al-Zukhruf 43:68-70

Yā ʿibādi lā khawfun ʿalaykumu'l-yawma wa lā antum taḥzanūn · Alladhīna āmanū bi-āyātinā wa kānū muslimīn · Udkhulu'l-jannata antum wa azwājukum tuḥbarūn

"My servants! Today there is no fear upon you, nor shall you grieve. They who believed in Our signs and had surrendered. Enter the Garden — you and your spouses — and be gladdened."

The address is direct: yā ʿibādi — "my servants".

And the word completes the sūra's ع-ب-د pattern:

Six occurrences, one root. This is a verifiable datum of the text.

And I add as an observation: throughout the sūra the word "servant" was argued about as a position — are the angels servants, is the son of Mary a servant. In the sixty-eighth verse the same word comes as an address, and this time it turns to the one addressed.

This construction occurs in many places in the Qurʾān and was treated in al-Aḥqāf at 46/13. I repeat the finding there:

"This construction closes off both directions of time: khawf belongs to the future, ḥuzn to the past. That is, neither what waits ahead nor what is left behind."

I add here a note particular to this sūra: the expression comes here with the qualification al-yawm (today). A time, that is, is specified. In al-Aḥqāf there was no such qualification.

In the sixty-ninth verse two verbs stand side by side, and their forms differ:

In Arabic the structure kāna + noun conveys continuity.

I record this as an observation about grammar and link it with al-Aḥqāf 46/13: there was qālū rabbuna'llāhu thumma'staqāmū, and this was recorded: "between the saying and the standing straight there is a span of time: saying happens in a moment, standing straight goes on."

The same structure is built here by another route: āmanū (once) and kānū muslimīn (continuing).

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

The lexicographers record several branches of the root, and all of them meet at one point:

• حَبْر / حِبْر — ink; and a fine trace, an adornment. Ḥibr — the beautiful mark a thing leaves.
• حَبْر — a scholar, a learned man (particularly of the People of the Book: aḥbār). The lexicographers connect this with "one who leaves a fine mark, who leaves a trace".
• حَبَرَهُ — he gladdened him, adorned him, made him fair.
• حَبْرَة / حُبُور — joy; and the trace joy leaves on the face.

The shared core: the fine trace that remains upon a thing.

And the pattern of the word in this verse is passive: tuḥbarūn — "you will be gladdened, you will be honoured".

I record this as my own reading, and its ground is the root's core of "trace" and the passive pattern: the word does not merely say "joy". It conveys joy's becoming visible, its showing on the face.

And it sets up a contrast within the sūra — this is a verifiable datum of the text:

In the seventeenth verse a face darkened at good news. In the seventieth, joy comes down on a face at a call.

The same root occurs in al-Rūm 30/15: fa-hum fī rawḍatin yuḥbarūn.

This verse was already cited in al-Wāqiʿa, and this was recorded there:

"Across the Qurʾān as a whole it is stated plainly that recompense is not divided by sex — al-Naḥl 16/97… There are also places in the descriptions of the Garden where spouses are named together: Yā-Sīn 36/56, al-Zukhruf 43/70 (udkhulu'l-jannata antum wa azwājukum tuḥbarūn), Ghāfir 40/8."

I rely on that treatment and add here what is particular to al-Zukhruf.

In the discussion of al-Wāqiʿa a note was entered on the language of the descriptions of the Garden, and I keep the same note here: how much of the descriptions is literal and how much figurative has been debated in the classical commentaries, and no preference was imposed there; I impose none here either.

What is particular to al-Zukhruf is this, and it is visible at the level of arrangement:

The imperative sentence begins with udkhulū (enter), and then the ones addressed are enumerated under two heads: antum wa azwājukum.

The pronoun antum is grammatically unnecessary — since udkhulū is already a plural imperative and contains its subject. Setting the pronoun down separately is for emphasis in Arabic, and here it has a task: so that wa azwājukum can be added.

The sentence, that is, names the first party separately in order to be able to add the second.

I record this as an observation about the arrangement.

The word azwāj occurred in the twelfth verse as al-azwāja kullahā (all the pairs). The same root at two different scales: in one place the pairedness of creation, in the other a person's spouse.

And the exegetes differ over the extent of the word azwāj here:

All three are transmitted; I do not impose a preference.