Ash-Shu'ara · Makki · ayah 54 of 227

Ash-Shu'ara 26:54

إِنَّ هَـٰٓؤُلَآءِ لَشِرْذِمَةٌ قَلِيلُونَ

“[And said], "Indeed, those are but a small band,”

Saheeh International

Essence

Pharaoh shrank a whole people into rags with four layers of contempt; the words exposed his fear and blinded him to where he was heading.

A reflection

Shrunk four times in four words

Pharaoh's message to the cities is only four words long in Arabic. Several commentators took it apart and found the same thing in it. He shrinks the Children of Israel four times over.

First, he names them with a word that already means a small group: shirdhima. Second, he describes them as few, qalīlūn, as if the noun were not enough. Third, he puts 'few' in the plural, so that each clan among them is small, not only the whole. Fourth, he chooses the kind of plural Arabic uses for small numbers. A later scholar added a fifth: pairing a plural description with a singular noun stresses how completely the description clings.

The sentence is also wrapped in emphasis. It opens with inna, truly, and adds the la- of emphasis before shirdhima. Truly, these are surely a small band.

That is a great deal of effort to dismiss someone. When language works this hard to make people look small, it is usually protecting something.

Picture a chief executive writing to all staff during a strike at his warehouses. He calls the strikers 'a small, vocal minority', 'a handful of individuals', 'a few people misrepresenting the company'. Three ways of saying 'few' in one paragraph. Every reader notices. If they were really so few, why write to everyone?

Notice the craftsmanship. This is not a clumsy insult. It is skilled speech, every layer chosen. Eloquence is a gift, and here it is spent on making human beings look like nothing.

That is worth remembering in an age of clever put-downs. A well-turned phrase about someone is not made true by being well turned. The skill can even hide the cruelty, because listeners admire the wording and forget the people.

Watch for the same pattern in your own speech. When you find yourself polishing a description to make someone sound small, stop. Ask whether you are describing them or dismissing them. Then spend the same care on saying something true.

The full entry has 5 more reflections, questions to sit with, and "Live it today" - with the words, the roots and the tafsir alongside. Free, no account, works offline.