al-Layl 92:17-18

Wa sayujannabuhā'l-atqā ۝ Alladhī yuʾtī mālahū yatazakkā "But the most guarded will be kept away from it — he who gives his wealth, to purify himself."

Root: ج-ن-ب. Its concrete sense is side, flank. Janb — the side of a thing. Jānib — a direction. From the same root comes ajnabī (foreigner — the one at the side, the one outside).

In Form II, جَنَّبَ — to take a thing aside, to keep it away. The same root occurs in Abraham's (Ibrāhīm's) prayer too, in a request to be kept away: "Keep me and my sons away from worshipping idols" (Ibrāhīm 14/35) — the verb there is in Form I, but the work asked for is the same.

The verb here is passive and carries the sīn: sayujannabuhā — "he will be kept away from it".

The picture is this: the person is led past the side of the fire; he does not touch the fire. Deliverance is not the destroying of the fire; it is the person's being taken aside from it.

The root و-ق-ي was treated at al-Shams 91/8 and at the fifth verse of this sūra.

The debate about the elative stated for al-ashqā holds here too: the word may be conveying the attribute absolutely ("the guarded one"), or it may be conveying a superiority ("the most guarded").

The opposition of the two words:

The tense of the verb has changed. In the sixteenth verse the verbs were perfect (kadhdhaba, tawallā — he gave the lie, he turned away). Here it is imperfect: يُؤْتِي — "he gives, he is giving".

This difference is meaningful. Giving the lie and turning away are given as completed acts; giving, on the other hand, as an act that is going on. To give is not a finished piece of work but a continuing state.

The verb آتَى (root: أ-ت-ي, Form IV) means "to give" and is used in the Qurʾān particularly for the zakāt: "perform the prayer and give the zakāt" (al-Baqara 2/43 and in many places — ātū'l-zakāt).

مَالَهُ — "his wealth". In the fifth verse the object was not stated (aʿṭā — he gave); here it is stated. What the sūra left open it makes concrete at the end.

Root: م-و-ل. Māl in Arabic properly means the thing possessed; an explanation is transmitted to the effect that the word comes from the same root as mayl (inclination) — because the heart inclines towards it. This etymology is not certain; I record it but build no ruling upon it.

And here the sūra binds itself to al-Shams.

Root: ز-ك-و — treated at al-Shams 91/9: cleanness and growth together. Zakāt is from the same root.

In al-Shams the verb was in Form II: zakkāhā — "he purified it" (transitive, its object the soul). Here it is in Form V: yatazakkā — "he purifies himself, he strives to be purified" (reflexive).

The link between the two sūras is established exactly here:

• al-Shams 91/9: "He who purifies his soul has prospered." — What that meant was not said.
• al-Layl 92/18: "He who gives his wealth, to purify himself." — Here is what it means.

Al-Shams laid down the abstract ruling, al-Layl filled it in. And what it filled it in with is economic: purifying the soul comes about by letting go of wealth.

This link was already standing ready in the language itself. The word zakāt is derived from this root and is the name of the share taken out of wealth. The link between "purification" and "giving out of wealth", that is, is not a metaphor the Qurʾān sets up; it is something standing inside the word.

The grammatical position of يَتَزَكَّىٰ has been debated:

The second reading is the widespread one and agrees with the two verses that follow, because there the reason for giving will be discussed. But the third reading has a force of its own too: giving and being purified are not two separate works but two names for one and the same work.