al-Nūr 24:62

Innama'l-muʾminūna'lladhīna āmanū bi'llāhi wa rasūlihī wa idhā kānū maʿahū ʿalā amrin jāmiʿin lam yadhhabū ḥattā yastaʾdhinūh, inna'lladhīna yastaʾdhinūnaka ulāʾika'lladhīna yuʾminūna bi'llāhi wa rasūlih, fa-idha'staʾdhanūka li-baʿḍi shaʾnihim fa'dhan li-man shiʾta minhum wa'staghfir lahumu'llāh, inna'llāha ghafūrun raḥīm

"The believers are only those who believe in God and His Messenger and who, when they are with him upon a matter that gathers them, do not depart until they have asked his leave. Those who ask your leave — it is they who believe in God and His Messenger. So when they ask your leave for some affair of their own, give leave to whom you will of them, and ask God's forgiveness for them. God is forgiving, merciful."

The sūra takes up the matter of asking leave for the third time — and this time what is at issue is not a place but an affair.

And the third looks in a direction different from the others: the first two ask leave to enter, the third to go out.

I record this as my own reading; the verbs of the three verses stand in the text.

جَامِع — root ج-م-ع: to gather, to bring together. Jamāʿa, jumuʿa, jāmiʿ are from the same root. And jāmiʿ: that which gathers.

And the word order of the expression is worth noting: amrin jāmiʿ — "a gathering affair".

The qualifier of the affair, that is, is not "important" or "great" — but gathering. What defines the affair is that it brings people together.

And the word amr comes indefinite: which affair it is is not said. This makes the ruling general.

In the classical commentaries various examples are transmitted as to what this expression intends — a collective consultation, preparation for war, the Friday assembly. I do not impose a preference; and the word's coming indefinite suggests that none of the examples exhausts the expression.

And the most striking side of the verse is the measure it sets up.

The verse regulates not the joining of a gathering — but the leaving of it once one has joined.

And this is a thing worth recording, and I give it as my own reading: in a common affair, joining is visible — it is plain who came. Leaving may not be visible. To go quietly out of a crowd is easier than not to come at all.

And the sixty-third verse will say this outright: alladhīna yatasallalūna minkum liwādhā — "those among you who slip away by stealth".

This verse forms a direct pair with the first verse of Sūrat al-Ḥujurāt, and the link must be recorded.

What was recorded at Ḥujurāt 49/1 was this:

lā tuqaddimū bayna yadayi'llāhi wa rasūlih — do not put yourselves forward before God and His Messenger. … the prohibition is set not upon a kind of behaviour but upon a positioning.

And the verses of the two sūras regulate the two ends of an order of common work:

The two verses are about a person's position within a community: the one regulates going before the line, the other going out of it.

And the logic recorded in al-Ḥujurāt works here too: "when a community grows, where each stands produces a hierarchy of itself."

I record this comparison as my own reading; the wording of the two verses stands in the text.

The verse opens with innamā and sets up a definition: "the believers are only …".

And the content of the definition is worth noting: two conditions are enumerated, and the second is a behaviour.

And the same pattern had occurred at al-Ḥujurāt, 49/15 as well: innama'l-muʾminūna'lladhīna āmanū bi'llāhi wa rasūlihī thumma lam yartābū wa jāhadū…

Both sūras use the same pattern, and both add a behaviour to the definition of faith.

And how small the behaviour in al-Nūr looks is worth noting, and I record this as my own reading: what is added to the definition of faith is going out of an assembly with leave. A rule of manners, that is, which looks everyday and small, is set inside a sentence of definition.

This agrees with the measure recorded in the Ḥujurāt section: "the Qurʾān builds religiousness not as a list of acts of worship but as an order of behaviour."

The verse leaves the authority to give leave to a discretion: li-man shiʾta — "to whom you will".

The rule, that is, is set upon the side that asks leave; on the side that gives leave there is no obligation.

I record this as an observation about the word order.

This is the most unexpected sentence in the verse.

The one who asks leave is, by the verse's own definition, counted a believer (inna'lladhīna yastaʾdhinūnaka ulāʾika'lladhīna yuʾminūn). And in spite of this the verse asks that forgiveness be sought for them.

In the classical commentaries the reason for this has been dwelt upon, and the explanations transmitted are these:

I do not impose a preference, and it is not binding.

Yet something may be recorded in the word order, and I give this as my own reading: the verse does not leave the granting of leave as a closing. Leave is given, and after it a prayer is made. The transaction, that is, passes beyond a legal permission.