Al-Waqi'ah · Makki · ayah 86 of 96

Al-Waqi'ah 56:86

فَلَوْلَآ إِن كُنتُمْ غَيْرَ مَدِينِينَ

“Then why do you not, if you are not to be recompensed,”

Saheeh International

Essence

The word usually rendered as not recompensed also means not owned, and the whole argument turns on that second sense.

A reflection

A word that means owned as much as judged

Nearly every translation gives this as if you are not to be recompensed. The commentaries give that reading first, and then give another one that changes the shape of the argument.

Take the first reading. The early authorities are nearly unanimous: not held to account, not requited for your deeds. One adds: not raised. Another: not certain of it. Another: not punished and not subdued.

Now the second. Several grammarians and commentaries derive the word from a different branch of the same root. A man is said to have dīned somebody, meaning he owned him. One of them quotes a line of poetry for it, and glosses the word plainly as owned. Another adds: he humbled him and made him a servant, and the verb is used both ways.

So the sentence can be read: if you are not owned.

And that reading is the one the next ayah's challenge actually needs. If the sense were only about a future reckoning, the reply put the burden on something far off. If the sense is ownership, the burden is on something happening in the room.

The lexicons hold both senses together without strain. The root gives recompense and the verdict that weighs it. It gives obedience and yielding to the one who prevails. And it gives a way of life lived towards that Day.

One word for being owned, obeying, and being repaid. Which is not three ideas. It is one arrangement seen from three positions.

And this is why the ayah can leave the word unexplained. Whichever end of the root a hearer picks up, the sentence takes him to the same place.

The full entry has 6 more reflections, questions to sit with, and "Live it today" - with the words, the roots and the tafsir alongside. Free, no account, works offline.