Nūḥ 71:19-20

Wa'llāhu jaʿala lakumu'l-arḍa bisāṭā · Li-taslukū minhā subulan fijājā

"And God made the earth a spread-out carpet for you; that you might take wide roads out of it and travel."

Root ب-س-ط: to spread, to lay out, to open, to widen.

Its derivatives show the field of the root:

• bisāṭ — a carpet spread on the ground, a rug, a cloth laid for a meal.
• basṭ — to open, to widen. Its opposite is qabḍ (to gather, to close). The Qurʾān uses this pair: "God straitens and widens" (al-Baqara 2/245).
• mabsūṭ — spread out, open. In the Qurʾān for open-handedness: "Both His hands are outspread" (al-Māʾida 5/64).
• basīṭ — spread out, plain, uncomplicated. The Turkish "basit" ("simple") is this word; its sense has narrowed over time.

The note set down for the word firāsh (bedding) at al-Baqara 2/22 must be repeated here, because the same objection is raised about this verse: "is the Qurʾān saying the earth is flat?"

The observation in the discussion of al-Baqara was this: "This expression does not say the earth is flat. Bedding is not flat either — it is spread, it folds, it conforms to the ground beneath it. What the word says is not shape but function."

That observation holds for bisāṭ in exactly the same way, and indeed more strongly. A spread carpet is a thing that conforms to the ground it is laid on. A rug is a rug not because it is flat but because one can stand on it. The word conveys no geometry; it conveys a usability.

The same note was set down in Sūrat al-Ghāshiya (88/20) for the word suṭiḥat (it was spread out). The Qurʾān does the same thing with all the words it uses for the earth, and all of them convey function:

Six separate words, a single message: this ground has been set so that life can be lived on it. None of them describes a shape. That a text conveys the same function with six different words is the clearest indication that the text is not concerned with shape.

Moreover the word bisāṭ is itself an image from tent and nomadic culture: the rug spread on the ground, sat upon, gathered up and carried. The object most familiar to the one addressed has been chosen.

Root س-ل-ك: to enter into something, to take to a road, to pass through. The Turkish "sülûk" ("entering upon a path") and "meslek" ("a profession"; literally the path entered) are from this same root.

The concrete picture of the word is passing through a narrow place, like a thread passed through the eye of a needle. The Qurʾān uses this verb in the sense of "to insert one thing into another" as well (al-Zumar 39/21: "He inserted it into the springs in the earth").

لام at the head: li-taslukū — "that you might travel". This is the lām of purpose (taʿlīl). That is, the verse is in two steps: the earth was made a spread carpet — why? — so that one might travel over it.

That the ground of the favour is specified is important. The earth is given not as a field for contemplation but as a field of use. The human being is described here not as one who sits but as one who walks.

A small particle, dwelt upon: the roads open not upon the earth but "out of it".

Two readings are transmitted in the classical sources: the min is either inceptive (the roads' point of origin is the earth) or partitive (the roads are a part of the earth). Both arrive at the same place: a road is not something brought in from outside the earth; it is something drawn out of the earth itself.

This has a concrete counterpart. Roads are made — they are dug, levelled, opened. The verse says that the earth has been made fit for road-making; not that ready-made roads were laid. The possibility has been given, and the work left to the human being.

سبل is the plural of sabīl. The distinction between the words for road was made in the discussion of al-Fātiḥa (1/6): ṣirāṭ is the wide single main road, sabīl a particular route, ṭarīq the track followed. I rely on the observation made there.

That the plural is used here is striking: subul. In al-Fātiḥa ṣirāṭ was singular because the right way is one. Here the roads are plural because geographical roads are spoken of and these are countless. The Qurʾān preserves the distinction by using the singular for the spiritual road and the plural for the physical.

فجاج is the plural of fajj. Root ف-ج-ج: the space between two things being open. Fajj means in particular a wide pass between two mountains. So not an ordinary road; a wide, deep pass opened between mountains.

The word occurs in two other places in the Qurʾān:

• "And We made wide roads in it, that they might find their way" (al-Anbiyāʾ 21/31) — here the construct is reversed: fijājan subulā.
• "They will come to you on foot and on every lean camel, coming from every deep road" (al-Ḥajj 22/27) — in the context of the call to pilgrimage, min kulli fajjin ʿamīq.

The second occurrence is meaningful: fajj is the road of coming from afar. The word carries a suggestion of distance and travel.

Across verses 15-20 Noah has set out four proofs, and the arrangement runs downward:

1. The heaven (15) — the furthest, wholly untouchable 2. The moon and the sun (16) — far, but ordering life 3. The human being's own body (17-18) — the nearest 4. The ground his foot treads (19-20) — what he stands on

From above downward, from far to near. And the last proof is directly under the addressee's foot. The man looking for proof is directed to the place he would look at last.

And there is this too: none of the four proofs is extraordinary. None of them is a miracle. All of them are things that people saw every day. Noah shows nothing unseen; he asks for another way of looking at what is seen. The whole proof section of the sūra rests on this principle.