al-Maʿārij 70:1-3

Saʾala sāʾilun bi-ʿadhābin wāqiʿ · Li'l-kāfirīna laysa lahū dāfiʿ · Mina'llāhi dhi'l-maʿārij "An asker asked about a punishment that will fall — for the disbelievers, and none can ward it off. It comes from God, the Lord of the ways of ascent."

The sentence is itself a structure of repetition: the verb and its subject come from the same root (saʾala sāʾilun). In Arabic this is called ishtiqāq, and it conveys emphasis.

And note: the subject is indefinite — sāʾilun, "an asker". He is not named, and we are not told who he is.

This is a stance the sūra establishes from the outset: the one who asks is not made a person. As recorded in the sections on al-Qāriʿa and al-Māʿūn, indefiniteness conveys either magnification or generalisation. Here generalisation seems the better fit: the question is not one man's question but the question of an attitude.

The most disputed point in the sentence is that the verb saʾala comes with bāʾ. In Arabic saʾala normally comes with the particle ʿan (saʾala ʿanhu — he asked about it) or takes two objects directly. Its coming with bāʾ requires explanation.

There are three readings:

The third reading is a matter of variant readings. That it was read without the hamza is recorded in the sources. Since I cannot say with certainty which reading belongs to which imām, I give no names.

Between the first two readings there is a practical difference, and that difference sets the tone of the verse:

• On the first reading the question is mockery: "so where is this punishment?"
• On the second the question is a challenge: "bring it on and let us see."

Both are attitudes the Qurʾān records. And both come out in the same place: the question is not asked in order to get an answer.

Several views are transmitted on this in the classical sources, and all of them are of the nature of an inference, since the verse gives no name.

The strongest indication within the Qurʾān is this, and most of the reports transmitted rest on it:

"And when they said: 'O God! If this is the truth from You, then rain down stones upon us from the sky, or bring us a painful punishment.'" (al-Anfāl 8/32)

This verse records exactly the attitude al-Maʿārij 70/1 describes: demanding the punishment itself. And it supports the "demand" reading of the bāʾ.

But I do not claim that the verse of al-Anfāl is the occasion of revelation of this sūra. What I record is that the two verses describe the same attitude. The personal names given in the reports I do not transmit, for the same reason set down in the sections on al-Māʿūn and al-Humaza: the names do not agree with one another, and this suggests that they are answers given after the event to the question "who was meant?"

And the measure of the tradition of legal theory applies here too: al-ʿibratu bi-ʿumūmi'l-lafẓ lā bi-khuṣūṣi's-sabab — the ruling follows the generality of the wording.

Root: و-ق-ع. To fall, to occur, to come to pass. The concrete sense of the root is falling.

And this word links up with the fifteenth verse of the preceding sūra:

Al-Ḥāqqa announced in the perfect tense that the event had occurred; al-Maʿārij uses the same root as an active participle.

And the difference is meaningful. In al-Ḥāqqa the scene had been set: the event had happened. In al-Maʿārij there is something that has not yet happened but is happening. The active participle conveys continuity and nearness.

So in the very first verse of the sūra, the answer to the question stands inside the word: the man asks "when?"; the verse names the punishment "that which is occurring".

I record this as my own reading. The root and the patterns of the two words are data that can be verified.

And this too should be recorded: ٱلْوَاقِعَة is the name of the 56th sūra of the Qurʾān and one of the names of the resurrection. In the table of names for the resurrection in the section on al-Qāriʿa, the aspect it was noted to bring forward was recorded thus: the inevitability of its occurring.

This verse is the first answer to the question — and the answer is not what the question asked.

The man asked "when?". The verse answers "to whom" and "it cannot be warded off".

That is, the sūra passes over the time part of the question and gives two other pieces of information: the addressee and the inevitability.

This is not an evasion but a reframing. Inside the question there is a hidden assumption: "if it is not coming, it will never come." The verse takes aim at that assumption.

لِّلْكَٰفِرِينَ — the lām conveys entitlement (istiḥqāq): "for the disbelievers", that is, reserved for them. The definite article is there too: not a particular group, but everyone who bears that attribute.

دَافِع — Root: د-ف-ع. Dafaʿa — to push, to drive away, to ward off. Mudāfaʿa and dafʿ are from the same root. دَافِع is the active participle: the one who would ward it off.

And the structure laysa lahū dāfiʿ does something like the "closing both doors" method recorded in the section on al-Ṭāriq — but in a single word: no one can ward off the punishment. Neither he himself nor anyone else.

The third verse gives the source of the answer — and the name of the sūra stands here.

The particle مِّنَ conveys a point of origin: the punishment comes from there.

Root: ع-ر-ج. The primary sense of the root is to rise, to go up; to climb by a sloping path.

Its derivatives show the field of the root:

• عَرَجَ — he went up. "Then it ascends to Him in a day" (al-Sajda 32/5); "a ladder into the sky" (al-Anʿām 6/35 — sullaman fi's-samāʾ).
• مِعْرَاج — a ladder, a means of going up. Its plural is مَعَارِج.
• مَعَارِج — occurs once more in the Qurʾān, and there in its concrete sense: "…and for their houses roofs of silver and stairways by which to go up" (al-Zukhruf 43/33).
• أَعْرَج — lame. An interesting branch of the root: a lame person, having one leg shorter, moves up and down as he walks; his step is not level but sloped.

Note the last item. At the core of the root there is unevenness, slope. A ladder is sloped; a ramp is sloped; the gait of a lame man is sloped. In this Arabic root, to ascend is not to go straight: to go up by changing direction, step by step.

I transmit this explanation as a relation drawn by the lexicographers; I do not present it as a settled etymological ruling.

And this explains the word's function in this sūra. Al-Zukhruf 43/33 gives the concrete state of the word: the stairway by which one goes up to a house. So maʿārij says that there is a road between sky and earth — and that road is not a distance crossed in one step but a road with steps.

This construct occurs only here in the Qurʾān.

And the form of the construct is worth noting: titles built with ذُو (owner, possessor) are few in the Qurʾān, and each is chosen for a particular context:

The principle recorded in the section on al-Takwīr works here too: the title is chosen to suit the subject. There the subject was a chain of authority, and "Lord of the Throne" was chosen. Here the subject is distance and time; "Lord of the ways of ascent" is chosen.

And the next verse will explain this: we shall be told how long the ways take.

One further reading. Some exegetes explain maʿārij as "degrees, ranks": the degrees of elevation God grants. This reading too is possible in the language, and it rests on the sense of "height" in the word. Both appear in the classical sources; I do not impose a preference, since the next verse already opens out the first reading (road/ladder).

The three verses are one sentence, and its parts come in order:

1. The event: an asker asked — about a punishment that will fall. 2. The addressee and its character: for the disbelievers; there is none to ward it off. 3. The source: from God, the Lord of the ways of ascent.

And note: the sentence is built backwards. First the question, then the character of the punishment, and last of all its source.

So the sūra takes the question and gives the answer step by step — exactly in the manner its name announces.

I record this as an observation about the word order; the relation I draw between the name and the structure is a reading.