al-Maʿārij 70:36-37

Fa-māli'lladhīna kafarū qibalaka muhṭiʿīn · ʿAni'l-yamīni wa ʿani'sh-shimāli ʿizīn "What is the matter with those who disbelieve, that they come craning their necks towards you — from the right and from the left, in scattered groups?"

And this is the beginning of the sūra's third section.

In the first verse there was someone asking a question. Now the sūra turns to him — and to those like him. The thirty-five verses in between were the answer to the question.

And note: the sūra opened with a question, and now answers with a question.

Neither question wants an answer. One is mockery, the other reproach. The sūra takes the form of the addressee's question and gives it back to him.

I record this as my own reading. The positions of the two questions are in the text.

There is something noteworthy in the orthography: مَا and لِ are written separately (mā li-). It is one of the peculiarities of the orthography of the codex; it does not affect the sense.

The pattern فَمَا لِـ conveys in Arabic astonishment, reproach and rebuke: "What is the matter with these people?", "What is wrong with them that they do this?"

The closest English rendering: "What is wrong with them?"

This pattern occurs in several places in the Qurʾān and is always in the same tone: "What is the matter with them, that they turn away from the reminder?" (al-Muddaththir 74/49).

Root: ق-ب-ل. Qabila — to meet, to accept. قِبَل — the front of a thing, its facing side. Qibla (the direction turned to), muqābil (opposite), istiqbāl (reception, and "the future") are from the same root.

قِبَلَكَ — "towards your side", "facing you."

So the people are coming towards the Prophet. They are not fleeing; they are drawing near.

And this is the strangeness of the scene. Those who deny gather around the man they deny.

Root: ه-ط-ع. Haṭaʿa — to stretch out the neck, to fix one's eyes; and to go quickly with the head raised.

The meanings the lexicographers give gather into two branches:

Both describe the same bodily movement: the neck extending forward. The one who looks stretches his neck, and so does the one who runs.

Its other occurrences in the Qurʾān show both branches:

• "They run with their heads raised; their gaze does not return to them." (Ibrāhīm 14/43 — muhṭiʿīna muqniʿī ruʾūsihim)
• "With their eyes cast down, they will come out of the graves hastening to the caller." (al-Qamar 54/8 — muhṭiʿīna ila'd-dāʿ)

Both verses are in a scene of the resurrection. That is, in the Qurʾān the word generally describes the people running on that day.

And al-Maʿārij uses it in this world.

So the verse describes those craning their necks around the Prophet today by the movement of those who will run on that day. The same bodily movement, in two scenes.

And the sūra will repeat this plainly in the forty-third verse: "They come out of the graves in haste."

I record this as my own reading. The wordings of the three verses are data that can be verified.

The character of the gaze. The verse does not say "they listen", does not say "they ask". It describes a bodily movement: the stretching of the neck.

And this movement conveys not attention itself but the appearance of attention. They look but do not take in; they draw near but do not join.

I record this as a reading.

Both directions are mentioned, and this conveys encirclement: from every side.

And these two words were the names of two destinies in the preceding sūra.

In al-Ḥāqqa 69/19 the book was given بِيَمِينِهِ (in his right hand); in 69/25 بِشِمَالِهِ (in his left). This opposition was treated in the section on al-Ḥāqqa.

Al-Maʿārij uses the same two words — but as directions, not destinies.

Two neighbouring sūras use the same pair for two different tasks: in al-Ḥāqqa it divides, in al-Maʿārij it gathers.

I record this as my own reading. The occurrences of the words in the two sūras are data that can be verified. I claim no wordplay; yamīn and shimāl are ordinary words for direction in Arabic.

The word occurs only here in the Qurʾān.

عِزِين is the plural of ʿizatun and means separate companies, scattered clusters: groups standing not together but in clumps.

There are two views on its root:

The first origin is the more widespread and adds an interesting layer to the sense of the word.

For the verb ʿazā is "belonging": being attached to a group. And ʿizīn is that belonging multiplied: everyone has a group, but there is no common group.

So the word conveys both joining and dispersal at once: the people have come together — but in clumps.

I record this as an observation about the word. The disagreement over the origin is set down in the sources; the layer of meaning I draw from the first origin is my own and is not offered as a settled etymological ruling.

And this completes the scene: people have gathered around the Prophet, they have stretched out their necks, they look from right and left — but they are not one community. They stand in clusters.

A grammatical note. The word ʿizīn is declined like a sound masculine plural (with -īn), but its singular is ʿiza and it is feminine. Some words in Arabic are declined this way (sinīn — years, singular sana). The final nūn of the word compensates for a dropped letter. This also makes the word fit the verse-ending.

These two verses are among the rare verses that describe the listener, and they give an image worth recording for today.

The scene is this: people come, draw near, look, crane their necks — and stand scattered. There is interest, there is no participation. There is proximity, there is no bond.

And in the thirty-eighth verse this interest will turn into an expectation: "Does each one of them hope to be admitted to a garden?" That is, watching is taken for joining.

I record this as a reading; the content of the two verses and their link with the next verse are in the text.