17/18-21 — Two desires and two requitals
Man kāna yurīdu'l-ʿājilata ʿajjalnā lahu fīhā mā nashāʾu li-man nurīdu thumma jaʿalnā lahu jahannama yaṣlāhā madhmūman madḥūrā · Wa man arāda'l-ākhirata wa saʿā lahā saʿyahā wa huwa muʾminun fa-ulāʾika kāna saʿyuhum mashkūrā · Kullan numiddu hāʾulāʾi wa hāʾulāʾi min ʿaṭāʾi rabbik, wa mā kāna ʿaṭāʾu rabbika maḥẓūrā · Unẓur kayfa faḍḍalnā baʿḍahum ʿalā baʿḍ, wa la'l-ākhiratu akbaru darajātin wa akbaru tafḍīlā
"Whoever wants what comes at once, We hasten to him therein whatever We will, for whomever We will; then We assign him Hell, which he enters, blamed and cast out. And whoever wants the hereafter and strives for it with the striving it deserves, and is a believer — the striving of such as these is met with thanks. To all of them — to these and to those — We give of your Lord's bestowal; and your Lord's bestowal is withheld from no one. Look how We have favoured some of them over others! Yet the hereafter is greater in ranks and greater in favour."
| Verse | Word | What it is |
|---|---|---|
| 11 | ʿAjūl | Disposition — man's being in haste |
| 18 | Al-ʿājila | Object — the thing wanted in haste, the world that comes at once |
The same root, once a disposition and once a goal. This is a link that can be verified within the sūra, and I record it as my own reading: the sūra first names the disposition, then shows what that disposition chooses.
| The one who wants what comes at once (18) | The one who wants the hereafter (19) | |
|---|---|---|
| Verb | Yurīdu — wanting only | Arāda wa saʿā — wanting and striving |
| Qualification | Mā nashāʾu li-man nurīd — two qualifications | Wa huwa muʾmin — one qualification |
| Requital | ʿAjjalnā — given quickly | Mashkūrā — met with thanks |
And the two qualifications in the first arm are worth recording: mā nashāʾu (as much as We will) and li-man nurīd (to whomever We will). The requital of the immediate desire is thus guaranteed neither in amount nor in recipient. There is no such qualification in the second arm.
I give this as my own reading, and its support is the number of qualifications in the two sentences: the verse says that the short-term goal is the less certain of the two. A result the reverse of what one expects.
The root س-ع-ي was treated at 53/39 in al-Najm (wa an laysa li'l-insāni illā mā saʿā), and this verse was already named there: it was recorded there that the Qurʾān's ruling on saʿy comes in two parts — you have nothing but your striving (al-Najm 53/39), and where the striving goes matters (al-Isrāʾ 17/19). I rely on that treatment.
The construction here must be recorded: saʿā lahā saʿyahā — "he strove for it with the striving that befits it."
The pronoun (-hā) attaches to the striving: the hereafter's own striving. The verse thus makes a condition not of the amount of the striving but of its kind. I record this as an observation about the structure.
Having separated the two groups, the twentieth verse establishes something they share: the worldly bestowal is given to both sides.
مَحْظُورًا — root ح-ظ-ر: to fence round, to enclose, to forbid. Ḥaẓīra — a pen, an enclosed place. The word thus means "barred, fenced in".
I record this as an observation, and its support is the concrete sense of the word: the verse says that no fence is drawn round the bestowal. What is given in this world is thus not apportioned according to belief.
And the twenty-first verse enters a qualification on this shared thing: wa la'l-ākhiratu akbaru darajāt. Read together, the two verses say: in this world there is a difference, but the difference is not the measure.