Al-Waqi'ah · Makki · ayah 15 of 96

Al-Waqi'ah 56:15

عَلَىٰ سُرُرٍ مَّوْضُونَةٍ

“On thrones woven [with ornament],”

Saheeh International

Essence

The first object named is a couch, made by the word used for the weave of a coat of mail.

A reflection

A couch made the way armour is made

Translations reach for ornament. Thrones woven with ornament. Jewelled couches. Luxurious furnishings. All three guess at wealth, and the word is not about wealth.

Mawḍūna comes from the weaving of a coat of mail.

The lexicons are specific. Waḍn is the making of a mail shirt, and from there any close weave. A mawḍūna coat has its rings let into one another, course doubled on course. To waḍana is to fold one part over another and double it, and bricks laid tight are mawḍūn as well. The waḍīn is the broad girth, woven of leather strips, that holds a litter on a camel's back.

One commentary adds the technical point. Mawḍūna means woven, strong in warp and in weft, which is why it is said of a mail coat. The waḍīn is the wide band used for girthing, and it is called that for the strength of its warp and weft.

So this is not a couch that was carved and then decorated. It is a couch that was woven, and the comparison offered for the weave is body armour.

Stop on that for a moment, because the pairing is strange. Mail is the most tested fabric a person of that time could name. Every ring is held by four others, and the point of the design is that nothing in it can be pulled out. That is the structure the ayah uses for a place of rest.

One commentary records a further reading. Mawḍūna describes the couches as joined one to another, like the rings of a coat of mail, so they stand close together.

The commentaries also report the materials. Woven with gold, or with rods of silver. Interlaced with pearl and ruby.

But the word itself does not say rich. It says interlocked. The first thing the Quran names in the reward of the highest rank is not a treasure. It is a structure with nothing loose in it.

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.