وَلَا تَمُدَّنَّ عَيْنَيْكَ إِلَىٰ مَا مَتَّعْنَا بِهِۦٓ أَزْوَٰجًا مِّنْهُمْ زَهْرَةَ ٱلْحَيَوٰةِ ٱلدُّنْيَا لِنَفْتِنَهُمْ فِيهِ وَرِزْقُ رَبِّكَ خَيْرٌ وَأَبْقَىٰ · وَأْمُرْ أَهْلَكَ بِٱلصَّلَوٰةِ وَٱصْطَبِرْ عَلَيْهَا لَا نَسْـَٔلُكَ رِزْقًا نَّحْنُ نَرْزُقُكَ وَٱلْعَٰقِبَةُ لِلتَّقْوَىٰ
Wa lā tamuddanna ʿaynayka ilā mā mattaʿnā bihi azwājan minhum zahrata'l-ḥayāti'd-dunyā li-naftinahum fīh, wa rizqu rabbika khayrun wa abqā · Wa'mur ahlaka bi'ṣ-ṣalāti waṣṭabir ʿalayhā, lā nasʾaluka rizqā, naḥnu narzuquk, wa'l-ʿāqibatu li't-taqwā
"Do not stretch your eyes towards what We have given certain groups of them to enjoy — the flower of the life of this world, that We may test them by it. Your Lord's provision is better and more lasting. · Command your household to pray, and be steadfast in it yourself. We do not ask provision of you; it is We who provide for you. And the outcome belongs to godfearing."
The root م-د-د: to stretch, to draw out, to pull long. Madd — extension. From the same root come madad (help extended) and midād (ink — what flows and runs on).
A point of word order must be recorded, and it is easily missed: the prohibition is placed not on the verb to look but on the verb to stretch the eye.
I record this as my own reading, and its ground is the choice of verb: seeing is not forbidden. What is forbidden is the gaze's hanging there — the eye being drawn out towards that thing and caught on it. That is, the verse takes as its subject not the first glance but the sustaining of the glance.
And the verb is strengthened with the emphatic nūn (tamuddanna) — in Arabic this increases the definiteness of the prohibition.
The root ز-ه-ر — is analysed here for the first time in the series, and the word zahra occurs only here in the Qurʾān.
| Sense | What |
|---|---|
| Zahr | A flower — especially one in bloom that has not yet borne fruit |
| Zuhra | Brightness, showiness |
| Azhar | Gleaming white, shining |
The two branches of the root are bound together: the flower is the plant's brightest and shortest-lived state.
I record this as my own reading, and its ground is the lexical field of the word: the verse likens the life of this world not to fruit but to a flower. The flower is the part most looked at and the quickest to wither. And the construct is zahratu'l-ḥayāti'd-dunyā — "the flower of the life of this world": that is, not the whole of life but its most eye-catching face.
And the word's standing together with lā tamuddanna ʿaynayka is worth recording: the prohibition is placed on the eye, the object on what catches the eye. The two words share the same sense.
The same line was treated at al-Qaṣaṣ on 28/60 and at al-Furqān on 25/23, and I rely on those treatments:
| Place | Expression | How it says it |
|---|---|---|
| al-Qaṣaṣ 28/60 | Fa-matāʿu'l-ḥayāti'd-dunyā wa zīnatuhā wa mā ʿinda'llāhi khayrun wa abqā | Ornament — and a comparison with the same two words |
| al-Furqān 25/23 | Wa qadimnā ilā mā ʿamilū min ʿamalin fa-jaʿalnāhu habāʾan manthūrā | The scattering of deeds — nothing left in hand |
| al-Qaṣaṣ 28/79-82 | Fa-kharaja ʿalā qawmihi fī zīnatih — Qārūn | Ornament displayed, and its outcome |
| Ṭāhā 20/131 | Zahrata'l-ḥayāti'd-dunyā … wa rizqu rabbika khayrun wa abqā | A flower — and the same two words |
And a verbal overlap must be recorded, and it is countable: al-Qaṣaṣ 28/60 and Ṭāhā 20/131 end with the same two words — khayrun wa abqā.
The reading recorded at al-Furqān on 25/23 can be attached here: of the word habāʾ it was recorded there — "it describes a thing that has not lost its visibility but has become impossible to hold; that is, not annihilation but not remaining in the hand." Ṭāhā's word zahra lies in the same field: the flower is not absent, it is not lasting. I record this as my own reading.
And the ground for what is given is stated in the verse: li-naftinahum fīh — "that We may test them by it".
The root of fitna was treated at the fortieth verse and its four occurrences in the sūra were tabulated. This is the fourth.
| Verse | Who is tested | By what |
|---|---|---|
| 40 | Moses | The events of his life |
| 85 | The people | The Sāmirī |
| 90 | The people | The calf — Aaron's diagnosis |
| 131 | Those given worldly goods | The thing given itself |
I record this as my own reading, and its ground is this distribution: the sūra names testing in four different forms, and in the last the instrument of the test is not a deprivation but a gift. That is, the very thing looked at is given as the test of the one looking.
A point of word order must be recorded: the command has two layers. Wa'mur ahlaka — command another; waṣṭabir ʿalayhā — be steadfast in it yourself.
And at Maryam on 19/55 the same quality was recorded of Ishmael: wa kāna yaʾmuru ahlahu bi'ṣ-ṣalāti wa'z-zakāt. The observation recorded there can be carried over: the quality is given as a responsibility directed not at a wide community but at one's own household.
And the circle closes with the fourteenth verse: wa aqimi'ṣ-ṣalāta li-dhikrī — there the prayer was commanded to the person himself; here he is asked to command it to his household, and patience is commanded to him.
لَا نَسْـَٔلُكَ رِزْقًا نَّحْنُ نَرْزُقُكَ — "We do not ask provision of you; it is We who provide for you."
Where the sentence stands is worth recording: it comes immediately after the command to pray, and what was called "do not stretch your eyes to" in the preceding verse was provision.
I record this as an observation about the structure: three sentences build a sequence — do not look at another's goods (131), keep up the prayer (132), provision is not your business (132). That is, on both sides of the middle command has been set the anxiety that makes that command hard, and it is lifted from both sides.
A point of word order: li't-taqwā — not to the godfearing but to godfearing itself. That is, the outcome is attached not to a group but to an attribute.
And a counterpart of the same sentence was treated at al-Qaṣaṣ on 28/83 (wa'l-ʿāqibatu li'l-muttaqīn — "the outcome belongs to those who guard themselves"). The two verses can be set side by side:
| Place | Expression | To what it is attached |
|---|---|---|
| al-Qaṣaṣ 28/83 | Wa'l-ʿāqibatu li'l-muttaqīn | To persons — to those who guard themselves |
| Ṭāhā 20/132 | Wa'l-ʿāqibatu li't-taqwā | To an attribute — to the guarding itself |
The same sentence, one attached to persons and one to an attribute. This is a difference between the two sūras that can be verified, and it agrees with the principle recorded in Method: a ruling is built on attributes, not on groups.