al-Ṭāriq 86:17

Fa-mahhili'l-kāfirīna amhilhum ruwaydā "So grant the kāfirūn a respite; grant them a little respite."

The last verse of the sūra. And the place where the tone changes entirely.

The fāʾ at the head states the consequence of the two preceding verses: since a response will be given, what you must do now is wait.

That is, the command is not a command to act; it is a command to not act. What is asked of the one addressed is not to respond but to wait, knowing that the response will be given.

Root: م-ه-ل. Its original sense is not to hurry, to take it slowly, to grant time.

• مَهْل (mahl) — deliberateness, taking it slowly. ʿAlā mahlin — slowly, without haste.
• مُهْلَة (muhla) — the time granted. Turkish mühlet, "a term of grace", comes straight from here.
• إِمْهَال / تَمْهِيل — to grant time.

Note: there is also the word مُهْل (muhl) in the Qurʾān — molten metal, boiling dregs (al-Kahf 18/29; al-Maʿārij 70/8; al-Dukhān 44/45). The relation of this word to this root is disputed; I draw no connection here.

There are two imperatives from the same root in the verse, and the two are in different forms:

• مَهِّلْ — the tafʿīl form (Form II).
• أَمْهِلْ — the ifʿāl form (Form IV).

The lexicographers say that there is a difference between these two patterns; but they do not agree on what the difference is. Some count imhāl the gentler, closer to "leaving alone"; some regard tamhīl as the longer term. I lay down no firm distinction, because the reports do not agree with one another.

What is certain is this: the bringing of two verbs of the same meaning one after the other is emphasis. And there is no conjunction between them — it does not say "mahhil and amhil". In Arabic the dropping of the conjunction between two sentences (faṣl) shows that the second is an explanation or a confirmation of the first. We saw the same phenomenon at al-Ikhlāṣ 112/2.

The last word of the sūra, and its gentlest word.

Root: ر-و-د. Its meaning is slowness, moving little by little, gentleness.

• رَادَ / إِرْوَاد — to move slowly, with deliberateness.
• رَائِد — a scout, one who goes on ahead to reconnoitre. (In Arabic today it is used in the senses of "pilot" and "pioneer".)
• إِرَادَة (irāda) — willing. It is counted from the same root; the lexicographers connect it by way of "turning towards something".

The pattern: تَصْغِير (the diminutive of the noun). Ruwayd is the diminutive form of rūd. In Arabic the diminutive pattern (fuʿayl) states the smallness, the fewness or the shortness of a thing.

So the word may be counted as diminished twice over: the root already states "slowness", and the pattern makes it smaller still. The result: "a little, a very little, a short while."

Grammar. Ruwaydan is in the accusative, and the grammarians parse it either as an absolute object (amhilhum imhālan ruwaydan) or as a circumstantial qualifier. The difference in meaning is small.

Now read the last three verses of the sūra one after the other:

They are laying a plot. And I am laying a plot. So grant the kāfirūn a respite — grant them a little respite.

Sound and meaning come down together.

The fifteenth verse is the hardest sentence: emphasised with innahum, plural, continuous.

The sixteenth verse states the response, but without emphasis.

The seventeenth verse, in turn, is not a threat but a command to be patient. And its last word is the smallest and gentlest word in the whole text of the sūra: ruwaydā.

That a text should end in this way is striking. The expected close was the raising of a threat. Instead the voice drops.

The sūra states no term. And that it does not is meaningful.

There is one more expression like it in the Qurʾān:

"Leave Me with the deniers, those who live in ease, and grant them a little respite" (al-Muzzammil 73/11).

The same root (mahhilhum), the same note of fewness (qalīlan). The two verses are almost the same sentence.

Whose measure is the measure of the expression "a little"? For the one waiting the term is long; for the one who knows the outcome it is short. The word measures the term from the side of the outcome.

What this says to the one addressed is: what looks long by your measure is short by the measure of the matter. This is a sentence of consolation, not a sentence of threat — and the one addressed is not those who lay the plot but the one against whom it is laid.

Root: ك-ف-ر. This root was treated at al-Baqara 2/6 on the occasion of kufr; what was recorded there was this: the concrete sense of the root is to cover — because the sower covers the seed with soil, he is called kāfir in Arabic.

The one point that belongs here must be recorded per the method (Method): the word states an attribute; it is not the name of a group. What the verse describes is an attitude that lays plots and counts the word a joke; whoever carries that attitude falls under the description. In this commentary no blanket ruling is issued about an ethnic or religious group.