وَعِبَادُ ٱلرَّحْمَٰنِ ٱلَّذِينَ يَمْشُونَ عَلَى ٱلْأَرْضِ هَوْنًا وَإِذَا خَاطَبَهُمُ ٱلْجَٰهِلُونَ قَالُوا۟ سَلَٰمًا
"The servants of al-Raḥmān are those who walk upon the earth in humility; and when the ignorant address them, they say, 'peace'."
From the sixty-third verse to the end the sūra gives a list of attributes, and the first item on the list is walking.
I record this as my own reading, and its ground is the seventh verse of the sūra: there the objection raised against the Prophet was wa yamshī fi'l-aswāq (he walks about in the markets). The sūra takes the very act the objection was about and makes it the first attribute of the servants of al-Raḥmān. And in the twentieth verse that same act had been set down as the rule for all messengers.
| Verse | Mashy (walking) | Who |
|---|---|---|
| 7 | Yamshī fi'l-aswāq | Objection — counted a defect in a messenger |
| 20 | Yamshūna fi'l-aswāq | Rule — all messengers |
| 63 | Yamshūna ʿala'l-arḍi hawnā | Attribute — the servants of al-Raḥmān |
هَوْنًا — root ه-و-ن: softness, gravity of bearing; and lightness. The lexicographers explain the word here as a walk without arrogance, a calm walk.
The same field was treated at Luqmān 31/18-19 (lā tamshi fi'l-arḍi maraḥā · wa'qṣid fī mashyik). Two sūras tie walking to a measure: the one as a prohibition, the other as an attribute.
قَالُوا۟ سَلَٰمًا — the same stance was treated at al-Qaṣaṣ 28/55 (salāmun ʿalaykum lā nabtaghi'l-jāhilīn), and the three-part answer was set out in a table there. I rely on that treatment.
And the difference here must be recorded: the answer has come down to a single word. In al-Qaṣaṣ there were three clauses; in al-Furqān only salāmā.
| Verse | Attribute |
|---|---|
| 64 | Passing the night in prostration and in standing |
| 65-66 | Asking to be kept from the punishment of Hell |
| 67 | Wa'lladhīna idhā anfaqū lam yusrifū wa lam yaqturū wa kāna bayna dhālika qawāmā |
The sixty-seventh verse is worth recording: in spending, both extremes are refused at once — isrāf (going beyond the measure) and iqtār (stinting).
The root ق-ت-ر: to narrow, to stint. The root occurred in ʿAbasa (wa wujūhun yawmaʾidhin ʿalayhā ghabaratun tarhaquhā qataratun) in a different branch.
قَوَام — root ق-و-م: that which stands upright, that which holds the balance. The word states the point between the two extremes.
The root qaṣd (keeping to the middle way) was treated at Fāṭir 35/32 and at Luqmān 31/19, 31/32. This verse gives the same measure with a different root, and it is read together with the measure set down at al-Baqara 2/219 (quli'l-ʿafw — what is surplus to need).