ٱقْرَأْ وَرَبُّكَ ٱلْأَكْرَمُ
The command comes a second time. Several explanations of the reason for the repetition are given in the classical commentaries:
1. Emphasis (taʾkīd). The repetition of the same command strengthens the command in Arabic and conveys urgency.
2. A pointer to two distinct readings. The first for learning, the second for conveying. That is: first you receive, then you pass on.
3. Corresponding to the threefold repetition in the report. The angel said "iqraʾ" three times and the Prophet resisted twice; the command's occurring twice in the text is connected with that scene.
4. An answer to the excuse. The first command was given, and "I cannot read" was said; the second command comes on top of that answer, and immediately afterwards the ground is mentioned: your Lord is al-Akram.
The fourth explanation is the one most in accord with the verse's own word order, and, as we shall see below, the structure of the sentence supports it.
The verse consists of two parts, and the bond between them is striking: Iqraʾ (a verbal sentence, a command) — wa rabbuka'l-akram (a nominal sentence, a statement).
The wāw here is mostly read by the grammarians as the wāw of circumstance or the wāw of resumption. Read as the wāw of circumstance, the sense is: "Read — your Lord being the most generous", that is, "read while the generosity that will enable your reading stands in place."
On this reading the sentence sets a command and a guarantee side by side. The command asks something of the human being; the nominal sentence that comes right after it says from where that thing will be supplied. And that it is a nominal sentence matters — as we treated in the discussions of al-Fātiḥa and al-Ikhlāṣ, a nominal sentence in Arabic conveys fixity and permanence. It is not that your Lord became or becomes al-Akram; He is so, and always.
- كرم (karam) — generosity, but not only generosity with goods: nobility, loftiness, distance from what is base.
- كريم (karīm) — at once generous, honourable and precious. The Qurʾān gives this attribute to very different things: "qurʾānun karīm" (al-Wāqiʿa 56/77), "al-ʿarshi'l-karīm" (al-Muʾminūn 23/116), "rizqun karīm" (al-Anfāl 8/74).
- كرم (karm) — the vine, the grape-arbour. The Arabs gave it this name because they counted it the most generous of plants; what it gives is abundant and without return.
- مكرمة (makruma) — an honourable deed, an ennobling act.
At the centre of the word lies this: to give abundantly, without expecting a return, without keeping account. The one who is karīm does not throw his gift in your face and does not expect gratitude for what he gives. Accordingly the Qurʾān says, in the mouth of Solomon: "My Lord is Ghanī, Karīm" (al-Naml 27/40) — the one who is in need of nothing and who gives; the two side by side.
The pattern: the elative (ism al-tafḍīl). Akram is on the afʿal pattern, and this pattern in Arabic normally conveys comparison: "more generous". From this a question arises: more generous than whom?
The lexicographers' answer is this: in Arabic the elative does not always convey comparison. When the second party is not stated, the pattern conveys absolute superiority — "the highest point of generosity", with no comparable second. There are parallels to this in the Qurʾān: al-Aʿlā (the Most High — al-Aʿlā 87/1), aḥkam al-ḥākimīn (al-Tīn 95/8), khayr al-fāṣilīn. In these too the question "than whom" is not asked.
In Sūrat al-Ikhlāṣ it was said "and there is none equal to Him". The absolute elative here comes out at the same place: no comparison is being made, because there is no party to compare with.
Why this name, exactly here? Because the command is a hard command and the one addressed has said "I cannot." The answer is not a compulsion but an introduction: He is the one who gives, and He keeps no account in giving. If you cannot read, this is no obstacle; because the capacity to read is itself among the things He will give. Accordingly the next verse will say exactly this.
Here there is a contrast that binds the two halves of the sūra together, and it must be noted already.
Al-Akram is the giving party. Istighnāʾ (verse 7) means saying "I have need of no one." That is, in the first half of the sūra a Lord who gives without end is described; in the second half a human being who is fed by what is given and yet does not reckon with the giver.
When generosity and istighnāʾ are set face to face, the picture that emerges is this: the person who does not see himself as needy is in fact the person who does not see the generosity. One who supposes he did not receive a thing as a gift does not look to the one who gave it. The sūra describes the source of transgression here: supposing it was deserved.