al-Muddaththir 74:16-17

Kallā innahū kāna li-āyātinā ʿanīdā / Sa-urhiquhū ṣuʿūdā "No! He was stubborn against Our signs. I shall drive him up a steep ascent."

كَلَّا is in Arabic a particle of rejection and deterrence. In al-Fajr the function of this particle was treated, and an important finding was recorded there: kallā sometimes cuts off not a single sentence but a whole chain of thought.

It looks so here as well: kallā cuts off the hope in the fifteenth verse — and thereby the whole assumption on which that hope rested.

Root: ع-ن-د. Its concrete sense: to swerve from the road, to draw off to one side; and to do so by resisting.

• عَنَدَ (ʿanada) — he swerved from the road, he was obstinate.
• عَنِيد / عَانِد — one who stands against knowingly, who persists.

And its use in the Qurʾān shows a pattern: the word occurs in three other places, and in all three it stands beside another epithet:

• "…and they followed the command of every obstinate tyrant (jabbārin ʿanīd)" (Hūd 11/59). Concerning the people of ʿĀd.
• "…and every obstinate tyrant (jabbārin ʿanīd) came to ruin" (Ibrāhīm 14/15).
• "Cast into Hell every obstinate ingrate (kaffārin ʿanīd)!" (Qāf 50/24).

In all three ʿanīd is the second epithet — together with tyranny or with ingratitude. That is, the word states not a fault by itself but the settled form of a fault.

Innahū kāna li-āyātinā ʿanīdā — "he was stubborn".

The structure kāna + noun conveys in Arabic continuity and settledness. Not an attitude taken once; an attitude that has become a trait.

A similar distinction was made in al-Baqara 2/6: "the ruling is for a particular group … who have made unbelief their trait; it is not a general decree of destiny for every denier."

The same record holds here as well.

Root: ر-ه-ق. Its concrete sense: to cover over a thing, to overspread it; and to load someone with more than he can bear.

Its uses in the Qurʾān:

• "Do not load me with hardship in my affair" (al-Kahf 18/73) — lā turhiqnī min amrī ʿusrā. The words of Moses (Mūsā).
• "…we feared that he would load them with rebellion and unbelief" (al-Kahf 18/80).
• "A darkness will overspread them" (ʿAbasa 80/41) — tarhaquhā qatara. Treated in ʿAbasa.
• "No darkness will overspread their faces" (Yūnus 10/26).

At the centre of the root there are two things: covering over, and loading with what cannot be carried.

And when the two senses come together this appears: something is put upon the person that will cover him over and crush him beneath it.

Root: ص-ع-د. To go up, to rise. Ṣuʿūd, ṣaʿīd (high ground, the surface of the soil); miʿrāj is from another root but carries the same idea.

صَعُود — on the pattern faʿūl: a mountain road hard to climb, steep and exhausting.

A near use in the Qurʾān: "Whoever turns away from the remembrance of his Lord, He will drive him into a grievous punishment (ʿadhāban ṣaʿadā)" (al-Jinn 72/17). The same root, the same context.

This is one of the strongest links that can be set up between the two sūras, and it was not set up in al-Balad — ṣaʿūd is not mentioned there at all. I make the comparison here.

In Sūrat al-Balad there is a steep ascent: ٱلْعَقَبَة (al-ʿaqaba). And as recorded in al-Balad:

"The ʿaqaba is the place that is climbed and that requires step after step… In the geography of Arabia the ʿaqaba is the narrow, steep pass between two mountains. It is the point at which caravans have the hardest time and are in the greatest danger."

And the climbing of that ascent is asked for: fa-la'qtaḥama'l-ʿaqaba — "Would that he had flung himself at the steep ascent!" The content of the ascent is enumerated too: to free a neck, to feed on a day of hunger.

In al-Muddaththir, on the other hand, the ascent is given as a punishment: sa-urhiquhū ṣuʿūdā — "I shall drive him up a steep ascent."

And the observation that joins the two verses is this:

The same terrain, in two different directions.

In al-Balad the ascent is a place that is asked to be climbed, and reproach is made because it was not climbed. In al-Muddaththir the ascent is the place to which the one who does not climb will be driven.

That is, when the verses are read together this appears: the ascent is there in any case. Either a person climbs it by his own will, or he is driven up it.

I record this as my own inference. I do not claim that there is a reference between the two sūras; the roots are different (ع-ق-ب / ص-ع-د) and the link set up is conceptual.

And it agrees with the finding at the close of al-Balad: there a contrast was set up with al-Tīn and it was said, "in al-Tīn man is turned downward; in al-Balad a road upward is set before him." The ṣaʿūd of al-Muddaththir is a third position on the same vertical axis: upward, but by force.

Another weave, within the sūra itself.

The same person, two opposite grounds. First a place levelled like a cradle; then a steep ascent.

And the difference of tense is meaningful too: mahhadtu is past (done and finished), sa-urhiquhū is future (with the sīn).

That is, the level ground has been given, the ascent has been promised.

I record this weave as my own reading; but that the two words state opposite grounds is beyond dispute at the level of the dictionary.