al-Naml 27:19

fa-tabassama ḍāḥikan min qawlihā wa qāla rabbi awziʿnī an ashkura niʿmataka'llatī anʿamta ʿalayya wa ʿalā wālidayya wa an aʿmala ṣāliḥan tarḍāhu wa adkhilnī bi-raḥmatika fī ʿibādika'ṣ-ṣāliḥīn

"He smiled at its words and said: 'My Lord! Dispose me to give thanks for the favour You have bestowed on me and on my parents, and to do good work that pleases You; and admit me, by Your mercy, among Your righteous servants.'"

The root ب-س-م, in Form V: tabassum — the slight parting of the lips; a silent smile. The root ض-ح-ك: ḍaḥk — to laugh, a laughter that may be audible.

The two words stand in the same sentence, and the lexicographers dwell on the combination:

All three explanations are transmitted in the classical commentaries; I do not impose a preference.

I record an observation about the word order: the main verb of the sentence is tabassama; ḍāḥikan is a circumstantial qualifier, a statement of state attached to the main verb. Grammatically, the smile is what is primary.

And the cause of the smile is stated plainly in the verse: min qawlihā — "at its words." The cause is therefore not the ant itself, nor the sight of it, but what it said.

I record this as my own reading, and its ground is the phrase min qawlihā: what makes Solomon smile is an utterance that was understood. The capacity given in verse 16 (ʿullimnā manṭiqa'ṭ-ṭayr) produces a result here — and the result it produces is not a conquest or a superiority but a smile.

The first sentence of this prayer is exactly the same as 46/15 in al-Aḥqāf: rabbi awziʿnī an ashkura niʿmataka'llatī anʿamta ʿalayya wa ʿalā wālidayya wa an aʿmala ṣāliḥan tarḍāh.

The two verses can be set side by side, and the difference is worth recording:

The shared sentence overlaps word for word; the difference lies at the end. This is an overlap that can be verified from the text.

The finding recorded in al-Aḥqāf holds here too, and I do not repeat it: the root of awziʿnī is و-ز-ع — to take hold and steer, to make one incline towards something and turn him to it; and the content of the prayer was worth recording: the man asks neither for wealth nor for long life nor for success — he asks to be able to give thanks.

Two things belong to al-Naml, and both are recorded as my own reading.

First: in al-Aḥqāf the prayer comes after the fortieth year, that is, after a threshold in a lifetime. In al-Naml it comes after what an ant said. The same prayer is thus spoken once at the greatest turning point of a life and once at the smallest of incidents. The ground is the context of the two verses.

Second, and more decisive: the verb awziʿnī is from the same root as the yūzaʿūn of verse 17 of this sūra.

Between the two verses stands a single verse (18), and that verse is the ant's speech. The sūra thus places an ant's sentence between the outer order and the inner one.

I record this as my own reading, and its ground is the shared root of the three verses: the same root is used first for the power that holds an army in its ranks, then for what a man asks for within himself. And the request is this: "turn me towards thankfulness." The man who can hold his army in order acknowledges that he cannot himself order the inclination within him.

The bi-raḥmatika of the fourth item is worth recording, and I give this as an observation about the word order: in the third item a good deed is asked for; in the fourth, admission is asked for not as the return for that deed but by mercy. The prayer thus does not count its own third item as sufficient.

And the last word is al-ṣāliḥīn — the same root as the ṣāliḥan of the third item (ص-ل-ح). The deed is ṣāliḥ; the company to be entered is ṣāliḥīn. This is a repetition of a root that can be verified within the verse.

And the choice of the word ʿibād (servants) must be recorded: a king asks to be admitted not among his own subjects but among God's servants. I give this as my own reading; its ground is the construct of the word (ʿibādika — "Your servants").