Thafseer Lafzi 12 — Sūrat al-Muṭaffifīn (83) — introduction and āyāt 1–15 سُورَة الْمُطَفِّفِين

1 · Introducing the sūrah #

• The course moves backwards through Juzʾ ʿAmma. You met Sūrat al-Inshiqāq (84) in Lesson 11; Sūrat al-Muṭaffifīn (83) is the sūrah before it in the muṣḥaf.
• The name comes from its first āyah — وَيْلٌ لِّلْمُطَفِّفِينَ — and from the practice it condemns: giving others less than their due, cutting down what one hands over.

The four parts of the sūrah:

This lesson covers part 1 and most of part 2 — āyāt 1–15.

2 · Āyah 1 — woe to those who give short measure #

Waylun lil-muṭaffifīn

"Woe to those who give short measure."

You have met wayl before, in Sūrat al-Humazah: وَيْلٌ لِّكُلِّ هُمَزَةٍ لُّمَزَةٍ. There too it meant destruction for a certain group of people.

Measure and weight. Some goods are measured out and some are weighed out, and buying and selling is done by one or the other — liquid or solid. Today nearly everything is weighed. The woe is addressed to everyone who adopts the method of giving short, whichever way the goods are handed over.

The ṣarf of مُطَفِّفِينَ:

Why -īn and not -ūn? In its normal (rafʿ) state the plural ends in wāw: مُطَفِّفُونَ. But in وَيْلٌ لِّلْمُطَفِّفِينَ a lām comes in front of it, which makes the word majrūr, and the wāw turns into a yāʾ: لِلْمُطَفِّفِينَ.

3 · Āyāt 2–3 — full measure for themselves, short measure for others #

Alladhīna idhā ktālū ʿalā n-nāsi yastawfūn · wa idhā kālūhum aw wazanūhum yukhsirūn

"Who, when they take a measure from people, take it in full; but when they measure for them or weigh for them, they give less."

The double standard is the whole charge: when buying, they insist on the full measure; when selling, they hand over less.

A story that makes the point. A shop-owner complained that the goods a poor farmer brought him came up short. The farmer answered that he had no weights of his own — he weighed his goods against what he had bought from that very shop. So it came out: the shop-owner had been giving 900 grams for every kilo. His own cheating came back on him. This āyah came as a warning to people like that.

The ṣarf of the verbs in āyāt 2–3:

4 · Āyāt 4–6 — the Day mankind stands before its Lord #

Alā yaẓunnu ulāʾika annahum mabʿūthūn · li-yawmin ʿaẓīm · yawma yaqūmu n-nāsu li-rabbi l-ʿālamīn

"Do those not think that they will be raised up — for a tremendous Day, the Day when mankind will stand before the Lord of the worlds?"

Grammar in this block:

5 · Āyāt 7–9 — the record of the wicked is in Sijjīn #

Kallā inna kitāba l-fujjāri la-fī sijjīn · wa mā adrāka mā sijjīn · kitābun marqūm

"No! Indeed the record of the wicked is in Sijjīn. And what will make you know what Sijjīn is? A record written out."

Why كِتَٰبَ takes a fatḥah: إِنَّ has come before it, so it is manṣūb. And سِجِّينٍ is majrūr because فِى comes before it.

وَمَآ أَدْرَىٰكَ is addressed to the Prophet ﷺ: "what has made known to you what Sijjīn is?" — and the answer follows: a record written out, the book in which the deeds of the wicked are written. مَرْقُوم is an ism mafʿūl, from the letters رَاء · قَاف · مِيم. The phrase وَمَآ أَدْرَىٰكَ recurs in many places in the Qurʾān.

Tajwīd — the idghām in كِتَٰبٌ مَّرْقُومٌ. A tanwīn is followed by a mīm, so the two are joined and read together: this is idghām. Whenever one of the letters of the word يَرْمَلُونَ follows a nūn sākinah or a tanwīn, idghām is done. It comes in two kinds — with ghunnah and without ghunnah.

6 · Āyāt 10–13 — the deniers of the Day of Recompense #

Waylun yawmaʾidhin lil-mukadhdhibīn · alladhīna yukadhdhibūna bi-yawmi d-dīn · wa mā yukadhdhibu bihī illā kullu muʿtadin athīm · idhā tutlā ʿalayhi āyātunā qāla asāṭīru l-awwalīn

"Woe, that Day, to the deniers — those who deny the Day of Recompense. And none denies it except every sinful transgressor: when Our verses are recited to him, he says, 'Legends of the former peoples.'"

Yawm ad-dīn elsewhere. It is the same Day as in Sūrat al-Fātiḥah — مَٰلِكِ يَوْمِ ٱلدِّينِ, and in Sūrat al-Māʿūn — ٱلَّذِى يُكَذِّبُ بِٱلدِّينِ. That is the Day these people deny. مُعْتَدٍ and أَثِيمٍ are both attributes (ṣifāt) of the one who denies it.

Grammar in this block:

7 · Āyāt 14–15 — rust on the heart, a screen from the Lord #

Kallā bal rāna ʿalā qulūbihim mā kānū yaksibūn · kallā innahum ʿan rabbihim yawmaʾidhin la-maḥjūbūn

"No! Rather, what they used to earn has rusted over their hearts. No! Indeed, from their Lord, that Day, they will be screened off."

What they earned settled on their hearts like rust — and on that Day they are screened off from their Lord.

Tajwīd — the saktah at بَلْ ۜ رَانَ. The muṣḥaf marks this place with a small sīn (or the word saktah). A saktah is a brief stop without taking a breath — stop, hold the breath, and carry on.

Four places where the saktah is obligatory:

1. Sūrat al-Muṭaffifīn, āyah 14 — كَلَّا ۖ بَلْ ۜ رَانَ
2. Sūrat al-Qiyāmah
3. Sūrat al-Kahf, at the end of the first āyah — عِوَجَا ۜ قَيِّمًا
4. Sūrat Yā-Sīn, āyah 52

Places where it is permitted (jāʾiz), not obligatory: Sūrat al-Ḥāqqah — مَالِيَهْ ۜ هَلَكَ عَنِّى سُلْطَٰنِيَهْ may be read with a saktah or without; and where Sūrat al-Anfāl ends and Sūrat at-Tawbah begins — at-Tawbah has no basmalah — one may make a saktah and read on.

Tajwīd — the four rules of the nūn sākinah and tanwīn. In عَن رَّبِّهِمْ a nūn sākinah is followed by rāʾ, one of the letters of يَرْمَلُونَ, so it is read with idghām. Every one of the 28 letters that can follow a nūn sākinah or a tanwīn falls under one of four rules:

The sūrah continues from āyah 16 in the next lesson.