وَءَاتَيْنَا مُوسَى ٱلْكِتَٰبَ وَجَعَلْنَٰهُ هُدًى لِّبَنِىٓ إِسْرَٰٓءِيلَ أَلَّا تَتَّخِذُوا۟ مِن دُونِى وَكِيلًا · ذُرِّيَّةَ مَنْ حَمَلْنَا مَعَ نُوحٍ إِنَّهُۥ كَانَ عَبْدًا شَكُورًا
Wa ātaynā Mūsa'l-kitāba wa jaʿalnāhu hudan li-banī Isrāʾīla allā tattakhidhū min dūnī wakīlā · Dhurriyyata man ḥamalnā maʿa Nūḥ, innahū kāna ʿabdan shakūrā
"We gave Moses the Book and made it a guidance for the Children of Israel: 'Take no trustee besides Me.' O offspring of those We carried with Noah (Nūḥ)! He was a deeply thankful servant."
| 17/1 | 17/2 |
|---|---|
| Bi-ʿabdihi — servant | Kāna ʿabdan shakūrā (3) — servant |
| Li-nuriyahu min āyātinā — showing | Wa jaʿalnāhu hudan — guiding |
| The Farthest Mosque | The Book given to Moses |
I record this as my own reading: immediately after a miracle the sūra moves on to a book. And in both verses the key word is the same: ʿabd. In the first verse Muhammad is ʿabd; in the third verse Noah is ʿabd.
That is: having recounted the extraordinary, the sūra turns back to the ordinary — to a book and to servanthood.
The root و-ك-ل was treated at 39/41 in al-Zumar, at 25/43 in al-Furqān and at 28/56 in al-Qaṣaṣ — it was tabulated there as a limit of responsibility. The usage here is different, and the difference must be recorded: there wakīl was negated of the Prophet ("you are not a trustee over them"); here it is said whom the servant is to take as trustee.
The sense of the word: the one to whom an affair is committed, the one trusted and leaned upon. The verse thus gives the core of the Book as a matter of where one leans.
The address changes, and those addressed are given a new name: "the offspring of those We carried with Noah."
I record this as my own reading, and its support is the naming itself: those addressed are named not by the name of a people but by having been saved. Man ḥamalnā — "those We carried". Identity is thus attached not to an achievement but to having been carried.
And immediately after, the single attribute of Noah is named: kāna ʿabdan shakūrā — "he was a deeply thankful servant."
The detailed analysis of the root ش-ك-ر was made at 31/12 in Luqmān (ani'shkur li'llāh) and at 34/13 in Sabaʾ (wa qalīlun min ʿibādiya'l-shakūr). I do not repeat it here.
The choice of attribute is worth recording: a rescued lineage is addressed, and what is named is their forefather's thankfulness. The bond is thus built not as a bond of descent but as a bond of disposition. This will turn into an explicit rule in the seventh verse of the sūra.