طه · الآية 33

Commentary

Eight verses have gone by in which the speech did not leave the asking and what follows from it. They hold six imperatives, a widening, an easing, a loosening, a setting, a tightening and a letting-in to share, and in not one of them was it said why. Here the particle of purpose arrives, a single particle on which the whole prayer hangs.

Its position is its meaning. Had it come at the start of the prayer, the asking would have been explained before it was heard, and the listener would have taken each thing asked for already knowing where it ends; it came at the close, and all that had gone before hung on it at a single stroke.

The prayer can be read straight only from here: the second bearer was asked for so that the holding clear, tasbīḥ, might be much, not so that the load might be light. The width of the chest, the softness of the affair, the loosening of the knot and the tightening of what girds are all instruments for this purpose, the one spoken in this place.

All that went before is singular: my chest, my affair, my tongue, what I say, my household, my brother, what girds me, my affair, eight yāʾ endings for a single speaker.

Here, in "that we may hold You clear," the nūn of the plural appears after those eight yāʾ endings: one asked, and the doer has become two. This is the first place in the prayer where the speaker steps out of the pronoun of his own self.

The sharing asked for in the previous verse, ﴿وَأَشْرِكْهُ فِي أَمْرِي﴾, "and let him share in my affair," has left its trace in the pronoun itself: the request was made in the wording, and the wording answered it before it was answered outside.

Tasbīḥ, in s-b-ḥ, is a passing through from which nothing clings to the one passing, like a movement through clear water from which the one who comes out comes out carrying nothing. The pattern faʿʿala repeats the act and makes it a habit rather than a single occurrence.

"Much," kathīran, is in the accusative and describes an elided verbal noun. The verse does not say purely, nor truly, nor always; it says much, and what is asked for is a quantity, not a state.

Muchness, in k-th-r, is an interlocking that thickens and then runs on without breaking off: a number that breeds, not a heap that is set down.

So what is asked for is help, and the aim is a quantity; whoever asks for a second bearer so that what is said may grow much has asked for room, not for rest.

A single particle of purpose comes after six imperatives spread over eight verses, and all that went before hangs on it. Its position is its meaning: had it come earlier, the asking would have been explained before it was heard; it came late, and the whole prayer hangs on what follows it. So the width of the chest, the softness of the affair, the loosening of the knot, the tightening of what girds and the sharing in the affair are instruments of one purpose spoken only here: the second bearer was asked for so that the holding clear might be much, not so that the load might be light. In "that we may hold You clear" a plural nūn comes after eight yāʾ endings of a single speaker, so the sharing asked for shows its trace in the pronoun before it shows outside. Tasbīḥ, from s-b-ḥ, is a passing through from which nothing clings, and faʿʿala makes it a habit. The word "much" denotes a quantity, not a state, and muchness, from k-th-r, is a thickening that runs on without breaking off.

Two Readings

The two readings agree that the purpose is worship, and differ over the particle's reach and over which of the two comes first. This book chooses the additional listening.