Al-Waqi'ah · Makki · ayah 17 of 96

Al-Waqi'ah 56:17

يَطُوفُ عَلَيْهِمْ وِلْدَٰنٌ مُّخَلَّدُونَ

“There will circulate among them young boys made eternal”

Saheeh International

Essence

The verb used of circling the Kaʿba is used here of servers going round the guests, and the direction of the circling is reversed.

A reflection

The same verb as tawaf

Translations say "there will circulate among them" or "they will be served by". Both are fair. Both hide the word.

The verb is yaṭūfu, from the root of ṭawāf.

One lexicon gives the root a single sense: a thing turning upon a thing and enclosing it. Ṭāfa bi-l-bayti is to go round the House. The maṭāf is the strip of ground that circling is walked on. And the same word reaches into ordinary life. A night watchman is a ṭāʾif, because he keeps going round the houses, and a household servant is a ṭawwāf for exactly the same reason. A town was called a ṭāʾif for the wall built round it.

So one word covers the highest act of worship and the most ordinary act of service. Both are a circling.

Now notice the direction, because that is where the ayah does its work.

In this world you are the one who circles. You arrive at Makkah having saved for years, and you walk seven times round a stone building, and the centre is not you. The whole posture of the rite is that you are the one moving and something else is fixed.

In this ayah the circling has turned round. They are seated, settled, facing one another, and the movement goes round them.

Something else from the same root sharpens it further. A ṭāʾif from Shaytan is a thing that circles a person looking for a way in. A calamity that comes round by night is also a ṭāʾif. And ṭūfān is anything that encircles and engulfs: a drowning flood, overwhelming rain, even the black of night.

So in this life there are two kinds of circling going round a person, and neither is service. One is a temptation hunting for a gap. One is a trouble closing in.

The ayah replaces both. The circling continues, and what is going round is a cup.

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.