وَشَاهِدٍ وَمَشْهُودٍ
The most disputed verse of the sūra, and the reason for the dispute is plain: both words come indefinite (with tanwīn). Neither who the witness is nor what the witnessed thing is gets said.
Root: ش-ه-د. This root is the key root of the sūra, and it occurs in three verses in three different forms. Let us establish the root first, and then read the three occurrences together.
At the centre of the root stands this: to be present at the outset of an event, to be there. Bearing witness is first a matter of place; its being a matter of knowledge comes second.
- شَاهِد (shāhid) — one present; a witness. An active participle.
- مَشْهُود (mashhūd) — that at which one is present, that which is witnessed. A passive participle.
- شَهِيد (shahīd) — the intensive form: one whose witnessing is complete. In the Qurʾān it is used both for "God, who sees all things" and for "one killed for the sake of the religion".
- شُهُود (shuhūd) — the plural of shāhid: witnesses.
- مَشْهَد — the place of witnessing, the scene.
- شَهَادَة — testimony; and the shahāda, the formula of witness.
The bond between bearing witness and being present is there in English too: when one says "I witnessed the event", what is meant is that I was there.
This will be critical for understanding the sixth and seventh verses of the sūra. For there the wrongdoers will be called witnesses — and what they do is exactly "to be present".
A great many views have been transmitted in the classical commentaries. I put them into a table together with their grounds; I do not impose a preference.
| View | Witness | What is witnessed | Ground |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Friday | the Day of ʿArafa | It is one of the most frequently transmitted explanations in the classical commentaries; its detail rests on reports |
| 2 | The Prophet | his community | "And when We bring you as a witness against these…" (al-Nisāʾ 4/41); "We have surely sent you as a witness…" (al-Aḥzāb 33/45) |
| 3 | God | what He has created | "God is witness over all things" (al-Burūj 85/9 — from within the sūra itself) |
| 4 | All witnesses | the Day of Resurrection | "That is a day on which people will be gathered; that is a day witnessed" (Hūd 11/103) — here the word mashhūd is used directly of the Day of Resurrection |
| 5 | The guardian angels | the deeds of human beings | "Beside him there is a watcher at the ready" (Qāf 50/18) |
| 6 | The limbs of a person | what they did | "On that day their tongues, their hands and their feet bear witness to what they did" (al-Nūr 24/24); Fuṣṣilat 41/20-22 |
| 7 | The companions of the trench | what they did to the believers | verse 7: "they were witnesses to what they did to the believers" — the nearest indication, from within the sūra itself |
| 8 | The dawn prayer | the angels | "And perform the dawn prayer; for the dawn prayer is witnessed (mashhūd)" (al-Isrāʾ 17/78) |
An observation. The two strongest grounds in this table are the ones that come from within the Qurʾān: Hūd 11/103 (mashhūd = the Day of Resurrection) and the sūra's own seventh verse (shuhūd = the wrongdoers).
And this is striking: three verses later the sūra brings its own "witnesses" onto the stage. What the oath left indefinite gets filled in inside the narrative — but in a chilling way: the first concrete witnesses of the sūra are the wrongdoers seated at the edge of the fire.
I record this as my own reading. But the sequence is in the text: verse 3 says shāhid, verse 7 says shuhūd, verse 9 says shahīd.
Three oaths were sworn, and after them comes قُتِلَ أَصْحَٰبُ ٱلْأُخْدُودِ. Is this the answer of the oath?
| View | Explanation | Its weak side |
|---|---|---|
| The answer is verse 4 | "Slain be the companions of the trench" | In Arabic a sentence of imprecation is not generally the answer of an oath; besides, a lām or an inna would have been expected at the head of the answer |
| The answer has been elided | It is not stated; it has been left to the addressee | There are examples of this in the Qurʾān |
| The answer is verse 12 | "Surely the seizing of your Lord is severe" — it comes with inna and lām, that is, in the form of an answer to an oath | Eight verses come in between |
The third view has a strong grammatical ground: the sentence إِنَّ بَطْشَ رَبِّكَ لَشَدِيدٌ is the typical form of the answer to an oath in Arabic (inna + lām). On this reading the sūra is saying: "By the sky, by that day and by the witnesses, the seizing of your Lord is severe" — and the narrative told in between is the ground of that seizing.
I find this reading strong but do not count it binding; the second view is also widespread and is not contrary to the text.