al-Muʾminūn 23:18

wa anzalnā mina'l-samāʾi māʾan bi-qadarin fa-askannāhu fi'l-arḍ, wa innā ʿalā dhahābin bihī la-qādirūn

"We sent down water from the sky by a measure and settled it in the earth. And We are certainly able to take it away."

The root ق-د-ر was worked out in detail in al-Qadr, and separately at al-Qamar 54/49 (innā kulla shayʾin khalaqnāhu bi-qadar), and treated again at al-Zumar 39/67 and al-Furqān 25/2. I do not repeat it here. In summary: the most basic sense of the root is to measure, to cut to size, to fix the amount of a thing.

Exactly this connection was made in al-Qadr: the verse "We created everything according to a measure (bi-qadar) (al-Qamar 54/49)" was adduced as the proof of the sense "measure" for the word qadr. I rely on that treatment.

What belongs here is this, and it is worth recording: al-Qamar 54/49 sets the measure as a general ruling for everything; this verse applies the same measure to a single phenomenon, rain.

And the particle must be recorded: bi-qadar — "with a measure". The bāʾ here reports accompaniment or instrument; the water comes down together with its measure.

The root س-ك-ن: the ceasing of motion, settling in a place. Sukūn — stillness; sakīna — inward stillness; maskan — the place settled in; sākin — motionless.

The root was treated at al-Furqān 25/45 (wa law shāʾa la-jaʿalahū sākinā — of the shadow) and at al-Rūm 30/21 (li-taskunū ilayhā).

And the same phenomenon — the water that comes down passing into the ground — was told with a different verb at al-Zumar 39/21. The two verses must be set side by side:

The two verbs are the opposite of one another: one to make travel, the other to bring to a stop. This is a contrast that can be verified from the two texts.

I record this as my own reading, its ground being the continuing sentences of the two verses: in al-Zumar the movement of the water is told, because the proof there is the crop coming up and then drying — a cycle. In al-Muʾminūn the standing of the water is told, because the proof here is that the water is something held in hand. The same phenomenon, put to two different tasks in two sūras.

And the root salaka will occur in this sūra too: in the twenty-seventh verse, fa'sluk fīhā min kulli zawjayni'thnayn — "put into it two of every kind, a pair". The same root: one sends water into the ground, the other living things into the ship. I give this as an entry about the word and build no connection of meaning between them.

The build of the sentence must be recorded, and I give it as my own reading: the threat one expects would be "We cut off the rain". The verse does not say this: dhahābin bihī — "to take it away". It reports, that is, that the water that has come down and settled in the ground can be taken back.

My ground is the object of the verb: the pronoun bihī refers back to the water settled in the ground in the preceding sentence. The threat is aimed not at what will not come but at what is already in hand.

The same line is drawn at al-Mulk 67/30 as well (in aṣbaḥa māʾukum ghawran fa-man yaʾtīkum bi-māʾin maʿīn) — treated in al-Mulk. I rely on that treatment.

And a limit, per the method (Method): on the basis of this verse I build no claim of "foretelling" about underground water tables, aquifer structures or the hydrological cycle. What the verse describes is a phenomenon known by observation: the water that falls does not stay on the surface, it goes down into the ground; wells and springs come out of it; and in drought these recede. The one addressed needed no special knowledge to know this — and the force of the argument comes from exactly that. The same entry was made at al-Mursalāt 77/20-23.