وَنُيَسِّرُكَ لِلْيُسْرَىٰ
Root: ي-س-ر. This root was taken up in two separate sections: in Sūrat al-Inshirāḥ within its opposition to ʿusr, and in Sūrat al-Layl in exactly this pattern.
What was recorded in the section on al-Inshirāḥ and will not be repeated here: the relation between ʿusr and yusr, the function of the particle مَعَ (together with), and the comparison set up with the expression "ease after a hardship" at al-Ṭalāq 65/7 — that is, the Qurʾān knows how to say "after", and in al-Inshirāḥ it does not say it.
In the section on al-Inshirāḥ al-Aʿlā 87/8 had already been mentioned: when the places were enumerated in which the root yusr occurs "as the name of a way".
"Whoever gives and guards himself, and confirms the finest — We shall prepare him for the easiest" (al-Layl 92/5-7) "Whoever is miserly and counts himself beyond need, and denies the finest — We shall prepare him for the hardest" (al-Layl 92/8-10)
Three details were recorded there: the sīn at the head states the near future; the nūn is the plural of majesty (taʿẓīm), that is, the easing does not happen of itself; and the particle لِ states direction and assignment — "the person is not being pushed towards ease; he is being prepared for ease, being made fit for it."
It was also recorded that al-yusrā is an elative on the fuʿlā measure, that is, that it means not "ease" but "that which is easiest", and that what it qualifies is not stated.
Now let us set al-Layl 92/7 and al-Aʿlā 87/8 side by side. The two verses use almost the same words but they part in three places, and the difference is decisive.
| al-Layl 92/7 | al-Aʿlā 87/8 | |
|---|---|---|
| The verb | فَسَنُيَسِّرُهُۥ | وَنُيَسِّرُكَ |
| The particle of time | سَ present — "We shall prepare" | Absent — the bare imperfect |
| The object | ـهُ — "him" (third person, general) | ـكَ — "you" (the addressee, a single person) |
| The particle at the head | فَ — the answer to the condition | وَ — addition to the preceding promise |
| Does it have a condition | Yes — the one who gives, guards himself, confirms | No |
The first difference: the condition. In al-Layl the easing is a rule: whoever does these three things, this is done for him. The sentence is bound to the condition with a fāʾ. In al-Aʿlā there is no condition; the easing comes as a gift, as the continuation of the preceding promise (We shall make you recite).
The second difference: the absence of the sīn. In al-Layl sa-nuyassiruhu — the future. In al-Aʿlā nuyassiruka — the bare imperfect. In Arabic the bare imperfect states both the present and the general, and it carries continuity. In al-Layl, then, something that will happen in the future; in al-Aʿlā something that is going on.
This difference is not trivial. In the preceding verse sanuqriʾuka — there the sīn is present. In the following verse nuyassiruka — here it is absent. Two different tenses in the same sequence of sentences. The making to recite is a work that will be completed later on; the easing, by contrast, is a state that is in progress.
The third difference: the singularity of the addressee. al-Layl's sentence is for everyone; al-Aʿlā's is for one person. In the section on Sūrat al-Ḍuḥā this distinction was recorded: "The difference between stating a general truth and saying something to someone about himself."
In the section on al-Layl the function of the lām was dwelt on. There is a point to be added here, and it concerns the object of the verb.
In Arabic the usual object of the verb yassara is a task: yassir lī amrī — "make my task easy" (Ṭāhā 20/26). What is made easy, that is, is the task to be done.
This sits oddly in English and is lost in translation. But what it says is clear, and it joins with the point established in the section on al-Layl: what is made easy is not the task but the person. The difficulty of the task may stay the same; the person is made fit for that task.
This distinction has a practical counterpart, and it comes out at the same place as the inference recorded in the section on al-Inshirāḥ in the context of the particle maʿa: "a task's being hard requires the forming of the capacity to do that task; and the capacity develops inside the hardship." al-Aʿlā 8 says that this capacity has been given.
As was recorded in the section on al-Layl, what the word qualifies is not stated. In the classical explanations supplements such as "the easiest state", "the easiest way", "the easiest law", "the garden" are supplied.
In the context of this sūra the most defended explanation is the religion itself: the ease of the law that is brought. The Qurʾān states this quality of itself in several places: "God desires ease for you, He does not desire hardship" (al-Baqara 2/185); "He has laid no hardship on you in religion" (al-Ḥajj 22/78).
But the text does not state it, and its not stating it serves the same function as what was recorded about the object of the verb yuʿṭīka not being stated at al-Ḍuḥā 93/5: what is named is limited.