al-Qadr 97:4

Tanazzalu'l-malāʾikatu wa'r-rūḥu fīhā bi-idhni rabbihim min kulli amr "On that night the angels and the Spirit come down, by the leave of their Lord, for every affair."

The same root, a third form. In the first verse there was anzalnā (Form IV). Here there is tanazzalu — Form V, and its original is tatanazzalu; one of the two tāʾs has been dropped so that they do not stand side by side.

This form reports gradualness and repetition: a descent one after another, in waves, at intervals.

That is, within five verses the sūra deliberately sets two different forms of the same root against each other:

The Qurʾān once, as a whole; the angels again and again, in waves. The difference of form says that the two descents are of different kinds. The distinction between anzala and nazzala that we set up in the treatment of al-Baqara 2/23 is here completed by a third form.

The verb is in the imperfect. This is a very important detail: tanazzalu is present/habitual, not past.

The first verse used the perfect: anzalnā — we sent down. A completed event. The fourth verse uses the imperfect: tanazzalu — they come down. A repeated, ongoing event.

That is, the sūra says: the descent of the Qurʾān happened once and was finished; but the night itself continues. That night is not a historical moment but a recurring stretch of time. This is the grammatical choice that makes the sūra a text of summons rather than a text of commemoration.

The root of the word is disputed. The lexicographers generally attach the word malak to the root أ ل ك: alūka means "the carrying of a message, the message sent". On this the angel is "envoy, messenger". It is said that the word comes from an original malʾak, and that the hamza dropped to give malak; that the plural comes with the hamza, as malāʾika, is taken as a sign of that original.

Another view attaches it to the root م ل ك (mulk, power); but the first derivation is more widely accepted.

The first derivation is meaningful: the angel's name comes from its work. The angel is named not as "a being of such a kind" but as "one who is sent". A definition by task in place of a definition by nature.

The definite article. Al-malāʾika — definite. That is, not "some angels" but the kind, angels. In the classical commentaries the multitude of the angels descending on this night is stressed; the explanation resting on the "narrowness" sense of the root qadr also comes from here.

The most disputed word of the sūra.

Root: ر و ح. This root carries a wide field of meaning, and all of it turns around one centre: rūḥ (spirit, life), rīḥ (wind), rawḥ (relief, ease), rāḥa (rest), rayḥān. The common point is something that moves unseen and carries life or ease. Wind and spirit come from the same root; both are invisible, both show their effect by blowing.

A point of word order in the verse. The Spirit is mentioned after the angels and separately: al-malāʾikatu wa'r-rūḥ. If the Spirit is one of the angels, it is already inside the expression "the angels"; mentioning it separately would be superfluous.

Arabic has a name for this: ʿaṭf al-khāṣṣ ʿalā'l-ʿāmm — the coupling of the particular to the general. Its function is to exalt and bring forward that particular. There is a known instance of it in the Qurʾān: "Whoever is an enemy to God, His angels, His messengers, Gabriel and Michael…" (al-Baqara 2/98) — Gabriel (Jibrīl) and Michael (Mīkāl) are already among the angels, but they are mentioned separately.

That is, the word order suggests not that the Spirit is a kind apart from the angels, but that it has a special position among them. But this is not a certain conclusion; some of the views below count the Spirit as entirely separate.

The views:

I adopt no preference. The first view is the one with the strongest evidence from within the Qurʾān and it is the choice of the majority; but the usages at al-Nabaʾ 78/38 and al-Maʿārij 70/4 do not close the matter entirely. It is clear that the word is used in more than one sense in the Qurʾān (rūḥun minhu of Jesus (ʿĪsā) — al-Nisāʾ 4/171; the rūḥ breathed into Adam — al-Ḥijr 15/29). This multiplicity makes reduction to a single definition difficult.

This too must be added: "They ask you about the spirit. Say: the spirit is of my Lord's affair; and you have been given only a little of knowledge" (al-Isrāʾ 17/85). The Qurʾān gives a closed answer to the question about this word. This is a further reason not to speak with certainty on the matter.

Root: أ ذ ن. Leave, permission. The same root also gives the words udhun (ear) and adhān (announcement). The common core: hearing and announcing. Leave is "an announced consent".

This is the most easily passed over but most important qualification in the verse. The descent of the angels is not of itself; it is by leave.

Why is this said? Because the angels are doing something extraordinary here: they are coming down to the earth, they are establishing the worth of a night. In such a scene there arises the possibility that the descending beings be understood as powers acting on their own. The verse closes that possibility.

The Qurʾān says this from the mouths of the angels themselves too: "We come down only by the command of your Lord" (Maryam 19/64).

"Their Lord" — the word Lord again. This is the only divine name that occurs in the sūra: rabbihim. The name "Allāh" does not occur in the sūra at all.

This is the reverse of Sūrat al-ʿAlaq: there Lord occurred nine times and Allāh once. In al-Qadr there is only Lord.

And the pronoun is striking: rabbi-him — their Lord, that is, the Lord of the angels. Even the angels are referred to a Lord. In the treatment of al-Fātiḥa we dealt with this root's sense of "owning and nurturing"; here the ownership side of the word comes to the fore: even the highest of beings are under someone's command.

The most disputed expression in the sūra from the side of grammar. There are three readings:

The third reading depends on a choice about the pause (waqf) at the end of the verse and is mentioned in the classical sources; but the division of the verses in the muṣḥaf supports the first two readings.

The word أمر (amr). Root أ م ر: to command. The word means both "command" and "affair, matter". The two are not cut off from one another: an "affair" is in fact the coming to pass of a command that has been given.

This double sense completes the picture when joined with the parallel verse in Sūrat al-Dukhān: "In it every wise affair (amr) is distinguished" (al-Dukhān 44/4). The same word, the same context.

And here the first sense of the root qadr (measure/apportioning) comes into play: if the angels come down "with every command", then that night is the night on which the commands are determined. At this point the name of the sūra and its fourth verse lock into one another.

"Kulli" — every. The scope has been left without limit. Which affairs they are is not said. This is in keeping with the sūra's general bearing: across the whole sūra nothing is set out in detail — the Qurʾān is not named, the date of the night is not given, the Spirit is not defined, the affairs are not enumerated.