al-Dhāriyāt 51:26-27

Fa-rāgha ilā ahlihi fa-jāʾa bi-ʿijlin samīn · Fa-qarrabahu ilayhim; qāla a-lā taʾkulūn "Then he slipped away quietly to his household and brought a fatted calf. He put it near them and said, 'Will you not eat?'"

Root: ر-و-غ. And the choice of this word is one of the finest details of the narrative.

The sense the lexicographers record: to withdraw to one side secretly, without being noticed; to slip away by changing direction.

• رَاغَ الثَّعْلَبُ — the fox fled by changing direction (so as not to be caught). This is the example most often given for the word.
• مُرَاوَغَة — to avoid someone, to give him the slip; in wrestling, to turn and deceive an opponent.
• رَوَغَان — swerving to right and left.

The word does not say "he went". It could have said dhahaba (he went), qāma (he rose), kharaja (he went out). It says رَاغَ: quietly, unnoticed, with a change of direction.

And its counterpart in the etiquette of hospitality is plain. If a host says to his guest "I will prepare food for you", the guest is embarrassed and most often says "do not put yourself to trouble". Abraham does not say it. He goes out without announcing it.

The Qurʾān uses this word of Abraham in another place too — in the scene of the breaking of the idols: "Then he turned quietly to their gods" (al-Ṣāffāt 37/91) — fa-rāgha ilā ālihatihim. The same verb, the same silent movement, an entirely different outcome.

Setting the two uses side by side is instructive: the same man, with the same verb, withdraws quietly once to fetch food for his guest and once to break idols. The word itself carries no value; secrecy is a neutral manner.

I record this as an observation about the words.

عِجْل — a calf, a young bovine. Root ع-ج-ل; and the same root as tastaʿjilūn (to demand haste) in the fourteenth verse. The lexicographers connect the giving of this name to the calf with the haste and liveliness of youth; I ascribe this explanation to the lexicographers and do not present it as a settled etymology.

سَمِين — fat, well fed. Root س-م-ن; samn (clarified butter) is from the same root.

And the placing of the adjective is meaningful. The verse does not say "he brought a calf"; it says "a fatted calf".

The concrete counterpart of this is: in a herd not every animal is of the same value. The fat one is the most valuable — the last to come up for slaughter, or the one slaughtered for a special occasion. Abraham slaughters the best of the herd for three travellers he does not know.

And note the narrative's economy: the text does not say how much time passed, how the calf was slaughtered, who cooked it. It says only "he brought". The account in another sūra of the Qurʾān adds one detail: "without delay he brought a roasted calf" (Hūd 11/69) — fa-mā labitha an jāʾa bi-ʿijlin ḥanīdh. The qualification mā labitha (he did not delay) there agrees with the speed given here by the fāʾ particles.

Three fāʾ in a row: fa-rāgha, fa-jāʾa, fa-qarraba. As was recorded in the section on al-ʿĀdiyāt, the fāʾ of sequence establishes unbroken continuity. The scene flows without a pause: he withdrew — he brought — he set it near.

Root: ق-ر-ب. To be near. Qarraba (the tafʿīl form) — he brought near.

The verse does not say "he set it before them" (waḍaʿa), it says "he brought it near them". The difference between putting food on the table and pushing it in front of the guest.

And from the same root comes qurbān — what is offered in order to draw near to God. I do not build a connection between this branch of the word and the narrative; I record only that the root carries the idea of "offering".

And the turning point of the narrative.

Is the question an invitation or an observation? It may be either, and probably both at once: in Arabic a question opening with a-lā conveys both encouragement (ʿarḍ) and astonishment.

The account in another sūra of the Qurʾān fills the gap:

"When he saw that their hands did not reach out to it, he found them strange and conceived a fear of them." (Hūd 11/70) — fa-lammā raʾā aydiyahum lā taṣilu ilayhi nakirahum wa awjasa minhum khīfa.

What Abraham noticed, that is, is concrete: the hands do not reach out.

And the cultural weight of this has to be seen. In Arab tradition a guest's refusing the food is a grave sign: to eat is to establish a bond with the host. A person who refuses the food means that he does not wish to establish that bond — and this most often means hostility or a hidden purpose.

Abraham's fear, then, is not a groundless fear but a correct inference. Three strangers who do not reach out to the table are, in that culture, a sign of danger.

I record this as historical background; this side of the Arab tradition of hospitality appears widely in pre-Islamic poetry and in the later sources.