As-Saffat · Makki · ayah 140 of 182

As-Saffat 37:140

إِذْ أَبَقَ إِلَى ٱلْفُلْكِ ٱلْمَشْحُونِ

“[Mention] when he ran away to the laden ship.”

Saheeh International

Essence

The Quran uses a runaway servant's word for Yunus's departure: a word that only makes sense because he still belonged to his Master.

A reflection

A word used once, for a servant slipping out

There were many ordinary verbs for leaving available. Dhahaba, he went, is the one used in 21:87. Kharaja, he went out, or haraba, he fled, would also have done. Instead this ayah chooses abaqa, and the choice is striking.

The lexicons are clear and the image is established. Ibāq is a slave running away from his master. They define it with care. It is running away when no fear and no crushing work are driving him. That is why the runaway was to be returned: he had not been forced out. A related form means to hide and then slip away. The corpus records this as the root's only occurrence in the whole Quran.

One linguistic commentary sharpens the picture further. It describes ibāq as fleeing from one's master so that no one searching can find him. Yunus left his people without his Lord's leave and went where they looked for him and could not find him. A rhetorical commentary calls the word a figure of speech. His flight from his people without permission is pictured as a servant's flight from his master.

So the word does not describe distance. It describes a relationship. A free man who moves to another town has simply moved. Only a servant who belongs to a household can 'run away' from it.

That is the quiet strength of this ayah. Even at the moment of his lapse, the Quran describes Yunus in the vocabulary of belonging. He has not become a stranger to Allah. He is a servant who slipped out of the house, and a servant who slips out is still the master's, and is brought home.

The word looks severe at first. On a second reading it is full of hope. You cannot be called a runaway from a house that has disowned you.

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.