أَلَمْ تَرَ أَنَّ ٱللَّهَ أَنزَلَ مِنَ ٱلسَّمَآءِ مَآءً فَسَلَكَهُۥ يَنَٰبِيعَ فِى ٱلْأَرْضِ ثُمَّ يُخْرِجُ بِهِۦ زَرْعًا مُّخْتَلِفًا أَلْوَٰنُهُۥ ثُمَّ يَهِيجُ فَتَرَىٰهُ مُصْفَرًّا ثُمَّ يَجْعَلُهُۥ حُطَٰمًا
"Have you not seen that God sends water down from the sky and drives it into springs in the earth, then brings forth with it crops of differing colours, then it dries and turns yellow, then He makes it broken chaff?"
The verse follows the path of the water from beginning to end and gives each stage with its own verb:
| Stage | Verb | What |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Anzala | He sent down — from the sky |
| 2 | Salaka | He drove it along — into the springs underground |
| 3 | Yukhriju | He brings forth — a crop of differing colours |
| 4 | Yahīju … muṣfarran | It dries, it turns yellow |
| 5 | Yajʿaluhū ḥuṭāmā | He makes it broken chaff |
سَلَكَ — root س-ل-ك: to put a thing into a path, to pass it through. The word describes the water's movement underground as a "driving along".
حُطَٰم — analysed in al-Wāqiʿa at 56/65 (a dry plant broken up and crumbled; the same root as al-ḥuṭama). I do not repeat it here.
| Place | How ḥuṭām comes |
|---|---|
| Al-Wāqiʿa 56/65 | Law nashāʾu la-jaʿalnāhu ḥuṭāmā — a disaster that could have happened but has not |
| Al-Zumar 39/21 | Thumma yajʿaluhū ḥuṭāmā — the last step of the ordinary cycle |
That is, the same word: in one sūra an interruption, in the other a completion. I record this as my own reading: in al-Zumar the withering is set out not as a punishment but as the process itself — and the verse ends this with dhikrā li-uli'l-albāb (a reminder for those who possess the kernel).