طه · الآية 31

Commentary

Ushdud, from sh-d-d, is a gathering-in that presses until it holds, and the doubled dāl doubles the holding. What is drawn tight neither slips nor slackens.

Earlier in this prayer there was a widening that opens out, an easing that softens, an untying that releases. This one tightens and gathers in. The verbs run in two opposite directions inside one prayer, and there is no contradiction in it, because the places differ: what speech comes out of is widened, and what a weight is carried by is drawn tight. Each place is asked for what suits it.

The bāʾ here is instrumental: the tightening happens by him. It does not say "tighten him," which would make him the thing bound, and it does not say "tighten toward him," which would make him the destination. The pronoun goes back to the one named in the verse before. The one asked for as a second bearer, and then named, is now asked to be the means by which the carrying place is made firm. A single preposition moves him from being what is asked for to being what the next request is made with.

Azr, from ʾ-z-r, is a pressing that packs into a narrow place and is then held until it knits: the seat of strength, where the middle of the body is bound. From it comes izār, what is wound about the waist. The image needs no unpacking: a middle wrapped tight so that what is set on it rides straight. Whoever is slack at the waist does not rise under a load.

The possessive yāʾ at the end is the seventh in the chain, and one remains. And the reason that gathers all of this has still not been uttered, not by a letter.

Widen one place, soften another, untie a third, and pull a fourth tight. The prayer is not asking for a single condition. It is asking each place for what that place needs.

Two Readings

The two readings agree that firmness is asked for, and differ over where the tightening lands. This book chooses the additional listening.