ٱنفِرُوا۟ خِفَافًا وَثِقَالًا وَجَٰهِدُوا۟ بِأَمْوَٰلِكُمْ وَأَنفُسِكُمْ فِى سَبِيلِ ٱللَّهِ
Infirū khifāfan wa thiqālan wa jāhidū bi-amwālikum wa anfusikum fī sabīli'llāh; dhālikum khayrun lakum in kuntum taʿlamūn · Law kāna ʿaraḍan qarīban wa safaran qāṣidan la'ttabaʿūka wa lākin baʿudat ʿalayhimu'l-shuqqa; wa sa-yaḥlifūna bi'llāhi lawi'staṭaʿnā la-kharajnā maʿakum; yuhlikūna anfusahum; wa'llāhu yaʿlamu innahum la-kādhibūn
"Go out light and heavy, and strive with your wealth and your lives in the way of God. That is better for you, if you but knew. · Had there been a near gain and an easy journey they would have followed you; but the hard distance seemed far to them. They will swear by God, 'Had we been able, we would have gone out with you.' They are destroying themselves; and God knows that they are lying."
The forty-first verse repeats the verb of the thirty-eighth (infirū) — but this time it places a pair of adjectives beside it.
The root ث-ق-ل occurred three verses earlier, in iththāqaltum. Now the same root comes not as an excuse but as a condition: thiqālan.
| Verse | Root | How it occurs |
|---|---|---|
| 38 | ث-ق-ل | Iththāqaltum — a behaviour, censured |
| 41 | ث-ق-ل | Thiqālan — a condition, accepted |
Three verses apart, that is, the same root is put to two separate uses: growing heavy is censured, being heavy is not. The distinction lies in whether the heaviness is a person's situation or a person's choice.
| Explanation | Khifāf wa thiqāl |
|---|---|
| A | The young and the old |
| B | Those whose burden is light and those with a large household |
| C | Mounted and on foot |
| D | Willing and unwilling |
| E | Those lightly armed and those in heavy equipment |
These explanations are mentioned in the sources; I adopt no preference. And I record this: the multiplicity of the explanations comes from the expression's being comprehensive. Setting two opposite adjectives side by side covers, in Arabic, every state that falls between them.
The concrete sense of the root: to split, to cleave in two. Shaqq — a cleft. From this derive mashaqqa (what splits a person, what strains him) and shuqqa — a distance hard to cross.
The root was treated in al-Inshiqāq by way of the sūra's name and in Qāf at 50/44.
I record this as an observation about the language: the distance is named as something that must be split open. Distance is not something covered but something cleft.
The root ع-ر-ض: breadth, a side; and what comes before one. ʿAraḍ — a passing gain that comes to hand. The word states what is not lasting.
I record this as an observation: the verse explains the failure to join by two measures — the remoteness of the gain and the hardness of the road. And this comes from the same place as the preference treated in al-Anfāl at 8/7: there too ghayra dhāti'l-shawka — they wanted the easy one. I rely on that treatment.