al-Aʿrāf 7:33

Qul innamā ḥarrama rabbiya'l-fawāḥisha mā ẓahara minhā wa mā baṭan, wa'l-ithma wa'l-baghya bi-ghayri'l-ḥaqq, wa an tushrikū bi'llāhi mā lam yunazzil bihī sulṭānan, wa an taqūlū ʿala'llāhi mā lā taʿlamūn

"Say: My Lord has forbidden only these: indecencies, open and hidden; sin; wrongful transgression; that you associate with God that for which He has sent down no warrant; and that you say about God what you do not know."

This verse gives a list, and per the method (Method) no legal ruling is built here. What I shall do is to work out how many items the list has and what those items are.

A point of word order must be recorded: the sentence begins with innamā — the particle of restriction (ḥaṣr) in Arabic: "He has forbidden only these."

The list has five items, and it falls into two groups:

The division of the two groups can be read off the word order and must be recorded: the first three items come as nouns (with the definite article: al-fawāḥish, al-ithm, al-baghy); the last two come with an + verb (an tushrikū, an taqūlū). That is, the first three are things, the last two are acts.

I record this as an observation, and its ground is the word order itself.

ف-ح-ش — treated at verse 28; I rely on that treatment.

أ-ث-م — ithm: the root carries the idea of "lagging behind, being late"; the lexicographers explain ithm as "an act that holds its doer back from good". The root was treated at 2/219 in al-Baqara (fīhimā ithmun kabīr), where the variant reading kabīr/kathīr was recorded. I rely on that treatment.

ب-غ-ي — baghy: the concrete sense of the root is "to exceed, to overflow"; a wound that festers is also said to baghā'l-jurḥ. From this comes the sense "to exceed the bound, to do wrong". And the same root occurs twice more in this sūra: at 45 and 86 (wa yabghūnahā ʿiwajā — "they seek to make it crooked").

And the qualification bi-ghayri'l-ḥaqq must be recorded. A point of word order: of the three items, a qualification is placed only on baghy. The lexicographers give two explanations of this:

Both are transmitted; I do not impose a preference.

The root س-ل-ط: to prevail, to have mastery. Sulṭān is generally used in the Qurʾān in the sense "proof, evidence, warrant" — because a proof is what gives mastery in a dispute.

And the same phrase will occur in this sūra in the seventy-first verse, in the mouth of Hūd: a-tujādilūnanī fī asmāʾin sammaytumūhā antum wa ābāʾukum mā nazzala'llāhu bihā min sulṭān.

I record this as an observation: the sūra applies in the seventy-first verse, in the mouth of a prophet, the measure it laid down in the thirty-third. The same technique was tabulated in Hūd Table 4; I rely on that treatment.

The last item of the list is word for word the same expression as the question in the twenty-eighth verse.

And its being placed last in the list must be recorded. I record this as my own reading and it is not binding; its ground is the arrangement of the three verses:

In the twenty-eighth verse the other side ascribed an indecency to God; in the thirty-second it ascribed a prohibition to God. The thirty-third verse makes that very act the last item of the list. That is, the list ends with an item that takes in the list itself: if "saying what is forbidden on God's authority" enters the list, then adding to the list falls under that item too.

This is an explanation, not a ruling. And I draw no legal conclusion from it.