al-Ḥadīd 57:28

Yā ayyuha'lladhīna āmanu'ttaqu'llāha wa āminū bi-rasūlih, yuʾtikum kiflayni min raḥmatihi wa yajʿal lakum nūran tamshūna bihi wa yaghfir lakum; wa'llāhu ghafūrun raḥīm "You who believe! Guard yourselves against God and believe in His messenger, and He will give you a double share of His mercy, and give you a light by which you will walk, and forgive you. God is forgiving, merciful."

The address of the verse is يَٰٓأَيُّهَا ٱلَّذِينَ ءَامَنُوا۟ — "you who believe."

And immediately afterwards they are asked to believe: wa āminū bi-rasūlih. That those who believe should be told "believe" raises a question.

There are two readings:

The first reading is strong in terms of context, because the verse has spoken of the People of the Book in the preceding verse and will address them directly in the next (29). Moreover the expression "a double share" stands as a natural return for a person who believes in two prophets at once.

The second reading has also been defended, and there are other instances in the Qurʾān of believers being told "believe".

I impose no preference; both are found in the sources.

Root: ك-ف-ل: to stand surety, to take on; and a portion, a share of a thing.

كفل (kifl) is used in Arabic in several senses: a share, a portion; and the folded cloth placed on a camel's back behind the rider so that he does not fall.

This second concrete sense is interesting: a kifl is something folded. From this comes the sense "fold, multiple".

The Qurʾān uses the word in one other place: "Whoever intercedes in an evil cause has a share (kifl) of it" (al-Nisāʾ 4/85). There the sense is "share".

What the "double" is double of is not said in the verse. There are two readings: the reward of the earlier faith plus the reward of the new; or, generally, an expression of multiplicity in the sense of "many times over".

On this subject a hadith is transmitted that speaks of people who will receive a reward twice over. It is stated that the report stands in the sound hadith collections; but since I cannot give its wording and its source with certainty I give no detail and do not make it a ground of the commentary.

The light-texture of the sūra is completed here.

Let us put the five occurrences in order:

And in the last occurrence there is a new element: walking.

In the first four occurrences light was a state or a recompense. Here it is an instrument: tamshūna bihi — "you will walk by it."

This states the function of the light. Light is given not because it is beautiful but so that one may walk.

And this coincides exactly with the finding recorded at al-Baqara 2/17-20. There the common conclusion of the two similitudes was set down thus:

Both pictures are built on movement: in the first the movement has stopped entirely ("they do not return"), in the second it is intermittent. … The one thing in a human being's hand is to walk when the light comes.

Al-Ḥadīd 57/28 is the positive counterpart of that sentence: the light is given and one walks.

In al-Baqara the man whose light was taken stood in the darkness; the man in the storm walked when the lightning flashed and stood still in the dark. Here the light is continuous and the walking unbroken.

The order of the فِعْل (verbs) is meaningful as well: two things are asked for before the light is given — taqwā and faith. That is, the light is not the reward of the walking; it is its condition. First the turning, then the light, then the walking.

Root: و-ق-ي: to protect, to guard oneself, to be on one's guard. Its concrete sense is to set a barrier before a thing; a wiqāya is a protective covering.

The full analysis of the word was made in the sections on al-Fātiḥa and al-Baqara; I do not repeat it here.

The order in the verse is striking: first taqwā, then faith. One would usually expect the reverse order.

This may be seen as an element supporting the first reading (that the addressee is the People of the Book): people who already carry a sense of responsibility are being asked to keep up that sense and to take one further step.