al-Dukhān 44:58

Fa-innamā yassarnāhu bi-lisānika laʿallahum yatadhakkarūn

"We have made it easy only in your tongue — that they may perhaps take heed."

The fāʾ at the head attaches to the whole sūra. After what has been told across fifty-seven verses, a sentence of conclusion is built.

And innamā is the particle of restriction: "only, nothing but".

I record an observation as to what is restricted: the sentence does not say "We made it easy"; it says "We made it easy only in your tongue". What is restricted is the instrument of the making easy.

The root was treated in many sections — as recorded in al-Qamar: al-Inshirāḥ, al-Layl, al-Aʿlā, al-Inshiqāq, al-Muzzammil, ʿAbasa, al-Dhāriyāt. Its concrete sense: ease, suitability, being doable without strain.

And this verse was already cited in al-Qamar:

"The Qurʾān uses the same verb of itself once more: 'We have made it easy in your tongue' (al-Dukhān 44/58; Maryam 19/97 — fa-innamā yassarnāhu bi-lisānika)."

And this was recorded in al-Qamar about the pattern:

"The verb is in the Form II (tafʿīl) pattern: yassara. What this form carries here is transitivising and gradation: to make a thing easy. It does not mean that the Qurʾān was not easy and was made easy afterwards; it means that it was given as something easy."

I do not repeat it. Now I compare the two sūras — this shows the difference sought.

The two verses use the same verb and say two separate things.

al-Qamar gives the purpose of the ease: li'dh-dhikr — for remembrance. This was recorded in al-Qamar: "The verse does not only say 'We made the Qurʾān easy'; it says 'We made it easy للذِّكْرِ'. The ease, that is, has been given for a particular work."

al-Dukhān gives the instrument of the ease: bi-lisānika — in your tongue.

I present this as my own reading, and its ground is the work of the two particles: the one says why the ease is, the other how it is provided. And together the two complete each other: the text is easy because it is given in a language, and that ease is for the sake of remembrance.

And the difference in the sentences that follow completes this too. al-Qamar asks a question (fa-hal min muddakir — "is there any who will take heed?"); al-Dukhān reports a hope (laʿallahum yatadhakkarūn). Both sentences are from the root ذ-ك-ر.

One further record: the same expression occurs at Maryam 19/97 as well (fa-innamā yassarnāhu bi-lisānika) — almost identical with the sentence in al-Dukhān. I give this as a record of wording.

لِسَان — the tongue (the organ) and the tongue (a spoken language). In Arabic the same word covers both; and the Qurʾān often uses this word in the sense of a language.

Two readings are transmitted as to what the phrase says:

The two readings do not exclude one another and both are transmitted in the classical commentaries. I do not impose a preference.

And one record: the chain with the second verse of the sūra closes.

The sūra, that is, opened by swearing by the Book and closes by saying how the Book was given.

I record this as a verifiable chain within the sūra. And a note on the referent of the pronoun (-hu): the most widespread reading refers it to the Qurʾān; this link is supported by the second verse of the sūra as well.

This link was recorded above (at verse 13) and is completed here:

The same root, two opposite moods, at the two ends of the sūra.

And it is no contradiction — I give this as my own reading: the thirteenth verse spoke of the moment inside the punishment, the fifty-eighth of the time before it. The sūra, that is, says at which time the possibility of taking heed stands open.

And the verb is in Form VIII: tadhakkara — to make remembering one's own business, to take it upon oneself.

A record about the particle laʿalla: in Arabic this particle means "it may be hoped that", and when it is used of God the majority of the lexicographers explain it from the addressee's side: the hope reports the position of the addressee — the door is open.