al-Aʿrāf 7:22

Fa-dallāhumā bi-ghurūr, fa-lammā dhāqā'sh-shajarata badat lahumā sawʾātuhumā wa ṭafiqā yakhṣifāni ʿalayhimā min waraqi'l-janna, wa nādāhumā rabbuhumā a-lam anhakumā ʿan tilkumā'sh-shajarati wa aqul lakumā inna'sh-shayṭāna lakumā ʿaduwwun mubīn

"So he lowered them down by deception. When they had tasted the tree, their shameful parts became apparent to them, and they set about patching over themselves with the leaves of the Garden. And their Lord called out to them: 'Did I not forbid you that tree, and say to you that Satan is an open enemy to you?'"

This is the most striking verb in al-Aʿrāf, and that the deception is told with this verb must be recorded separately.

The root د-ل-و was undone in full at 53/8 in al-Najm (thumma danā fa-tadallā). I rely on that treatment and do not undo the root again. A summary of what was recorded there:

• Dalw = bucket — the vessel tied to a rope and let down to draw water from a well; Yūsuf 12/19 (fa-adlā dalwahū) was given as evidence.
• Table of derivatives: adlā (Form IV, transitive — he let down) / tadallā (Form V, reflexive — he let himself down).
• The key image: "the bucket is let down into the well; what goes down goes down while remaining attached to what is above."
• The relation dalīl–dalāla ("evidence is the rope let down towards the unknown") was transmitted with a note of caution.

And at 2/188 in al-Baqara the same root occurred in the form wa tudlū bihā ila'l-ḥukkām — there, the letting down of property to a judge like a bucket. I rely on both places.

Now I write what belongs here.

The verb dallā is of Form II (فَعَّلَ) and is transitive: "he let them down".

Three patterns, one root: one lowers an object, one lowers itself, one lowers two people.

I record this as my own reading and it is not binding; its ground is the concrete sense of the root: the deception is told here not as "he tricked" or "he misled" but as he let them down. And the picture of the bucket carries three things at once:

The third line is especially worth recording, and it overlaps with the twentieth verse: Iblīs's promise was a promise of gain (to become angels, to become deathless). The bucket too does not go down empty; it goes down to take water. I give this as a reading, not as a certainty.

And a second sense recorded by the lexicographers is transmitted: the sense of tadliya as "to embolden someone, to egg him on". This is a transmitted view; the primary sense (to let down) is the more widespread and accords with the concrete sense of the root.

The concrete sense of the root: the surface of a thing, its outward look — and from this, to be taken in by the look of a thing. Ghurra is the bright white of the forehead, gharīr an inexperienced youth, ghurūr delusion.

The root was treated at 31/33 in Luqmān and at 35/5 in Fāṭir (wa lā yaghurrannakum bi'llāhi'l-gharūr); also at 57/20 in al-Ḥadīd (matāʿu'l-ghurūr). I rely on those treatments.

A point of word order: bi-ghurūr comes indefinite, and the bāʾ here states either instrument or state. Both readings are possible: "he let them down with a deception" or "they went down deluded". The first is the widespread one.

And the second occurrence of the same root in this sūra is in verse 51: wa gharrathumu'l-ḥayātu'd-dunyā — "the life of this world deluded them". I record this as an observation: the sūra uses the same verb both at the beginning of the story (Satan's deception) and in the scene of the gathering (the world's deception).

The verb ط-ف-ق is an auxiliary verb in the sense "to set about a thing, to begin" (one of the verbs of inception, afʿāl al-shurūʿ). In Arabic the predicate of such verbs comes in the imperfect — and here yakhṣifāni is imperfect.

The root خ-ص-ف: to add one thing to another, to patch. The lexicographers explain khaṣf as the verb used for the mending of shoes: khaṣafa'n-naʿl — "he patched the sandal, he stitched layer on layer."

And this sentence occurs in Ṭāhā as well. The two sūras can be compared:

The two sūras overlap word for word in this sentence. It was treated at 20/120-123 in Ṭāhā; I rely on that treatment.

What belongs here is this, and I give it as an observation: the verb is not "they covered" but "they set about patching". Leaf on leaf, layer on layer — that is, not a ready covering but a covering in the making. And in the twenty-sixth verse its opposite will come: qad anzalnā ʿalaykum libāsan — a covering sent down, ready made.

There are four verses between the two, and both describe the same act (covering oneself); but their sources differ. I record this as my own reading and it is not binding.

A point of word order must be recorded: God's word comes as a question, not as an accusation.

A-lam anhakumā ʿan tilkumā'sh-shajarati wa aqul lakumā inna'sh-shayṭāna lakumā ʿaduwwun mubīn

The question has two parts, and it recalls two different things:

The second part must be recorded: God recalls a word He had said earlier; but al-Aʿrāf had not told that word. The same warning occurs at 20/117 in Ṭāhā: yā Ādamu inna hādhā ʿaduwwun laka wa li-zawjika.

I record this as an observation, and the table can be verified from the two texts: al-Aʿrāf gives the warning Ṭāhā tells only in the form of a reminder. That is, the two sūras complete one another — and this is a countable datum about the way the Qurʾān tells its stories. The same phenomenon (different parts of the same story being given in different sūras) was tabulated in detail in Hūd and al-Shuʿarāʾ; I rely on those treatments.

And the demonstrative must be recorded: tilkumā'sh-shajarah — "that tree". In the nineteenth verse it was hādhihi'sh-shajarah ("this tree"). Hādhā points to what is near, dhālika/tilka to what is far.

I record this as my own reading, and its ground is the difference of the two demonstratives: when the prohibition was laid down the tree was near; when the reckoning is asked for it is named as having grown distant. This is an observation about the word order; I draw no further conclusion from it.