al-Nūr 24:40

Aw ka-ẓulumātin fī baḥrin lujjiyyin yaghshāhu mawjun min fawqihī mawjun min fawqihī saḥāb, ẓulumātun baʿḍuhā fawqa baʿḍ, idhā akhraja yadahū lam yakad yarāhā, wa man lam yajʿali'llāhu lahū nūran fa-mā lahū min nūr

"Or like darknesses in a deep sea, covered by a wave, above it another wave, above that a cloud: darknesses one above another. If he puts out his hand he can hardly see it. And whomever God has given no light — for him there is no light at all."

The thirty-ninth verse described a mirage; the fortieth describes ẓulumāt. And the two parables take up different things.

Recording this difference is the most important work of this section, and I give it as my own reading:

The two parables tell of two distinct conditions: the one of believing a wrong thing, the other of being unable to see anything at all.

And both stand against the thirty-fifth verse — but from different directions:

The structure of layers in the two parables is the most striking place in the third line:

In the thirty-fifth verse the layers were set one upon another, and each layer increased the light: the niche, the glass, the oil, the fire — all coming together to make nūrun ʿalā nūr.

In the fortieth verse the layers are also set one upon another, and each layer increases the darkness: the sea, the wave, the second wave, the cloud — all coming together to make ẓulumātun baʿḍuhā fawqa baʿḍ.

The same structure, two opposite outcomes. And the two expressions are each other's reflection in a mirror:

I record this contrast as my own reading; the structure and the places of the two expressions are the wording of the text and can be compared.

Root: ل-ج-ج. The sense the lexicographers record: to persist in a thing, to press upon it; and water's being much and deep.

Lujj — the vast and deep part of the sea. Lajja — he persisted. Lijāj — obstinacy.

And the connection between the two senses of the root is drawn by the lexicographers through a shared idea: a thing's piling up one upon another, its increase. Persistence is the piling of an act upon itself; a lujja is the piling of water upon itself.

The Qurʾān uses the same root in another place: not in the passage ṣarḥun mumarradun min qawārīr, but the word lujja occurs at al-Naml 27/44.

Its work in the parable: depth. The distance from the surface.

غَشِيَ — root غ-ش-ي: to cover, to overspread, to envelop. Ghishāwa — the film over the eye. The root was taken up at al-Najm, 53/16 (idh yaghsha'l-sidrata mā yaghshā).

مَوْج — root م-و-ج: to surge, to move in waves.

And the counting of the layers is worth noting. The verse enumerates four layers:

And all four do the same thing: they come in between the source of the light and the man.

And the fourth layer is worth noting: saḥāb — a cloud. The root س-ح-ب: to drag, to draw. The root was analysed at al-Ṭūr, 52/44: "a cloud is what is dragged across the sky."

And the cloud will return in the sūra's forty-third verse — but there in an altogether different task: as the source of the rain.

The same word, three verses apart, in two opposite tasks. I record this as an observation about the word order.

The last clause of the parable gives the degree of the darkness by a measure: the man cannot see his own hand.

And the choice of the measure is worth noting, and I record this as my own reading: the verse names not something far off but the nearest thing. The measure of darkness is the invisibility not of the far but of the near.

And the verb is the same as the verb of the thirty-fifth verse: yakādu / lam yakad.

The same verb, the one positive and the other negative, and both conveying an approach to a threshold.

I record this contrast as my own reading; the two occurrences of the verb stand in the text.

The seal of the section, and the last occurrence of the root nūr.

The structure of the sentence is a condition and its answer, and the arrangement is worth noting: nūr occurs twice — the one indefinite (nūran), the other an indefinite reinforced with min (min nūrin).

In Arabic the pattern mā … min makes a negation absolute: "there is no light at all". Min is here the particle that generalises the negation (min zāʾida li'l-tanzīs).

And the contrast with the thirty-fifth verse is completed:

The two clauses carry the same structure and are tied to the same source.

And the pattern of plural and singular recorded at al-Baqara, 2/257, is confirmed again here: in the verse ẓulumāt is plural (twice), nūr singular (twice).