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Formulas and refrains 7 / 17
The formula "his goods avail him nothing"
One formula recurs six times: the verb أَغْنَىٰ عَنْ, negated, with goods (مَال, أَمْوَال) as subject: one's goods "avail nothing" to their owner, before God or on the Day of judgment. It is translated the same way everywhere.
The six occurrences:
- 111:2, « مَآ أَغْنَىٰ عَنْهُ مَالُهُۥ وَمَا كَسَبَ »: his goods availed him nothing;
- 69:28, « مَآ أَغْنَىٰ عَنِّى مَالِيَهْ »: the man himself says it, on the Day of judgment;
- 92:11, « وَمَا يُغْنِى عَنْهُ مَالُهُۥٓ إِذَا تَرَدَّىٰٓ »: in the future, when he falls;
- 3:10, 3:116 and 58:17, « لَن تُغْنِىَ عَنْهُمْ أَمْوَٰلُهُمْ وَلَآ أَوْلَٰدُهُم مِّنَ ٱللَّهِ شَيْـًۭٔا »: with children, and against God.
The negation changes form (مَا for the past, لَن for the future), the subject moves from singular to plural, but the structure does not vary: goods as subject of a negated أَغْنَىٰ عَنْ. It is a formula in the sense of the rule “The repeated formula: same Arabic, same translation”: translation gives it one rendering, "avail nothing", in all six languages.
In the text
مَآ أَغْنَىٰ عَنْهُ مَالُهُۥ وَمَا كَسَبَ“His goods and what he acquired have availed him nothing.”
The past, with مَا.
مَآ أَغْنَىٰ عَنِّى مَالِيَهْ“My goods have not availed me”
The same formula in the first person: the man acknowledges it himself.
لَن تُغْنِىَ عَنْهُمْ أَمْوَٰلُهُمْ وَلَآ أَوْلَٰدُهُم مِّنَ ٱللَّهِ شَيْـًۭٔا“neither their goods nor their children will avail them at all against God”
وَمَا يُغْنِى عَنْهُ مَالُهُۥٓ إِذَا تَرَدَّىٰٓ“And his goods will not avail him when he falls.”
Same structure, same rendering.