28/76-82 — Qārūn
Inna Qārūna kāna min qawmi Mūsā fa-baghā ʿalayhim wa ātaynāhu mina'l-kunūzi mā inna mafātiḥahū la-tanūʾu bi'l-ʿuṣbati uli'l-quwwa
"Qārūn was of the people of Moses; he behaved outrageously towards them. We had given him treasures whose very keys a band of strong men could hardly carry."
The size of the wealth is not stated directly — it is given through one detail: mafātiḥahū la-tanūʾu bi'l-ʿuṣbati uli'l-quwwa.
The root ن-و-أ: to straighten up with difficulty under a weight, to be burdened in rising. That is, what is heavy is not the treasure — but its keys.
I record this as an observation: the measure is given from the most indirect place there is. And the reader is left obliged to imagine the treasure for himself.
This sentence occurred at al-Zumar 39/49 in almost the same words (innamā ūtītuhū ʿalā ʿilm) and was treated there: forgetting the source, and then claiming to be the source oneself.
| Place | Expression | Who |
|---|---|---|
| al-Zumar 39/49 | Innamā ūtītuhū ʿalā ʿilm | General — a type of person |
| al-Qaṣaṣ 28/78 | Innamā ūtītuhū ʿalā ʿilmin ʿindī | Qārūn — with ʿindī (that I have) added |
In al-Qaṣaṣ there is one word more: ʿindī. I record this as my own reading: the addition raises the ownership of the claim by one further degree — knowledge is named not merely as the cause but as a cause belonging to him.
The root خ-س-ف: to sink into the ground, to cave in. The root was treated at al-ʿAnkabūt 29/40 as one of four forms of destruction.
And the form of the destruction is worth recording: bihī wa bi-dārihī — himself and his house. That is, the place where the display was made is named along with him — for indeed in verse 79 it had been said fa-kharaja ʿalā qawmihī fī zīnatih (he went out before his people in his finery).
وَأَصْبَحَ ٱلَّذِينَ تَمَنَّوْا۟ مَكَانَهُۥ بِٱلْأَمْسِ يَقُولُونَ وَيْكَأَنَّ ٱللَّهَ يَبْسُطُ ٱلرِّزْقَ لِمَن يَشَآءُ (82) — "those who the day before had wished themselves in his place began the next morning to say…"
I record this as an observation: the verse sets the wish of one day and the words of the next side by side. And the only thing that has changed in between is that the event has been seen.