al-Qadr 97:1

Innā anzalnāhu fī laylati'l-qadr "We sent it down on the Night of Qadr."

The sentence begins with inna: a particle of emphasis. And the pronoun is plural: nā — we.

This is the Qurʾān's common usage, and it is the structure the lexicographers call the plural of majesty (taʿẓīm): a single subject speaking with a plural pronoun in order to declare its exaltedness. English has the like of it in institutional and official language.

It must be noted that this creates no contradiction with Sūrat al-Ikhlāṣ — aḥad (one, without equal) was treated there. The plural pronoun does not report a number; it reports a station. Indeed the same Qurʾān uses the singular too for the same event: "The trustworthy Spirit brought it down" (al-Shuʿarāʾ 26/193), "…he brought it down upon your heart by God's leave" (al-Baqara 2/97).

In the treatment of al-Fātiḥa we dealt with the plural in the expression "You alone do we serve": there the plural was the servant mingling into the congregation. The plural here works in exactly the opposite direction: exaltation.

Root ن ز ل: to come down. The Qurʾān uses both forms of this root, and the difference between them was taken up in the treatment of al-Baqara 2/23. Without repeating that finding I recall it: nazzala (Form II) reports that the act is done piece by piece, repeatedly; the Qurʾān's coming down spread over twenty-three years is registered in that form.

Here, however, anzala (Form IV) is used. This form suits better an act done at one stroke, as a whole.

This difference has been the point of departure for a great debate in classical exegesis.

The view of a descent in two stages. On this view the Qurʾān came down in two distinct ways:

1. The descent as a whole: the entire Qurʾān was sent down at one stroke to the lowest heaven on the Night of Qadr. Anzala is used for this descent. 2. The descent piece by piece: from there to the Prophet, over twenty-three years, according to events and needs. Nazzala is used for this.

This view is grounded on reports ascribed to Ibn ʿAbbās and is widely reported in the classical commentaries.

The second view: the beginning of the descent. On this view the verse reports the night on which the Qurʾān began to come down. That is, the Night of Qadr is the night on which the first verses of revelation came down; the expression "We sent it down" names the whole business by way of the moment it began. In Arabic it is common to name the beginning of an undertaking with the verb for the whole of it.

To my mind the second view stands closer to the text, because the Qurʾān separately and with a reason defends the gradualness of the descent: "Those who disbelieve said, 'Why was the Qurʾān not sent down upon him all at once?' We did it thus in order to strengthen your heart with it, and We recited it slowly and distinctly" (al-Furqān 25/32). This makes gradualness a matter to be defended.

But I do not reject the first view: the difference of form is real and has to be explained. This is a preference, and it is not binding.

Here is the most striking place in the verse: it says "We sent it down", and what "it" is, is not said.

The word "Qurʾān" does not occur anywhere in the sūra. Nor "Book". Nor "revelation". Across five verses the name of the thing sent down is not mentioned even once.

This is a problem from the side of grammar: a pronoun needs a referent, and the referent must either have gone before or be understood from the context. Here it has not gone before — it is the first word of the sūra.

The classical explanations:

1. Its being perfectly well known. The thing meant is so well known and so obvious that there is no need to name it. English does the same: we walk into a room and ask "Has he come?", and the person facing us knows whom we mean. Naming is needed where there is uncertainty.

2. Magnification. To point with a pronoun is sometimes more exalting than to mention by name. We saw one side of this while treating the pronoun huwa in the first verse of Sūrat al-Ikhlāṣ: the pronoun loads on no attribute at all, it only points, and it magnifies what comes after it.

3. Shifting the sūra's attention. Had the name of the thing sent down been said, the centre of gravity of the sentence would have shifted to it. When it is not said, the weight falls on the rest of the sentence — that is, on the night. The sūra is not recounting the Qurʾān; it is recounting the night on which the Qurʾān came down. The pronoun keeps the subject in place.

To my mind the third is the one most in keeping with the structure of the sūra: indeed the expression repeated three times across the sūra is laylat al-qadr, not al-qurʾān.

Interpreting the Qurʾān by the Qurʾān. The referent of the pronoun can be determined with certainty from other verses:

• al-Dukhān 44/3: إِنَّآ أَنزَلْنَٰهُ فِى لَيْلَةٍ مُّبَٰرَكَةٍ — "We sent it down on a blessed night." This verse begins word for word the same as al-Qadr 97/1; only the attribute of the night changes. And the verse immediately before it in Sūrat al-Dukhān names the thing sent down: "By the clear Book" (44/2).
• al-Baqara 2/185: "The month of Ramadan — the Qurʾān was sent down in it as guidance for people."

Three verses give three separate pieces of information about time, and they complete one another:

This trio draws the conclusion "the Night of Qadr is in Ramadan" from within the Qurʾān itself. This is what the classical commentaries rely on in this matter.

The root ليل (layl) reports darkness, covering. Night is the part that covers over the day.

Why night? The question is worth asking, because the choice is meaningful.

Night is a recurring frame in the Qurʾān. The Prophet's rising by night (al-Muzzammil 73/1-6), the night journey's taking place by night (al-Isrāʾ 17/1), the appointment by night given to Moses (Mūsā) (al-Aʿrāf 7/142). The Qurʾān places great events in the night.

There are concrete reasons for this, and Sūrat al-Muzzammil states one of them plainly: "The rising by night is stronger in its tread and more upright in speech" (al-Muzzammil 73/6). Night is the time when the distractions withdraw; the crowd disperses, work stops, sound lessens.

And then night itself is a covering. The first moment of revelation — one of the most extraordinary events in human life — takes place at a time no one saw, in a cave where no one was present. The event is without a witness.

The key word of the sūra, and the centre of its exegesis.

Root: ق د ر. In Arabic this root carries three senses that are connected to one another but open in separate directions. All three have to be seen one by one, because all three fit this night and all three have been defended in the classical commentaries.

1. Measure, determining, apportioning

The most basic sense of the root. Qadara — he measured, he cut to size, he determined its amount. Its derivatives: qadar (a determined measure), miqdār (amount), taqdīr (measuring and apportioning), qudra (the power to do a thing to its measure).

Evidence from the Qurʾān:

• "We created everything according to a measure (bi-qadar)" (al-Qamar 54/49).
• "With Him everything is by an amount (bi-miqdār)" (al-Raʿd 13/8).

How does this sense fit the night? The night is the night on which affairs are measured out and determined. The strongest evidence for this is in Sūrat al-Dukhān, mentioned just above:

"We sent it down on a blessed night… In it every wise affair is distinguished." (al-Dukhān 44/3-4)

The verb used is yufraqu — it is separated, distinguished, sorted out from one another (from the same root, furqān, farq). That is, that night is the night on which affairs pass from a mingled state to a separated one.

On this reading the name of the night comes from the work done on that night: the night of apportioning.

2. Worth, honour, elevation

The same root also carries the sense of "knowing the value of a thing, giving it the place it deserves". To speak of knowing a thing's worth, of giving a thing its due, is exactly this sense.

Evidence from the Qurʾān:

• "They did not give God His due measure (mā qadarū'llāha ḥaqqa qadrih)" (al-Anʿām 6/91; al-Ḥajj 22/74; al-Zumar 39/67). The "measuring" here is not measurement; it is knowing the worth.

How does this sense fit the night? Directly: that night is a night of high worth. Honoured, precious, elevated. The third verse will say just this: "better than a thousand months."

On this reading the name of the night comes from its own quality: the precious night.

3. Narrowness, constriction

The third direction of the root. Qadara ʿalayhi — he narrowed it upon him, he stinted him, he pressed him.

Evidence from the Qurʾān:

• "He whose provision has been straitened for him (qudira ʿalayhi rizquh)…" (al-Ṭalāq 65/7).
• "But when He tests him and straitens his provision (fa-qadara ʿalayhi rizqah)…" (al-Fajr 89/16).

How does this sense fit the night? In the classical commentaries this explanation is transmitted: on that night the earth fills with angels and grows narrow. That is, the night is "narrow" on account of its crowding. This explanation is ascribed to certain lexicographers; it suits the context, since the fourth verse will recount the descent of the angels.

On this reading the name of the night comes from the fullness lived on that night: the crowded night.

These three senses can be presented as alternatives to one another; but to my mind the sounder course is to see the three as three faces of the same night:

The three senses find their counterparts in three separate verses of the sūra. This shows that the word's multiplicity of meaning is not a vagueness but a density.

And one further link: the relation between apportioning and worth is built into the language itself. To know the qadr of a thing is to give it the right measure. Measuring and valuing come from the same root in Arabic — because worth is the result of measuring rightly. One who measures wrongly cannot give worth either.

This is directly connected with the second verse of the sūra. There it will be said "you cannot know what this is" — that is, the limit of the human capacity to measure will be marked. The worth of a thing whose worth you cannot know is made known to you.