al-Wāqiʿa 56:83-87

Fa-lawlā idhā balaghati'l-ḥulqūm · Wa antum ḥīnaʾidhin tanẓurūn · Wa naḥnu aqrabu ilayhi minkum wa lākin lā tubṣirūn · Fa-lawlā in kuntum ghayra madīnīn · Tarjiʿūnahā in kuntum ṣādiqīn

"Then when it reaches the throat — and you at that moment are looking on, and We are nearer to him than you are, but you do not see — then, if you are not to be called to account, and if you are truthful, why do you not bring it back?"

Grammatically these five verses are a single conditional sentence, and their word order is a striking example in the Qurʾān.

The verb of the sentence that begins "then why do you not…" is deferred, that is, for four verses.

I record as my own reading: the deferring itself builds the scene. While the moment of death is being described the sentence too hangs unfinished; the two interposed clauses (you are looking on / We are nearer) fill exactly the moment in which the waiting continues. The completion of the sentence waits, just as in the scene, upon something not in one's hands.

Balaghat — "it reached", feminine. But what reaches is not said.

In Arabic this is called ḥadhf and here it is deliberate: the omitted subject, as the lexicographers agree, is al-rūḥ or al-nafs (both counted feminine).

I record this as a point of word order: the verse does not say the name of what departs. And its not saying so accords with the scene itself: what goes is not seen by those who remain. In a sūra of ninety-six verses, at the place where death is described most closely, the name of what dies is not given.

The root ح-ل-ق. Ḥulqūm — by the lexicographers' description, the passage of the throat through which the breath goes.

The choice of word is anatomical and worth recording: the verse does not say "when death comes", it names a point in the body. And that point is where voice and breath pass — that is, where speech is cut off.

At al-Qiyāma 75/26 the same moment is described with another word: kallā idhā balaghati'l-tarāqī — "when it reaches the collarbones". That verse was treated in al-Qiyāma; the two verses describe the same moment by two different points of the body.

Two different verbs are used in two verses, and they are not synonyms:

The lexicographers record this distinction: naẓar is a movement of the eye, baṣar the understanding of what is seen. It is close to the English difference between looking and seeing.

The verse sets these two verbs against one another: antum ḥīnaʾidhin tanẓurūn (you are looking) … wa lākin lā tubṣirūn (but you do not see).

This is one of the densest points of word order in the sūra and is entirely verifiable from the text: those at the bedside are looking; and for all their looking they do not see what is happening. The distance between the two verbs is the distance between where the people in the scene stand and what is taking place.

The clause frames a comparison: the distance between those at the deathbed and the dying man is taken as a measure.

A similar expression occurs at Qāf 50/16 — wa naḥnu aqrabu ilayhi min ḥabli'l-warīd — and was treated in Qāf. The wa huwa maʿakum ayna mā kuntum of al-Ḥadīd 57/4 was likewise treated in al-Ḥadīd, and the necessary note was entered there. I enter the same note here:

This expression conveys no bodily nearness. In the classical exegeses verses of this kind are explained as nearness in respect of knowledge, power and disposal; ascribing place to God runs against tanzīh. This is a scruple consistently preserved in the series.

Another explanation is transmitted too: that those who are near are the angels appointed to the task and that the verb's coming with a plural pronoun (naḥnu) includes this. I relay both explanations and impose no preference.

Madīnīn — root د-ي-ن. A passive participle: called to account, requited, held in debt.

The root was analysed in al-Fātiḥa (māliki yawmi'd-dīn) and occurred in the fifty-sixth verse of this sūra (yawma'd-dīn). I do not repeat it.

The same root within the sūra, once as a scene and once as a claim.

And the answer comes at last: "bring it back."

The pronoun is feminine: tarjiʿūnahā — that is, the thing whose name was not spoken in the eighty-third verse. What has gone unnamed for four verses is pointed to at the end by a pronoun alone.

The moment chosen for the challenge is worth recording: the verse does not say to the hearer "create the heavens" or "raise the dead". It asks something less: hold back what has not yet gone. The soul is still in the throat; the body is there; everyone is standing round.

I give this as my own reading: the proof chooses the moment at which man looks most as though he could intervene. And because nothing at all can be done at exactly that point, the force of the proof comes from there.

And this is the continuation of the same logic as the four proofs in the second block:

Four proofs were at the beginning of life and in the middle of it; the fifth is at its end.