عَلَّمَهُۥ شَدِيدُ ٱلْقُوَىٰ · ذُو مِرَّةٍ فَٱسْتَوَىٰ · وَهُوَ بِٱلْأُفُقِ ٱلْأَعْلَىٰ
ʿAllamahu shadīdu'l-quwā · Dhū mirratin fa'stawā · Wa huwa bi'l-ufuqi'l-aʿlā "He was taught by one of mighty powers. One of firm build. And he stood erect; and he was on the highest horizon."
The choice of the verb matters. The fourth verse had said "is revealed"; the fifth says "taught". The two verbs name the same event from two different places:
| Verb | What it looks at |
|---|---|
| يُوحَىٰ (4) | The manner of communication — swift, hidden, without intermediary |
| عَلَّمَ (5) | The nature of the content — what is conveyed is knowledge |
Waḥy is the name of a channel; taʿlīm is a claim about content. By setting the two side by side the verse says: what comes is not a breath, a rapture, a state — it is something taught. And what can be taught is by definition determinate, transmissible and repeatable.
This is the Qurʾān's general language about itself: as was treated in the section al-ʿAlaq, in the first verses to come down the verb is ʿallama too — "He taught by the pen, He taught man what he did not know" (al-ʿAlaq 96/4-5). Here the sūra applies that root to the messenger himself.
شَدِيد — root ش-د-د. Concrete sense: to bind tight, to draw taut. Shadda — he pulled the bond tight; shidda — tightness, hardness. For a thing to be shadīd in Arabic is for its slackening to be impossible.
And its being plural is a nicety of word order. It could have said shadīdu'l-quwwa (of mighty power). It says quwā — powers.
In Arabic, when the second element of an adjectival construction comes in the plural, it conveys that the quality is present in more than one field. Not a single power, then, but kinds of power. The difference between a being's being strong in one respect and its being strong in every respect.
In the classical commentaries it is widely said that this construction describes Gabriel (Jibrīl), and as evidence the Qurʾān's description in another place is adduced:
"It is the word of a noble messenger, possessed of power (dhī quwwatin), of high standing with the Owner of the Throne, obeyed there, trustworthy." (al-Takwīr 81/19-21)
These verses were treated in detail in the section al-Takwīr, and it was presented there that the carrier being an angel is an inference grounded in the context; it was recorded explicitly that the verse gives no name. The same reserve holds here.
- مَرَّ — it passed by. Marra — once, one time (a passing).
- مِرَّة — the sense the lexicographers give: firmness, strong build, durability. The root is said to be connected with the idea of "twisted rope": إِمْرَار — to twist a rope tightly. A twisted rope is many times stronger than a single strand.
- مَرِير — a tightly twisted rope; and مُرّ — bitter.
| View | What mirra means | Its ground |
|---|---|---|
| Firm build, strength, durability | Tight like a twisted rope; firmness both physical and inward | The imrār (rope-twisting) sense of the root; and its agreement with the shadīdu'l-quwā of verse 5 |
| Fine appearance, well-formed creation | Stature, bearing | A usage transmitted by some lexicographers |
| Intelligence, sound judgement | Firmness of view | The explanation "possessed of intelligence" is transmitted for "dhū mirratin" |
All three explanations are in the sources and they do not exclude one another. The common core is: firmness. Firmness in the body is strength, firmness in appearance is comeliness, firmness in the mind is sound judgement. In whatever field the word is used, it names the firmness of that field.
I make no choice. But there is something in the context that can be recorded: this construction completes the shadīdu'l-quwā immediately before it. One is power, the other firmness. And the two are not the same — power is being able to do, firmness is being able to remain uncorrupted. The second quality sought in the carrier of a message is exactly the ability to carry it without corruption.
Root: س-و-ي. Concrete sense: to be straight, to be equal, to be even. Sawāʾ — equality; sawī — even; taswiya — to level.
ٱسْتَوَىٰ — Form X. This verb occurs in the Qurʾān in several different contexts and its sense changes with the context:
The usage here — fa'stawā, followed by wa huwa bi'l-ufuqi'l-aʿlā — conveys a taking up of position: he stood up, he straightened, he took his place.
The verb's being joined with fāʾ (fa-istawā) sets up an order: the qualities were counted, then a movement came. The verse says who he is first, and then what he did.
أُفُق — root أ-ف-ق. The horizon: the visible boundary line where the sky meets the earth. Its plural is āfāq, and the Qurʾān uses that plural: "We shall show them Our signs on the horizons and in themselves" (Fuṣṣilat 41/53).
This verse and this word were already compared in the section al-Takwīr. There, in treating al-Takwīr 81/23 (wa laqad raʾāhu bi'l-ufuqi'l-mubīn — "and he saw him on the clear horizon"), reference was made to this verse and this was recorded:
The same word: الأفق. And in the same context: an act of seeing, and a teaching. The two sūras look at the same event. al-Takwīr says al-ufuqi'l-mubīn (the clear horizon), al-Najm al-ufuqi'l-aʿlā (the highest horizon).
| al-Takwīr 81/23 | al-Najm 53/7 | |
|---|---|---|
| Adjective | مُبِين — clear, distinguishing | ٱلْأَعْلَىٰ — highest |
| What it looks at | Visibility — it was clearly seen | Position — where it stood |
al-Takwīr states the quality of the seeing: not blurred. al-Najm states the place of what was seen: above.
And this completes the line of direction established in the first three verses. In the first verse a body had fallen (hawā); in the third hawā was refused; in the seventh the position of the source is given: the highest horizon.
ٱلْأَعْلَىٰ is an elative: "higher / highest". This pattern was treated in detail in the section al-Aʿlā; it was shown there that the whole weave of that sūra rests on the elative. The same word comes here as an adjective of place.