Al-Waqi'ah · Makki · ayah 27 of 96

Al-Waqi'ah 56:27

وَأَصْحَـٰبُ ٱلْيَمِينِ مَآ أَصْحَـٰبُ ٱلْيَمِينِ

“The companions of the right - what are the companions of the right?”

Saheeh International

Essence

The second rank is asked after in the same words as before, except that the name has quietly changed from a place to a hand.

A reflection

The word that changed, and nobody notices

At morning registration a school calls children by form. 8B, 8C, 9A. At prize-giving the same children are called by name. Nobody thinks about it, and the two lists are doing different jobs. One sorts a crowd into rooms. The other speaks to a person.

This ayah is the second list.

Nineteen ayat earlier the same rank was named with the same opening: "then the companions of al-maymana, what are the companions of al-maymana" (56:8). Here the sentence is repeated almost exactly, and one word is different: al-yamīn. Almost every reciter has said both and never noticed the change.

One commentary notices it and asks why, and the answer is precise.

Maymana, it explains, is a place-noun. It is built like the word for a lamp-stand from the word for fire, or a brazier from embers. So it means either the place where the right hand is, or the place where blessing is. Either way it names a location.

And a location is the right word at the moment of sorting, because the three ranks are first separated by being put in different places. The commentary cites the Quran's own language for that: "that Day they will be divided" (30:14).

Then, when the reward is described, the separation is no longer a matter of standing somewhere. So the word changes to one that names what they are, not where they are.

That is the whole of it, and it is a small thing that changes how the surah reads.

The first naming was administrative: the right-hand side of the field. The second is personal: the people of the right hand.

And this is the structure of both halves of the surah. Rank, sorting, place. Then, separately and at length, who they are and what they are given. The ayat you recite at night move from a register to a name.

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.