al-Tawba 9:61

Wa minhumu'lladhīna yuʾdhūna'l-nabiyya wa yaqūlūna huwa udhun; qul udhunu khayrin lakum yuʾminu bi'llāhi wa yuʾminu li'l-muʾminīna wa raḥmatun li'lladhīna āmanū minkum; wa'lladhīna yuʾdhūna rasūla'llāhi lahum ʿadhābun alīm

"And among them are those who hurt the Prophet and say, 'He is an ear.' Say: an ear of good for you; he believes in God, and trusts the believers, and is a mercy to those of you who believe. And for those who hurt the Messenger of God there is a painful punishment."

What is said is not a simile but a name: huwa udhun — "he is an ear."

In Arabic, naming a person by an organ is a way of intensification stating that the function of that organ is excessive in him. The lexicographers record this: to call a man "that eye" is to say he looks a great deal; to call him "that ear" is to say he listens to everything said.

The nickname, then, says this: he believes whatever he is told, he listens to everyone.

And how the nickname works must be recorded, and I give it as my own reading: the nickname takes a good quality and presents it as a defect. Listening is a virtue; the nickname turns it into gullibility. This is the most economical way of disparaging a person: that the thing you disparage should really be there.

The construction of the answer is one of the finest points of word order in the sūra.

The answer does not reject the nickname — it accepts it and qualifies it: udhunu khayrin lakum — "an ear that is good for you."

The construction is a genitive one: udhunu khayr — "an ear of good." Being an ear, that is, is not denied; what he is an ear of is stated.

I record this as my own reading, and its ground is the genitive construction (iḍāfa): the answer does not turn the insult around, it moves its place. The same word carries two different values in the same verse.

The two verbs are the same, the two particles differ, and this difference must be recorded:

The lexicographers record this difference between āmana bi- and āmana li-. And this completes the answer of the verse: the other side says "he listens to everyone"; the verse says "he trusts the believers". By stating the address of the listening, the nickname is bounded.

The qualification minkum in the sentence must be recorded.

I record this as an observation: the verse separates out those who believe from within the very community in which the ones who give hurt are found. And the mercy is ascribed to that separated section. The category is divided once again.

And this word — mercy — will come again in verse 128 of the sūra as an attribute of the envoy: bi'l-muʾminīna raʾūfun raḥīm. The link between the two verses will be treated at 128.