al-Aḥzāb 33:60-62

La-in lam yantahi'l-munāfiqūna wa'lladhīna fī qulūbihim maraḍun wa'l-murjifūna fi'l-madīnati la-nughriyannaka bihim thumma lā yujāwirūnaka fīhā illā qalīlā · Malʿūnīna aynamā thuqifū ukhidhū wa quttilū taqtīlā · Sunnata'llāhi fi'lladhīna khalaw min qabl, wa lan tajida li-sunnati'llāhi tabdīlā

"If the hypocrites, those in whose hearts is sickness, and those who spread baseless news in the city do not desist, We shall surely set you against them; then they will be your neighbours there only a little while. · Accursed; wherever they are found they are seized and killed. · This is God's way with those who passed away before. And you will find no change in the way of God."

In the twelfth verse two groups were named; here a third is added.

And the listing of three separate expressions supports the observation I recorded at the twelfth verse: the distinction appears to be deliberate.

The root of this word is one of the most striking choices of word in the sūra.

ر-ج-ف: to shake, to make tremble, to rock violently. Rajfa — a quaking; and it was treated in the context of the sūra at al-Nāziʿāt (yawma tarjufu'l-rājifa).

And the definition recorded at al-Muzzammil: "إِرْجَاف (irjāf) — unsettling people by spreading baseless news." I rely on that treatment.

This verse was already mentioned at al-Nāziʿāt too.

Now the real question: how do the "shaking" sense of the root and the "spreading baseless news" sense come together?

The link the lexicographers record is this: irjāf is the spreading of reports that shake a community. That is, the word names the act not by itself but by its effect — just as buhtān (58) is named by the state of the one wronged.

And this sets up a word-web within the sūra, and I record it:

The sūra records two kinds of shaking: one by a threat coming from outside, the other by a report spread from within. And the word used for the second is derived from the shaking itself.

I record this as my own reading; its ground is that the concrete senses of the two roots are the same.

فِى ٱلْمَدِينَةِ — the name of the city. In the thirteenth verse Yathrib occurred in the mouths of those calling for flight; here al-Madīna. In the same sūra, the same city, two different names — this was recorded at the thirteenth verse as a datum of the text.

أَغْرَىٰ — root غ-ر-و / غ-ر-ي. To make a thing stick to another; ghirāʾ — glue. From this "to set someone upon a matter, to set him against".

The Qurʾān uses the root once more: "So We stirred up enmity and hatred among them" (al-Māʾida 5/14, 5/64 — aghraynā).

And that the sentence is conditional must be recorded: la-in lam yantahi — "if they do not desist".

يَنتَهِ — root ن-ه-ي. To desist, to give up; nahy — prohibition.

That is, the verse does not state a ruling, it lays down a condition. And whether the condition came about is not said in the text.

This is a fact of word order that must be recorded and is important in view of the method (Method): the verse is a sentence of warning and the way out is in the first clause — if they do not desist.

This verse describes a sanction to be applied in the order of a city under the conditions of that day, and it stands in a single, historical context.

Per the method (Method) I record explicitly:

One. The verse is dependent on the condition in the sixtieth verse. It is not a sentence of ruling on its own.

Two. The verse concerns not an identity but an act that is described: shaking the city by spreading baseless news.

Three. No conclusion about any person or group today can be drawn from this verse. The measure recorded at al-Munāfiqūn holds here too.

Four. No legal ruling at all is drawn from this verse in this commentary.

The words:

ثُقِفُوٓا۟ — root ث-ق-ف. And the sense of the root is interesting: thaqifa — to find and seize a thing; and also to straighten what is crooked (the straightening of a spear: tathqīf). Thaqīf — quick-witted, sharp of understanding.

The Qurʾān uses the root in several places: "Wherever you come upon them…" (al-Baqara 2/191).

قُتِّلُوا۟ تَقْتِيلًا — a cognate accusative. The eighth reinforcement in the sūra.

It was treated at the thirty-eighth verse; I rely on that treatment.

And the comparison of the two occurrences is worth recording:

Both come after a regulation — this was recorded at the thirty-eighth verse.

وَلَن تَجِدَ لِسُنَّةِ ٱللَّهِ تَبْدِيلًا — the root ب-د-ل, for the third time in this sūra (23, 52, 62).

The same root on three separate levels: a human word, a human relationship, a divine working. I record it.

And the note entered at al-Fatḥ must be repeated here: the application of the concept of sunnat Allāh to contemporary events is not entered into; the concept is a measure for understanding the past, not an authority for judging the present.