al-Sajda 32:15-16

Innamā yuʾminu bi-āyātina'lladhīna idhā dhukkirū bihā kharrū sujjadan wa sabbaḥū bi-ḥamdi rabbihim wa hum lā yastakbirūn · Tatajāfā junūbuhum ʿani'l-maḍājiʿi yadʿūna rabbahum khawfan wa ṭamaʿan wa mimmā razaqnāhum yunfiqūn

"Only these believe in Our verses: those who, when they are reminded by them, fall down prostrate, who glorify their Lord with praise, and who do not grow proud. Their sides withdraw from their beds; they call upon their Lord in fear and in hope; and they spend of the provision We have given them."

This verse is the prostration verse of the sūra, and the place that gives the sūra its name.

The sentence begins with innamā (only, none but): the particle of restriction. And the direction of the restriction must be recorded: the sentence does not say "those who believe do these things"; it says "those who do these things believe".

I record this as an observation about the word order: faith is described not as a claim but by way of its signs. And the description fits the hearer of the sūra: in the tenth verse the other side had said something (a-idhā ḍalalnā…); in the twelfth verse it had changed what it said (innā mūqinūn). Where a word is no measure, the sūra ties the description to behaviour.

خَرَّ — root خ-ر-ر. The concrete sense the lexicographers record: to fall from a height; and the sound made in falling. Kharīr — the sound water makes as it flows. That is, the root holds both a fall and a sound.

The choice of the verb is worth recording: the verse does not say sajada (he prostrated) — it says kharrū sujjadan: "they fell down prostrating".

سُجَّدًا — the plural of sājid, on the fuʿʿal pattern; in the position of a circumstantial qualifier (ḥāl). That is, the prostration is the form of the fall.

I record this as my own reading; its ground is the choice of verb: the sentence recounts not a decision but a fall. And this is the exact counterpart of the scene in the twelfth verse: there the head fell forward of itself (nākisū ruʾūsihim), here the body goes down to the ground of itself. The same direction, two separate times.

وَهُمْ لَا يَسْتَكْبِرُونَ — and the description is completed with a negation. Form X of the root ك-ب-ر (istikbār) has been treated in many places in the series — in al-Jāthiya 45/8 and in Fuṣṣilat 41/15 (fa-stakbarū fi'l-arḍ). I do not repeat it here.

But the place of the negation must be recorded: after three positive attributes have been counted, a negative attribute is added. That is, "something he does not do" enters the list as well.

The root is analysed here for the first time in the series.

The concrete sense of the root: a gap opening between two things, their parting and drawing away from one another. Jafā'l-janbu ʿani'l-firāsh — the side rose, drew apart from the bed. The lexicographers illustrate the root thus: the saddle's not sitting flush on the horse's back and staying a little clear of it.

Turkish has borrowed cefa ("ill-treatment") from this root, and it carries the root's picture: the cutting off of closeness.

The pattern is Form V (tafāʿul), and the lexicographers record in this form gradualness and continuity: not a single rising, but the state of standing clear.

جُنُوب — the plural of janb: the side, the flank. مَضَاجِع — the plural of maḍjaʿ, root ض-ج-ع: to lie on one's side. Maḍjaʿ — the place where one lies on one's side, a bed.

This is the most striking side of the verse, and it must be recorded.

The subject of the sentence is not the person: tatajāfā junūbuhum — "their sides draw away". That is, the act is ascribed not to the man but to a part of the body.

And the object too is not a bed; the bed itself is a plural: ʿani'l-maḍājiʿ — "from the beds".

I record this as my own reading, and its ground is two grammatical details — junūb as the subject, maḍājiʿ as a plural: the sentence is built not like a declaration of will but like a description of a state. And this runs in the same direction as the verb kharrū in the fifteenth verse: there too the body went down of itself. The sūra makes its description twice by way of the body — and both times the subject of the verb is not the person.

The plural maḍājiʿ carries one further overtone, and I give it as an observation: had "bed" been singular, a particular night could have been understood; the plural turns this into a repeated condition.

خَوْفًا وَطَمَعًا — "in fear and in hope". Two verbal nouns in the position of circumstantial qualifiers, side by side. The same pair occurs at al-Rūm 30/24 as well (yurīkumu'l-barqa khawfan wa ṭamaʿan) and will be treated in al-Rūm. In both places the pair is named together: neither fear alone nor hope alone.

وَمِمَّا رَزَقْنَٰهُمْ يُنفِقُونَ — the same expression was analysed in al-Baqara 2/3 (wa mimmā razaqnāhum yunfiqūn), and it was recorded there that the particle min states the partitive — "of what We have given", not all of it. I do not repeat it here.

And the order of the description is worth recording, and I give it as an observation: prostration (the body going down to the ground) → glorification (the tongue) → not growing proud (the inner attitude) → rising from the bed (the body, at night) → prayer (the tongue) → spending (property). Six attributes; and the last is the only one that touches another person. The list begins with the person himself and moves outward.