Al-Waqi'ah · Makki · ayah 14 of 96

Al-Waqi'ah 56:14

وَقَلِيلٌ مِّنَ ٱلْـَٔاخِرِينَ

“And a few of the later peoples,”

Saheeh International

Essence

And a few of the latter: a single word of scarcity, applied only to the first rank, and only to the generations that come late.

A reflection

"The latter" is a word about deferral

In an old village shop there was a slate. Goods went out on a Monday and the money came in on a Friday, or after harvest, or whenever. The customer had what he needed and the account was written down for later.

Arabic has one root for the lateness in that arrangement, and this ayah uses it.

The lexicons give the root a single origin: the opposite of going ahead. From there the pictures spread. The camel saddle had a front and a back, and the back was its ākhira: the upright wood the rider leans against. The outer corner of the eye was muʾakhkhar al-ʿayn. A sale with the payment put off was a sale bi-akhira. And the camel born at the tail of the herd came fī ukhrā al-ibil.

So al-ākhirīn is not merely "later people". It carries lateness, being behind, and deferral, all in the same letters.

And the biggest word built on it is the one we say every day. Al-ākhira: the abode that comes after, set against al-dunyā, the near one, or al-ūlā, the first.

So in this one surah the same root names two things. The generations who come late in time. And the world that comes after this one.

The other word in the ayah is just as physical. Qalīl is few. One lexicon notes that a qulla was a jar small enough for a person to lift, named small in relation to the one carrying it. Fewness, in that root, is measured against a hand.

Which is worth holding when the ayah lands on you. Few compared to what? The sentence does not say. The commentaries supply the comparison from the other half: compared with the forerunners of the nations before.

Not few in themselves. Few beside somebody else.

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.