al-Insān 76:24

Fa'ṣbir li-ḥukmi Rabbika wa lā tuṭiʿ minhum āthiman aw kafūrā "So be patient for the ruling of your Lord; and obey none of them who is a sinner or an ingrate."

The verse begins with فَ: it is We who sent it down, so be patient. The command is given as the consequence of the previous verse.

The grammatical point is here, and it is usually lost in translation.

In English we say "to be patient with something", and that suggests putting up with it. Arabic too has the construction ṣabara ʿalā, and it means "to put up with something".

In the verse there is no عَلَىٰ, there is لِ.

The lām here states direction and purpose: "for your Lord's ruling", "until His ruling comes", "towards His ruling".

The difference is not small. Had it been built with ʿalā, the ruling would have been a burden and patience would have meant bearing it. Built with the lām, the ruling becomes something awaited and patience becomes the state of waiting for it.

That is, the verse does not say "put up with your Lord's ruling"; it says "wait for your Lord's ruling."

And this agrees with the sūra's description of the abrār: they too were people who awaited a day (7, 10).

Root: ح-ك-م. This root was taken up by way of the last verse of Sūrat al-Tīn (aḥkamu'l-ḥākimīn); I recall the description there: the usual English renderings — "ruling", "judgement" — carry nothing of the concrete sense of the root; at the centre of the root lie restraining and holding. The bit put in a horse's mouth (ḥakama) is from the same root: it keeps the animal from going where it wants.

And this binds the two halves of the verse together. In the first half a ḥukm (something that holds) is awaited; in the second half the command "do not obey" is given — that is, the addressee is asked to hold himself. And ṣabr was already "to hold" (al-Baqara 2/45).

Three words, one movement: ṣabr (holding oneself), ḥukm (the decision that holds), lā tuṭiʿ (not being dragged along).

I record this as my own reading; the description of the root is transmitted.

Root: أ-ث-م. Ithm — sin. According to the explanation the lexicographers transmit, beneath the root lies the idea of becoming heavy, slowing down, being left behind: sin is what holds a person back from good.

I transmit this explanation; I issue no firm ruling on the historical development of the root. But if it is right, the word carries a particular echo in this sūra: in the twenty-seventh verse these people will be said to leave a heavy day behind them. What makes heavy and the day that is heavy gather around the same people.

In a negative command أَوْ in Arabic means "both of them".

When it is rendered "obey not a sinner or an ingrate", it stands as though there were a possibility of choosing one of them. But in a sentence of prohibition aw widens the scope: whichever it may be. The English equivalent is "neither the one nor the other".

The word comes for the second time in the sūra.

In the third verse kafūr was one of the two states man may be in — an abstract possibility. Here it is concrete persons sitting opposite: مِنْهُمْ — "of them".

And this detail is important: āthim and kafūr are set side by side.

• Āthim — the one who does: faulty in his act.
• Kafūr — the one who covers: he has made a habit of covering what he sees.

They are two distinct faults and the verse counts both. As was recorded in the discussion of al-Baqara 2/6, unbelief is not not-knowing but covering over what one knows; ithm, however, is on the side of behaviour.

Against what is "obeying" (طاعة) a warning? The verse does not forbid a debate, it forbids following. In the discussion of al-Ghāshiya 88/22 this was recorded: "lasta ʿalayhim bi-muṣayṭir" — your task is not to compel. Here the other side of that is stated: do not let them drag you either.