al-Tawba 9:19-22

A-jaʿaltum siqāyata'l-ḥājji wa ʿimārata'l-masjidi'l-ḥarāmi ka-man āmana bi'llāhi wa'l-yawmi'l-ākhiri wa jāhada fī sabīli'llāh; lā yastawūna ʿinda'llāh; wa'llāhu lā yahdi'l-qawma'l-ẓālimīn · Alladhīna āmanū wa hājarū wa jāhadū fī sabīli'llāhi bi-amwālihim wa anfusihim aʿẓamu darajatan ʿinda'llāh; wa ulāʾika humu'l-fāʾizūn

"Have you made the giving of water to the pilgrims and the tending of al-Masjid al-Ḥarām the like of one who believes in God and the last day and strives in the way of God? They are not equal with God. · Those who believed, and emigrated, and strove in the way of God with their wealth and their lives are greater in rank with God. It is they who attain."

There is an oddity of word order in the sentence, and the lexicographers dwell on it.

The two sides of the comparison are not of the same kind:

An "activity", that is, is compared with a "person". The lexicographers resolve this in two ways: either there is an implied element on the first side (ahla siqāya — those who do the work of giving water), or on the second (ka-īmāni man āmana — like the faith of one who believes).

I convey the disagreement and impose no preference. And I add this as my own reading: this difference of kind between the two sides is consistent with what the sentence says. On one side stand services, on the other the whole of a person. The verse compares a service with a life.

The sense of the root: to give water, to irrigate. Siqāya — the work of giving water, and the place where water is given.

I record this as an observation: the verse does not belittle the works ascribed to the other side — both are, after all, valuable works. What it states is an inequality, not an absence: lā yastawūna ʿinda'llāh — "they are not equal."

The root د-ر-ج: a step, a rank; to advance step by step. The word was treated in al-Anfāl at 8/4 (lahum darajātun ʿinda rabbihim). I rely on that treatment.