تُرْجِى مَن تَشَآءُ مِنْهُنَّ وَتُـْٔوِىٓ إِلَيْكَ مَن تَشَآءُ وَمَنِ ٱبْتَغَيْتَ مِمَّنْ عَزَلْتَ فَلَا جُنَاحَ عَلَيْكَ ذَٰلِكَ أَدْنَىٰٓ أَن تَقَرَّ أَعْيُنُهُنَّ وَلَا يَحْزَنَّ وَيَرْضَيْنَ بِمَآ ءَاتَيْتَهُنَّ كُلُّهُنَّ وَٱللَّهُ يَعْلَمُ مَا فِى قُلُوبِكُمْ وَكَانَ ٱللَّهُ عَلِيمًا حَلِيمًا
Turjī man tashāʾu minhunna wa tuʾwī ilayka man tashāʾ, wa mani'btaghayta mimman ʿazalta fa-lā junāḥa ʿalayk, dhālika adnā an taqarra aʿyunuhunna wa lā yaḥzanna wa yarḍayna bimā ātaytahunna kulluhunna, wa'llāhu yaʿlamu mā fī qulūbikum, wa kāna'llāhu ʿalīman ḥalīmā
"You may put off whom you will of them and take to yourself whom you will. And if you seek one of those you have set aside, there is no blame on you. That is more likely to bring comfort to their eyes, that they should not grieve, and that all of them should be content with what you give them. God knows what is in your hearts. God is Knowing, Forbearing."
تُرْجِى — root ر-ج-و or ر-ج-أ. To postpone, to put off. The same root occurred in the twenty-first verse as yarjū (to hope), and it was recorded there: under the root lie both "to hope" and "to postpone".
And the comparison of the two occurrences is worth noting: in 21 hope, here postponement. The same root, once looking forward in time, once casting a thing forward in time.
| Verse | The construction | The ground |
|---|---|---|
| 51 | dhālika adnā an taqarra aʿyunuhunna wa lā yaḥzanna wa yarḍayna | Ease of heart |
| 59 | dhālika adnā an yuʿrafna fa-lā yuʾdhayna | Being recognised and not injured |
And this is a fact that must be recorded: in these two places the Qurʾān writes explicitly why the ruling has been laid down. And both grounds look to people's inward condition: in one, ease of heart; in the other, not being injured.
I record this as my own reading; its ground is the use of the pattern with the same function in both verses.
And another feature of the adnā pattern: it is an elative, that is, it says "more" and not "most". It conveys not a definite best but an orientation — like aqsaṭ in the fifth verse.
The root ق-ر-ر. It occurred in the thirty-third verse in the reading qarna: to be fixed, to come to rest.
Qurratu ʿayn — "the settling of the eye". It is an idiom in Arabic and means joy, calm, contentment.
And the picture in the idiom comes from the root: the eye, when it is uneasy, roams and cannot stay still — this was described exactly in the tenth and nineteenth verses (zāghati'l-abṣār, tadūru aʿyunuhum). The eye's "settling" is the sign of calm.
| Verse | The eye | The state |
|---|---|---|
| 10 | zāghati'l-abṣār | Fear — a swerving gaze |
| 19 | tadūru aʿyunuhum | Fear — a rolling gaze |
| 51 | taqarra aʿyunuhunna | Calm — a settled gaze |
The sūra records three states of the eye, and all three are indicators of the inward condition. I record this as my own reading.
And this occurrence is worth noting: the pronoun is masculine plural (qulūbikum) — that is, the address is not to the women alone but to everyone.
The function of the sentence: a regulation is being made, and whether the regulation works is measured not from outside but from the heart. The measure of the fifth verse (mā taʿammadat qulūbukum) is repeated here.
And the agreement of the verse-ending with the verse: the verse takes as its subject a regulation and the feelings that regulation may arouse in people. And the name ḥalīm carries the sense "He knows but does not hasten".