وَفُرُشٍ مَّرْفُوعَةٍ
| Place | Word | What |
|---|---|---|
| Al-Baqara 2/22 | al-arḍa firāshan | The earth, a bed spread for man |
| Al-Qāriʿa 101/4 | ka'l-farāshi'l-mabthūth | People, moths scattered abroad |
| Al-Wāqiʿa 56/34 | furush marfūʿa | Couches raised high |
Three occurrences, three separate tasks of the same root: the ground that is spread, the creature that is scattered, the couch that is raised.
There are two readings in the classical exegeses of what this verse describes, and the disagreement must not be concealed:
| Reading | What furush is | Ground |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Couches — the rugs spread in a gathering | This is the lexical sense of the word; and the six preceding elements are objects too |
| 2 | Spouses — figuratively | It is transmitted that in Arabic the word firāsh is used for a spouse; and the problem of the referent of the pronoun hunna in the next verse supports this reading |
The main ground of the second reading is not lexical but syntactic. The thirty-fifth verse begins: innā anshaʾnāhunna — "We brought them into being". Hunna is a feminine plural pronoun, and its nearest referent is furush.
The answer of those who maintain the first reading is transmitted too: the referent of the pronoun may be the ḥūrun ʿīn mentioned earlier (verse 22), or a group understood from the context and not named in the wording.
I make no choice in this disagreement. Both readings are found in the classical exegeses and both are within the bounds the grammar allows.
This much I can record: the attribute marfūʿa sits more easily with the first reading (a raised couch, heaped up or spread on high divans), whereas on the second reading the attribute must be explained figuratively as "high in worth". This is an observation, not a preference.
To raise, to lift. The concrete sense is to take a thing up from the ground; from this arises the sense of raising in rank.
A link within the sūra: in the third verse khāfiḍatun rāfiʿa occurred — "abasing, exalting". As the work of the resurrection. The root now returns as an attribute of couches.
This is a verifiable repetition. I give the meaning that may be drawn from it as my own reading: in the third verse raising was a work of judgement; here what has been raised is an object in the place arrived at as a result of that judgement. The sūra thus uses the same root both for the operation and for its outcome.