al-Ḥajj 22:55-57

Wa lā yazālu'lladhīna kafarū fī miryatin minhu ḥattā taʾtiyahumu's-sāʿatu baghtatan aw yaʾtiyahum ʿadhābu yawmin ʿaqīm · Al-mulku yawmaʾidhin lillāhi yaḥkumu baynahum · Fa'lladhīna āmanū wa ʿamilu'ṣ-ṣāliḥāti fī jannāti'n-naʿīm · Wa'lladhīna kafarū wa kadhdhabū bi-āyātinā fa-ulāʾika lahum ʿadhābun muhīn

"Those who disbelieve will not cease to be in doubt about it until the Hour comes upon them suddenly, or the punishment of a barren day comes upon them. On that day sovereignty belongs to God; He judges between them. Those who believe and do righteous deeds are in gardens of bliss. But those who disbelieve and deny Our signs shall have an abasing punishment."

The root ع-ق-م: barrenness, failure to bear. ʿAqīm — one that bears no child; and the lexicographers record in the root the sense of "closing, stopping up" as well (ʿuqma — the closing of the womb).

The word is used of wind too: ar-rīḥa'l-ʿaqīm (al-Dhāriyāt 51/41) — a wind that brings nothing forth, that has no use.

The construct here is yawmun ʿaqīm — "a barren day".

Two explanations are transmitted in the classical commentaries:

I transmit both; I do not impose a preference.

As my own reading I add this, its ground being the sense of the root: every day "gives birth" to the next; that is the series of days. A barren day is the day on which the series is cut. And this closes the debate about time in the forty-seventh verse: there the term was being stretched, here the term ends.

مِرْيَة — root م-ر-ي: doubt, hesitation; and to milk (marā — he milked the udder). The lexicographers make the link thus: one who doubts turns the matter over and over; one who milks draws at the udder again and again. I transmit this connection as it is transmitted.

What distinguishes the word: unlike shakk, mirya is a doubt that is kept up. And the verse says so with the verb as well: lā yazālu — "unceasingly".

The word order of the sentence must be recorded: al-mulku first, lillāh last.

In Arabic the fronting of the predicate conveys restriction (ḥaṣr). Here the reverse obtains: the subject is in front, but the prepositional phrase lillāh stands in the position of the predicate and carries the stress.

I record this as a grammatical observation: the sentence reports that on that day sovereignty is with no one else. And this links with the forty-first verse of the sūra: there it was said wa lillāhi ʿāqibatu'l-umūr. The two sentences do the same work: to whom power belongs in the end.

عَذَابٌ مُّهِين — the root ه-و-ن occurred in the eighteenth verse (wa man yuhini'llāh). The same root, one a verb and one an adjective.