Yāsīn 36:58 commentary

36/58

سَلَٰمٌ قَوْلًا مِّن رَّبٍّ رَّحِيمٍ

Salāmun qawlan min rabbin raḥīm

"Peace — as a word from a Lord who is merciful."

The table closes with a sound

This was treated in al-Wāqiʿa at 56/25-26, and a table was set up there: in the description of the sābiqūn the objects are counted off sense by sense — touch, sight, an inward state, taste, sight — and the table closed with hearing: illā qīlan salāman salāmā. The finding there was this: "all the objects counted fill a place; but what makes living somewhere bearable or unbearable is most often not the objects but the speech that is spoken there. The table has put this last."

Yāsīn follows the same order, and this can be verified:

Verse	What is given	Kind
55	Occupation, ease	State
56	Shade, couch, spouses	Object and place
57	Fruit, everything called for	Object
58	*Salām*	Word

Yāsīn's table is far shorter than that of al-Wāqiʿa — four verses — but it ends in the same place. This is a countable overlap between the two sūras.

The source of the peace — a comparison of three places

In al-Wāqiʿa at 56/91 the sentence fa-salāmun laka min aṣḥābi'l-yamīn was treated, and three readings were tabulated there; I do not repeat them. One of the findings there was this: "the content of the recompense is not an object but a word."

What belongs here is the naming of the source. A comparison of three places:

Place	Expression	The source of the peace
al-Wāqiʿa 56/26	illā qīlan salāman salāmā	Not named — only the word heard
al-Wāqiʿa 56/91	fa-salāmun* laka min aṣḥābi'l-yamīn*	A group — the people of the right (on one reading)
Yāsīn 36/58	Salāmun qawlan min rabbin raḥīm	The Lord — named plainly

All three places can be verified. I record this as my own reading: al-Wāqiʿa gives the peace as an atmosphere — it is the only thing heard there. Yāsīn ties the peace to a source. The two sūras recount the same recompense from two different sides: one does not say where it comes from, the other does.

قَوْلًا — a dispute over the parsing

The word is in the accusative, and why it is in the accusative is disputed:

Explanation	Accusative as what	Meaning
1	*The strengthening of salām* with a verbal noun** (absolute object)	"Peace — and that as a real word"
2	A circumstantial accusative	"A peace in the form of a word"
3	The object of an elided verb (yuqālu qawlan)	"It is spoken to them as a word"

All three are transmitted; I do not impose a preference. The common point: the word stresses that the peace has been spoken.

My own reading: the sentence would have been intelligible without the word qawlan — salāmun min rabbin raḥīm would have sufficed. That it has been added announces separately that the peace is not a condition but an address. What is given, that is, is not a feeling of safety but a word that has been spoken.

مِّن رَّبٍّ رَّحِيمٍ — indefinite

A point of word order, and it is striking: rabbin and raḥīmin come indefinite — "from a Lord", "merciful". It could have been said definitely, mina'r-rabbi'r-raḥīm.

The lexicographers explain this use of the indefinite as taʿẓīm (exaltation): to leave the attribute indefinite makes it indescribable. I transmit it as a note.

A repetition inside the sūra: two occurrences of raḥīm

The form raḥīm of the root ر-ح-م occurs twice in the sūra, and both times at the end of a sentence:

Verse	Expression	What is given
5	tanzīla'l-ʿAzīzi'r-Raḥīm	The Book — what is sent down
58	salāmun qawlan min rabbin raḥīm	The peace — what is spoken

Both occurrences can be verified. I record this as my own reading: at the beginning of the sūra the name raḥīm is named as the source of a text, at the end as the source of a peace. Both are speech. The sūra uses the same name at the source of two different addresses — one that comes in this world, one that is given there.