al-Muddaththir 74:38-39

Kullu nafsin bimā kasabat rahīna / Illā aṣḥāba'l-yamīn "Every soul is held in pledge for what it has earned — except the companions of the right hand."

Root: ر-ه-ن. Its concrete sense: a security left against a debt; a pledge, a mortgage.

• رَهْن (rahn) — the leaving of a pledge; and the thing left in pledge.
• رَهِين / رَهِينَة — held as a pledge.
• رِهَان (rihān) — a mutual wager; both parties putting something down.

The concrete legal sense of the root occurs in the Qurʾān: "If you are on a journey and cannot find anyone to write, then pledges taken in hand (rihānun maqbūḍa) will do" (al-Baqara 2/283).

And one has to see how a pledge works, because the whole force of the verse is there:

A pledge is what is left as security for a debt. What is left in pledge does not return to its owner until the debt is paid. It is held in the creditor's hand; it is closed to its owner's use.

The verse puts man in this position.

And the word order is interesting: kullu nafsin bimā kasabat rahīna — "every soul is a pledge on account of what it has earned".

That is, the person is held in pledge against his own earning. The one who leaves the pledge and the one left in pledge are the same person.

In the classical commentaries this is explained thus: man is held on account of his deed; he cannot go free until his deed frees him.

And this is an out-of-the-ordinary legal picture: the debtor has pledged himself against his debt.

Root: ك-س-ب. Its concrete sense: to obtain, to earn, to gather and bring in.

In the Qurʾān the root is used both for good and for evil, and it is neutral:

• "For it is what it has earned, and against it what it has committed" (al-Baqara 2/286) — lahā mā kasabat wa ʿalayhā mā ktasabat.
• "His wealth and what he earned did not avail him" (al-Masad 111/2) — treated in al-Masad.

And a point of word order: the verse does not say "what it did" (ʿamila), it says "what it earned" (kasabat). The language of earning sets up a relation of debt and credit — and it joins with the word rahīna.

Two words from the same field: the one an economic gain, the other an economic security.

I record this observation.

A point of grammar. The same sentence occurs almost word for word in another place in the Qurʾān:

"Every man is a pledge for what he has earned" (al-Ṭūr 52/21) — kullu'mriʾin bimā kasaba رَهِينٌ.

There رَهِين (masculine), here رَهِينَة (with the tāʾ).

The classical explanations:

The second explanation is widespread among the lexicographers. I impose no preference; neither explanation changes the sense.

أَصْحَـٰبُ ٱلْيَمِينِ — "the companions of the right hand".

The ي-م-ن root and the distinction of right and left were treated in al-Inshiqāq. The core recorded there:

"The root ي-م-ن is related to yumn (blessing)… The Qurʾān uses this settled association but loads a weight of judgement upon it as well: aṣḥāb al-yamīn / aṣḥāb al-shimāl (al-Wāqiʿa 56/27, 41)."

And it was stated there that the distinction "is definite and leaves no third category".

What is to be added here is the exception itself.

The verse first lays down an absolute ruling: kullu nafsin — every soul. Then the exception comes.

And this order, read the other way round, says something: the rule is to be held in pledge; deliverance is the exception.

I record this as an observation about word order.

Several explanations are given in the classical commentaries: the believers in general; or a particular group. I impose no preference, because the verse does not define, and in al-Inshiqāq the same stance was kept.

And the next verse will show what those excepted do — which opens the door to the most striking scene of the sūra.