al-Nūr 24:63

Lā tajʿalū duʿāʾa'l-rasūli baynakum ka-duʿāʾi baʿḍikum baʿḍā, qad yaʿlamu'llāhu'lladhīna yatasallalūna minkum liwādhā, fa'l-yaḥdhari'lladhīna yukhālifūna ʿan amrihī an tuṣībahum fitnatun aw yuṣībahum ʿadhābun alīm

"Do not treat the Messenger's calling among you as your calling of one another. God knows those of you who slip away and steal off. Let those who go against his command beware lest a trial befall them, or a painful punishment befall them."

On what the expression means, two readings are transmitted in the classical commentaries:

Both readings are transmitted in the classical sources; I do not impose a preference.

And the second reading forms a direct link with al-Ḥujurāt, 49/2: there it was said wa lā tajharū lahū bi'l-qawli ka-jahri baʿḍikum li-baʿḍ — "do not raise your voice to him as you raise it to one another".

The pattern of the two verses is almost the same:

The same structure, the same pattern of comparison. I record this as an observation about the word order.

This is the most concrete word in the verse, and the two words together set up a picture.

تَسَلَّلَ — root س-ل-ل: its concrete sense is to draw a thing slowly out of its sheath. Salla'l-sayfa — he drew the sword. And tasallul: to go out slowly, without being noticed.

The picture in the root of the word is worth noting: a sword's coming out of its scabbard is a silent and gradual movement. From the same root come sulāla (the essence of a thing, what is drawn off and filtered out of it) and, in Turkish, sülale — "lineage".

لِوَاذ — root ل-و-ذ: to take refuge, to hide behind something. Lādha bihī — he took refuge with him; malādh — a refuge.

And the picture the two words set up together is this: the man goes out, and as he goes he hides behind something — behind another person, in the shadow of a crowd.

The verse, that is, does not merely say "to flee": it describes the manner of the fleeing as well.

I record this as my own reading; the concrete senses of the two roots stand in the lexicon.

And this is the counterpart of the note in the sixty-second verse:

The two verses set two forms of the same act — departing — face to face. I record this as an observation about the word order.

And the note qad yaʿlamu'llāh: it announces that the hiding does not work for the one who hides.

Root: ف-ت-ن. This root was analysed in the discussion of al-Baqara, 2/191 and in al-Burūj; the note there: to melt gold in fire and so test its purity. From this arise both the sense of "trial" and the sense of "pressure, affliction".

And on the sense of the word here there is disagreement in the classical commentaries:

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

And the verb is worth noting: tuṣībahum — root ص-و-ب. This root was analysed at al-Ḥujurāt, 49/6; the note there: to hit, to reach the target. Muṣība is from the same root.

And in al-Ḥujurāt the same verb was used of people acting on a false report doing harm to a community: an tuṣībū qawman bi-jahālatin.

The same verb, in two directions. I record this as an observation about the word order.