al-Muṭaffifīn 83:32-33

Wa idhā raʾawhum qālū inna hāʾulāʾi la-ḍāllūn • Wa mā ursilū ʿalayhim ḥāfiẓīn "And when they saw them they would say, 'these are surely astray'. Yet they had not been sent as keepers over them."

The words spoken carry two reinforcements: إِنَّ and لَ.

Inna hāʾulāʾi la-ḍāllūn — "these are surely, certainly astray."

In Arabic emphasis is calibrated to the position of the one addressed. Emphasis this heavy is used either against an addressee who denies, or to show the speaker's own certainty.

Here it appears to be the second: the speakers are saying it to one another, and there is no hesitation whatever in what they say.

This sets up a contrast with the fourth verse of the sūra, and it is striking:

That is, people who will not entertain so much as a possibility about their own end pass firm verdicts about others.

I offer this contrast as my own reading; the difference of certainty in the two verses is a datum of the text, the relation I set up between them is an interpretation.

But the structure of the sūra supports it: verse 4 and verse 32 speak about the same subjects at the two ends of the sūra, and both concern the matter of knowing.

Root: ض-ل-ل. This root was taken up in the section on al-Fātiḥa (wa lā'ḍ-ḍāllīn) and in the section on al-Ḍuḥā (wa wajadaka ḍāllan fa-hadā).

The finding recorded in the section on al-Ḍuḥā is especially meaningful here: "the same root in two different functions: a temporary initial state and a permanent attribute; what settles the verdict is not the root but the context."

The concrete sense of the root is to lose the way: to lose one's bearings in the desert, to be unable to tell where something is.

And the choice of the word is meaningful. The criminals do not say "liars" or "unbelievers". They say "astray" — that is, "they have lost the way", "they are lost".

This is less an accusation than an expression of pity and belittlement. One is not angry with someone who is lost; one makes light of him.

The tone of the utterance, then, is not a tone of anger but a tone of looking down. And this accords with the fakihīn (delighting) of the preceding verse.

One of the most striking sentences of the sūra.

The structure of the sentence:

• مَا — negation.
• أُرْسِلُوا۟ — passive: "they were not sent". Who sends is not said.
• عَلَيْهِمْ — "over them".
• حَٰفِظِينَ — as "keepers / guardians". In the circumstantial position.

This sentence meets the tenth verse of the preceding sūra almost word for word:

Two verses use the same word with the same particle and give opposite verdicts.

In the section on al-Infiṭār the root حفظ was taken up and two branches of meaning were recorded: to protect and to record / to memorise; and that the two are joined in a single idea — not to let a thing be lost.

It was also noted that the particle ʿalaykum conveys both oversight and being against.

Now what emerges when the two verses are read together is the following, and I offer it as my own reading:

To be a keeper requires being sent.

The ḥāfiẓīn of al-Infiṭār are appointed: their position has been given to them. The people in al-Muṭaffifīn, however, have placed themselves in that position.

And the verb of the verse stresses exactly this point: أُرْسِلُوا۟ — "they were not sent". The verb is passive, because the matter is not who did not send them; it is that they were not sent.

That is, the verse's objection is not that the verdict they passed was wrong — it may be objecting to that too — but that they do not hold the authority to pass a verdict.

This idea is repeated in several places in the Qurʾān, and what is striking is this: it is mostly said to the Prophet.

• "We have not made you a guardian over them." (al-Anʿām 6/107)
• "You are not a tyrant over them." (al-Ghāshiya 88/22)
• "You are not a trustee over them." (the continuation of al-Anʿām 6/107; the like of it at al-Zumar 39/41)

This increases the weight of the verse. When the Qurʾān says that people have no authority of oversight over one another, it says it first to the Prophet.

The bound, then, is the same for everyone. And al-Muṭaffifīn 83/33 recalls the same bound for those who mock.

I record this link as an observation; the shared words of the verses are a datum of the text, the conclusion I draw between them is an interpretation.

The thirty-third verse cuts the story and lays down a verdict. For four verses the scene had been related: they laugh, they wink, they return home delighting, they say "these are astray".

And the verse removes the assumption on which the whole scene rests: these people are not in a position to pass this verdict.

Then in verse 34 the scene will change and the roles will exchange places.