ABSTRACT
First, I present the verses according to the standard interpretation, as detailed in Ṭabarī (d. 310/923), whose account is the earliest comprehensive and systematic tafsīr available. 4
Ṭabarī cites differences among the Qurʾān commentators in the fi rst four verses, but not the fi fth. The fi ve verses contain two words each, an active participle and a verbal noun. The ten words are derived from seven different roots. In the fi rst and fi fth verses, the two words are derived from two different roots, but in the remaining three, the active participle and the verbal noun share the same root and basic meaning, with the active participle referring to an attribute of an actor and the verbal noun to the action itself. The disagreements among the commentators revolve around the reference of the active participles, particularly the active participle of the fi rst verse al-nāziʿāt. Ṭabarī’s account, which presents the views of earlier commentators, is summarized in the following table:
General problem: the reference of the active participles
The fact that there is so much uncertainty about the reference or references of the fi ve active participles is suffi cient to raise questions about the value of the
traditional interpretation. The reference to angels seems to make the most sense and is the only one with any consistency among the fi ve verses, since none of the other possible references (i.e. death, stars, etc.) can be understood to be pulling or drawing, drowning, moving or removing swiftly, swimming, racing , and managing affairs . 5 However, there is strong evidence in the Qurʾānitself for excluding even angels from being the reference of these participles, since the Qurʾān associates naming angels with unbelief: inna alladhīna lā yuʾminūna bi-l-ākhirati la-yusammūna al-malāʾikata tasmiyat al-unthā (“Lo! it is those who disbelieve in the Hereafter who name the angels with the names of females” [Q 53:27]). 6
wa-l-nāziʿāt gharqā The root n-z-‘is found twenty times in the Qurʿān, with several meanings ranging from “pulling” to “desire” to “controversy.” 7 The Form I verb naza ’, the source of the active participle nāzi ‘(fem. nāziʿa ), is used with seven meanings all revolving around the theme of pulling or taking away: 1) to pull out, take out; 2) to remove; 3) to withdraw, take away; 4) to sweep away; 5) to peel off; 6) to select; 7) to pluck out. 8
The word nāziʿāt , which occurs only once in the Qur’ān, is translated as “those who strive,” “those who pull out,” “those who discard.” 9 The meanings of “striving” and “discarding” are clearly tied to the context of the verse as traditionally understood, and not to the usage of the word outside of this verse. The root gh-r-q occurs twenty-three times. 10 It is found in two verbal nouns ( gharq and gharaq ), in the Form IV verb aghraqa , and the passive participle of the latter, mughraq . Following are the meanings provided by Badawi and Abdel Haleem for these four words: 11
gharq : going to the extreme, all the way, violently, strongly, energetically gharaq : drowning aghraq : to cause to drown mughraq : drowned
The word gharq violates a basic morphological rule of the language. According to Ibn Manẓūr, who quotes al-Azhari, it is “a noun built in place of the true verbal noun.” 12 The word does not seem to have an independent existence in the language outside of this verse. In addition, an examination of the meanings of the four words listed above shows that, as in the case of nāziʿāt , a new and quite different meaning is assigned to gharq , which is not related to drowning, the basic meaning of the root.
