وَلَوْ أَرَادُوا۟ ٱلْخُرُوجَ لَأَعَدُّوا۟ لَهُۥ عُدَّةً وَلَٰكِن كَرِهَ ٱللَّهُ ٱنۢبِعَاثَهُمْ فَثَبَّطَهُمْ
Wa law arādu'l-khurūja la-aʿaddū lahū ʿuddatan wa lākin kariha'llāhu'nbiʿāthahum fa-thabbaṭahum wa qīla'qʿudū maʿa'l-qāʿidīn · Law kharajū fīkum mā zādūkum illā khabālan wa la-awḍaʿū khilālakum yabghūnakumu'l-fitnata wa fīkum sammāʿūna lahum; wa'llāhu ʿalīmun bi'l-ẓālimīn · Laqadi'btaghawu'l-fitnata min qablu wa qallabū laka'l-umūra ḥattā jāʾa'l-ḥaqqu wa ẓahara amru'llāhi wa hum kārihūn · Wa minhum man yaqūlu'dhan lī wa lā taftinnī; a-lā fi'l-fitnati saqaṭū; wa inna jahannama la-muḥīṭatun bi'l-kāfirīn
"Had they wanted to go out they would have made some preparation for it; but God disliked their setting forth, so He held them back, and it was said, 'Sit with those who sit.' · Had they gone out among you they would have added nothing to you but disorder, and would have hurried about in your midst seeking to stir up trouble; and among you there are those who listen to them. · They sought to stir up trouble before this too, and turned matters upside down for you — until the truth came and the command of God appeared, much as they disliked it. · And among them is one who says, 'Give me leave, and do not put me to the test.' Take note: they have already fallen into the test. Gehenna encompasses those who reject."
The sense of the root: to hold back from a task, to make one drag one's feet, to break one's eagerness. The word occurs rarely in the Qurʾān.
I record this as an observation: the verse names the sitting as a being held back — and ties the cause of it not to the persons' unwillingness but to the acceptance of that unwillingness. And before it stands a conditional clause: law arādu'l-khurūja la-aʿaddū lahū ʿudda — "had they wanted, they would have made preparation."
I record this as my own reading, and its ground is this conditional clause: the verse reads intention off preparation. The measure, that is, is not a word but a preparation made.
The sense of the root: corruption, the mind's becoming confused, a limb's losing its function. Khabāl — disorder, confusion.
I record this as an observation about the language, and convey it as the lexicographers give it: the word states hurrying about in the gaps — a concrete picture resembling going swiftly from place to place carrying words.
| View | What sammāʿūn means |
|---|---|
| A | Those who listen to them — who lend an ear to what they say |
| B | Spies — who gather information for them |
I convey the disagreement and impose no preference. And the pattern must be recorded: faʿʿāl — the intensive form, "one who listens much."
| Place | How fitna occurs |
|---|---|
| 47 | Yabghūnakumu'l-fitnata — it is sought |
| 48 | Ibtaghawu'l-fitnata min qabl — it was sought before too |
| 49 | Lā taftinnī — what one wishes to avoid |
| 49 | Fi'l-fitnati saqaṭū — already fallen into |
The root ف-ت-ن was analysed in detail in al-ʿAnkabūt at 29/2-10 (the testing of gold in fire) and was treated in two separate senses in al-Anfāl at 8/25 and 8/28. I rely on that treatment.
The point in the forty-ninth verse must be recorded, and I give it as my own reading: a man asks not to join, saying lā taftinnī (do not put me to the test); the verse answers fi'l-fitnati saqaṭū (they have fallen into the test). The name of the thing to be avoided, that is, is given to the act of avoidance itself. That the word is used twice in the same verse, in two different directions, confirms this.
The root س-ق-ط: to fall. The verb saqaṭū is in the perfect — the falling is recorded not as something that will happen but as something that has happened.