الانفطار · الآية 8

Commentary

The root ṣ-w-r denotes a hard edge that closes over what runs within it and holds it in a shape of its own. A ṣūra is accordingly a figure that bounds a thing from outside, by which it is known and set apart from anything else; it is the limit that makes the thing itself, and not an ornament added to it.

The word arrives indefinite after "whichever," so no one shape is specified and none is preferred over another. The wording opens the whole range and names no particular figure within it, leaving nothing in the phrase for anyone to plead against anyone else.

The adverbial phrase is placed before the verb: in place of "He assembled you into whatever shape He willed," the verse begins with the range and closes with the act. The frame is first opened wide and then shut on one listener.

The root sh-y-ʾ is a spreading that runs and comes to rest on one determined, affirmed end, that is, a single cutting-out from among what had spread. Willing, in the word, is thus the taking of one out of many, and not a desire felt.

This is why "in whichever shape" requires a willing after it: a range is closed only by a choosing. The possibility was opened at the head of the verse, and the word that cuts one end out of it came afterwards.

The subject of "He willed," moreover, is not the one addressed; the verse does not say "whatever you willed." The figure in which the questioner stands while he asks was never his to apportion, and this returns the question of "what set a sliding over you" to its place: the one who slid is standing inside a shape another chose for him.

The root r-k-b is a running that sinks into another and works into it, and then clings to what is under it; in other words, a mounting that knits to what is mounted, so that it carries it and goes on with it. Assembling, then, is the setting of one thing upon another until the two are one that moves.

The verb comes on the doubled pattern: joining after joining until the composite is complete, not the joining of a part to a part. What is assembled has parts, and what has parts stands by whatever holds them.

With this, four verbs are complete, all fastened to one and the same pronoun: created you, set you even, balanced you, assembled you. They are four motions with no object named but the addressee, and they were preceded by four scenes with no doer named at all.

"In whichever shape" comes from ṣ-w-r, a hard edge that closes over what runs within it and holds it in a shape of its own; a ṣūra is therefore a bounding that distinguishes, and not an ornament added. It comes indefinite after "whichever," so no figure is preferred to any other, and the frame is set before the verb, opening the range before the act closes it. "He willed" comes from sh-y-ʾ, a spreading that runs and comes to rest on an affirmed end; willing is thus the taking of one out of many, and its subject is not the one addressed. "He assembled you" comes from r-k-b, a mounting that knits, carries and goes on, and it stands on the doubled pattern, joining after joining. So across the two verses four verbs are complete with no object but the pronoun of the one addressed, after four scenes with no doer in the wording at all, and the one questioned about what he slid on is standing, as he is questioned, in a figure he did not choose.

Two Readings

The two readings do not conflict. The first enumerates the forms of physical make; the second reads the indefiniteness, the fronted frame, and the subject of the willing. This book chooses the additional listening.

Tadabbur

The verse opens a range and then closes it on one. "In whichever shape" says the figures are many; "He assembled you" says that you are one of them. And without the mention of the width, the narrowness of the one would not be felt: the many are named so that it can be felt that what came about is a single one.

And the verb of assembling says something about the one addressed that the verb of creating does not. What is assembled has parts joined one to another, and what has parts stands by whatever holds its parts and not by itself. So the word carries in itself the fragility of what it describes: a composite can be taken apart.

And the one addressed is still the one addressed in "what set a sliding over you." Between that question and this place, not one deed of his has been mentioned and not one charge. He was asked about a surface he slid on, and the answer was a description of his own making, not a tally of his faults.

Perhaps there is a resemblance here to something observable in human communities across their different times: that the shape in which a person finds himself is the least of what he chose and the most of what he is measured by. Hardly a community is known that did not at some point arrange itself by differences of figure its members had not made, and hardly a ranking among people is known into which nothing of that has crept. So when the wording opens the range and prefers no figure to any other, and then assigns the willing to someone other than the one addressed, what each had been pleading against the other falls out of his hand. This is a conjecture offered as such and not loaded onto the verse, for the verse itself mentioned an unspecified range, a willing that is not the addressee's, and an assembling that befell him, and settled nothing about the description of bodies or about how they came to be.