قَدْ أَفْلَحَ ٱلْمُؤْمِنُونَ
The root was worked out in al-Baqara and extended in the discussions of al-Shams 91/9 (qad aflaḥa man zakkāhā) and al-Aʿlā 87/14 (qad aflaḥa man tazakkā). I do not repeat it here. The picture established in al-Baqara is summed up as follows, and it has been used unchanged in the al-Mujādala, al-Ḥashr, al-Fatḥ and al-Taghābun sections:
The root is to split, to crack open. Fallāḥ — the farmer; he takes the name because he splits the soil. Falāḥ — to break through an obstacle and come out, to crack the husk, to come into a state of bearing fruit.
In al-Falaq, where the derivatives of the root were listed, this very verse was given as the example. I rely on that treatment.
What belongs here is this, and it is worth recording: the same pattern (qad aflaḥa) opens a sentence in three places in the Qurʾān, and in all three the agent is described differently:
| Place | Sentence | How the agent is described |
|---|---|---|
| al-Shams 91/9 | qad aflaḥa man zakkāhā | By a verb — the one who purifies his soul |
| al-Aʿlā 87/14 | qad aflaḥa man tazakkā | By a verb — the one who is purified / who takes heed |
| al-Muʾminūn 23/1 | qad aflaḥa al-muʾminūn | By a name — and after it a description nine verses long |
I record this as my own reading, and its ground is the length of the third row: in the other two places the description of the agent is inside the sentence; here a name is set down and the description is spread across separate verses. The sūra, that is, sets about filling the word "believer" rather than leaving it empty.
The word order must be recorded: when qad comes at the head of a perfect verb it reports confirmation (taḥqīq). And the verb is in the past — whereas the attributes described (2-9) are given in imperfect and active participle patterns, that is, as ongoing states.
I record this as an observation about the word order: the verdict is framed in the past tense, the condition in the ongoing tense. The lexicographers explain this kind of usage as "telling a thing as though it had happened, because its happening is certain"; I pass the explanation on as it is transmitted.
The root أ-م-ن — safety, security. Muʾmin is the active participle of Form IV: the one who brings to safety / the one who trusts. The root has occurred in many places across this series and was treated in Quraysh (wa āmanahum min khawf) and at al-Ḥashr 59/23 (al-Muʾmin).
And an entry must be placed here: throughout the sūra the verdict will be attached not to a group but to an attribute. Accordingly the negative counterpart in the hundred and seventeenth verse is likewise built not with a name but with the act of not believing. This is what the principle recorded in Method — that no blanket ruling is issued about a group — comes to in this sūra: the verse attaches deliverance not to a faction but to a whole set of states enumerated across nine verses.