قَالَ ٱخْرُجْ مِنْهَا مَذْءُومًا مَّدْحُورًا لَّمَن تَبِعَكَ مِنْهُمْ لَأَمْلَأَنَّ جَهَنَّمَ مِنكُمْ أَجْمَعِينَ
"He said: 'Go out from it, despised and driven away! Whoever of them follows you — I shall surely fill Hell with the whole lot of you.'"
Both words are on the pattern of the passive participle (مَفْعُول) — that is, both state "the one to whom it is done", not "the one who does".
| Word | Root | Concrete sense |
|---|---|---|
| مَذْءُوم | ذ-ء-م | Faulted, despised — the root carries "to name a thing's defect" |
| مَّدْحُور | د-ح-ر | Pushed off and driven away, expelled |
The root د-ح-ر: to push, to drive off, to send away. The root was treated at 37/9 in al-Ṣāffāt (duḥūran) — there the driving off of those who would eavesdrop on heaven was described. I rely on that treatment.
The root ذ-ء-م occurs in this index here for the first time, and it is found only in this verse in the Qurʾān. The lexicographers explain dhaʾama as "to fault, to find defective" and record its kinship with the word dhamm (blame). This kinship is a relation drawn by the lexicographers; I do not give it as a settled etymological ruling.
A point of word order must be recorded: both words stand in the position of a circumstantial accusative (ḥāl), and there is no conjunction between them. Madhʾūman madḥūrā — "despised, driven away." Sequence without a conjunction shows in Arabic that the two attributes join into a single state.
And the order of the two words is worth recording: first being despised (loss of worth), then being driven away (loss of place). I give this as my own reading: the command to leave had already been given in the thirteenth verse (fa'khruj); as it is repeated here, two attributes are added to it. That is, the second command to leave specifies the character of the first.
This sentence occurs in four places in the Qurʾān, and it was treated at 38/85 in Ṣād. I rely on that treatment.
| Place | Sentence |
|---|---|
| al-Aʿrāf 7/18 | La-amlaʾanna jahannama minkum ajmaʿīn |
| Hūd 11/119 | La-amlaʾanna jahannama mina'l-jinnati wa'n-nāsi ajmaʿīn (Hūd) |
| Ṣād 38/85 | La-amlaʾanna jahannama minka wa mimman tabiʿaka minhum ajmaʿīn |
| al-Sajda 32/13 | La-amlaʾanna jahannama mina'l-jinnati wa'n-nāsi ajmaʿīn (al-Sajda) |
The difference of al-Aʿrāf is in the pronoun: minkum — plural, "of you". In Ṣād the two parts were counted separately, minka wa mimman tabiʿaka (of you and of those who follow you); al-Aʿrāf gathers both into a single pronoun.
And the construction of the sentence must be recorded: la-man tabiʿaka minhum is a conditional clause, and its answer is directly the announcement of Hell. That is, the judgement is tied not to Iblīs but to those who follow him. The same note was entered in Ṣād — there the link of the root ت-ب-ع between 38/26 and 38/85 was established. I rely on that treatment.
What belongs here is this: in al-Aʿrāf the same root (ت-ب-ع) occurred in the third verse as a command — ittabiʿū mā unzila ilaykum / wa lā tattabiʿū min dūnihī awliyāʾ. The eighteenth verse states what answers to that prohibition: la-man tabiʿaka minhum. The sūra brings its own command to its conclusion fifteen verses later. This is a link that can be verified from the text.