أَعَدَّ ٱللَّهُ لَهُمْ عَذَابًا شَدِيدًا إِنَّهُمْ سَآءَ مَا كَانُوا۟ يَعْمَلُونَ • ٱتَّخَذُوٓا۟ أَيْمَٰنَهُمْ جُنَّةً فَصَدُّوا۟ عَن سَبِيلِ ٱللَّهِ فَلَهُمْ عَذَابٌ مُّهِينٌ
Aʿadda'llāhu lahum ʿadhāban shadīdā, innahum sāʾa mā kānū yaʿmalūn • Ittakhadhū aymānahum junnatan fa-ṣaddū ʿan sabīli'llāh, fa-lahum ʿadhābun muhīn
"God has prepared for them a severe punishment. How evil is what they do! • They have taken their oaths as a shield and have turned people away from the path of God. For them there is a humiliating punishment."
Root: ي-م-ن. This root covers several things at once in Arabic, and all of them are connected to one another:
- يَمِين (yamīn) — the right hand.
- يَمِين (yamīn) — an oath, a sworn word.
- يُمْن (yumn) — blessing, good fortune (from the right side's being counted fortunate).
- يَمَن — Yemen; the region lying to the right with respect to the Kaʿba.
What is the link between the oath and the right hand? The classical explanation is this: in swearing, the right hand was extended and hands were clasped. An oath is a word sealed with a movement of the hand.
That is, at the origin of the word there is a bodily movement. This says what an oath is: the word alone was not seen as sufficient; a bodily sign was added to it. Words fly away; what has been shaken on remains.
أَيْمَٰن as a plural means "oaths" here; but the word's sense of the right hand stands in the background too, and gives the sentence an interesting flavour: they have made their oaths — that is, the hands that seal their words — into a shield.
Root: ج-ن-ن. The wealth of derivatives of this root in Arabic is striking, and all of them meet in a single idea: to cover, to hide, to make invisible.
| Word | Its meaning | What it covers |
|---|---|---|
| جِنّ (jinn) | An unseen being | Itself, from sight |
| جَنَّة (janna) | A garden | The trees cover the ground |
| جَنِين (janīn) | The child in the womb | The womb covers it |
| مَجْنُون (majnūn) | A person whose reason is covered | The reason is covered |
| جُنَّة (junna) | A shield | It covers the one who carries it |
| جَنَّ ٱلَّيْلُ | Night fell | The dark covers everything |
This root was touched on in Sūrat al-Jinn. What is to be added here is the place of junna in this family: a shield does not make its bearer invisible but makes him unreachable. It comes in between.
And the metaphor sits exactly right: an oath is normally something that strengthens a word. Here it has become an obstacle set in between. The man swears, and the other side cannot question him — because an oath closes off questioning. The social function of the oath (to confirm a word) has been inverted and turned into an instrument of defence.
This image is repeated almost word for word in Sūrat al-Munāfiqūn: "They have taken their oaths as a shield and have turned people away from the path of God" (al-Munāfiqūn 63/2). The two sūras use the same sentence. This shows that the behaviour described is not a single event but a recognised pattern.
صَدَّ — Root: ص-د-د. To turn, to hold back, to turn away. The verb can be used both intransitively (he himself turned away) and transitively (he turned another away); here the context indicates the second.
The letter فَ (fāʾ) conveys consequence: they took their oaths as a shield, and as a result of this they turned people from the path.
That is, the obstruction is the direct consequence of the shield. How? Because the person who has become untouchable stays within the community and works from the inside. Without the shield his position would be known and his effect limited.
This adjective occurs for the second time in the sūra (the first at 58/5). And the two occurrences bind the sūra's two groups to one another: those who stand openly on the opposite side (5) and those who stand secretly on the opposite side (16). Punishment is promised to both with the same adjective.
This is the preparation for the two-sides table that will be established in the second half of the sūra: the sūra places open opposition and hidden opposition in the same category.