentence | What it conveys |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mā khalaqnā… illā bi'l-ḥaqq | That creation has a purpose |
| 2 | Wa inna'l-sāʿata la-ātiya | That there is an end |
| 3 | Fa'ṣfaḥi'l-ṣafḥa'l-jamīl | A command about conduct |
I record this as an observation about the word order: the command is given not as a piece of advice about managing anger but as the consequence of two announcements. If a reckoning is to be held, there is no need to hold the reckoning now.
The same structure was treated at Qāf 50/39-40: there too, after the chain of proof was complete, the command was patience and glorification. I rely on that treatment.
The root was first analysed at al-Zukhruf 43/5, and what was recorded there holds here too; I rely on that treatment:
The concrete sense of the root is the name of a surface: ṣafḥa — the side of a thing, its flat face. Ṣafḥa — the cheek, the flat of a sword. Ṣafaḥa ʿanhu — he turned his face from him; and from this, he forgave, he passed over. Muṣāfaḥa — a handshake: the touching of two palms, that is, of two flat surfaces, to one another. The picture beneath the root: the turning of the flat face of a thing.
And the most important thing recorded in al-Zukhruf was that the same root is used in that sūra in two opposite rulings:
| Place | Expression | Ruling |
|---|---|---|
| al-Zukhruf 43/5 | A-fa-naḍribu ʿankumu'l-dhikra ṣafḥan | Rejected — the reminder is not pushed aside |
| al-Zukhruf 43/89 | Fa'ṣfaḥ ʿanhum wa qul salām | Commanded — turn away from the people |
In the section on al-Zukhruf this was set out in a table as "the clearest and most verifiable link of the sūra". I rely on that treatment.
Now what belongs here: the usage in al-Ḥijr is in the same direction as the second ruling of al-Zukhruf — but it has taken an attribute.
ٱلْجَمِيل — root ج-م-ل: beauty; and gathering, bringing together (jumla, ijmāl are from the same root). The lexicographers explain jamāl by "the parts being in harmony with one another".
And in the Qurʾān this attribute is used of a bearing in three places: ṣabran jamīlā (a beautiful patience), hajran jamīlā (a beautiful parting), and here ṣafḥan jamīlā.
I record this as my own reading, and its ground is the idea of "harmony" in the root of the attribute: the note jamīl attaches the act not to a degree but to a form. That is, what is commanded is not "forgive much" — but "make your forgiving without reproach mixed into it, consistent in itself."
And the note wa qul salām of al-Zukhruf 43/89 is not here; the command of al-Ḥijr is completed with an attribute, the command of al-Zukhruf with a word. The two sūras give the same command with two different additions.
ٱلْخَلَّٰق — the faʿʿāl pattern, intensive. It conveys that creating is not a one-time but a continuing work. The word occurs at Yāsīn 36/81 as well (wa huwa'l-Khallāqu'l-ʿAlīm) — the same two names side by side in two sūras.