6
Suras and narratives 2 / 8
Punishment compared to plant debris
Four accounts of punishment follow the same three-step pattern: a sending "upon them" (a wind, a cry, birds), then the result introduced by فَـ, then a comparison of the bodies to plant debris: palm trunks, dry twigs, devoured stubble.
The four occurrences:
- the Recidivists [Aad], in 54:19-20: « إِنَّآ أَرْسَلْنَا عَلَيْهِمْ رِيحًۭا صَرْصَرًۭا … تَنزِعُ ٱلنَّاسَ كَأَنَّهُمْ أَعْجَازُ نَخْلٍۢ مُّنقَعِرٍۢ », trunks of uprooted palm trees;
- the same, in 69:6-7: a wind "subjected against them", and the people lying "كَأَنَّهُمْ أَعْجَازُ نَخْلٍ خَاوِيَةٍۢ", like hollow trunks of palm trees;
- the Depleters [Thamud], in 54:31: « أَرْسَلْنَا عَلَيْهِمْ صَيْحَةًۭ وَٰحِدَةًۭ فَكَانُوا۟ كَهَشِيمِ ٱلْمُحْتَظِرِ », like the dry twigs of a pen;
- the companions of unreason, in 105:3-5: birds sent upon them, then « فَجَعَلَهُمْ كَعَصْفٍۢ مَّأْكُولٍۭ », like eaten husk.
The comparison is not an isolated ornament: it recurs in four accounts, always in the same place, after the sending and the فَـ of the result. The people who thought themselves strong are reduced to what remains of a plant. So that the reader recognises the pattern, the same Arabic words receive the same words: أَعْجَازُ نَخْلٍ is rendered "trunks of palm trees" in 54:20 as in 69:7.
In the text
تَنزِعُ ٱلنَّاسَ كَأَنَّهُمْ أَعْجَازُ نَخْلٍۢ مُّنقَعِرٍۢ“tearing people away as if they were trunks of uprooted palm trees”
A wind sent (54:19), then the comparison: uprooted trunks.
كَأَنَّهُمْ أَعْجَازُ نَخْلٍ خَاوِيَةٍۢ“as if they were hollow trunks of palm trees”
The same أَعْجَازُ نَخْلٍ, now rendered as in 54:20.
إِنَّآ أَرْسَلْنَا عَلَيْهِمْ صَيْحَةًۭ وَٰحِدَةًۭ فَكَانُوا۟ كَهَشِيمِ ٱلْمُحْتَظِرِ“We sent upon them a single cry, and they became like the dry twigs of a pen-builder.”
All three steps in one sentence: sending, فَـ, comparison.
فَجَعَلَهُمْ كَعَصْفٍۢ مَّأْكُولٍۭ“And did He not reduce them to the state of eaten husk?”
The pattern closes sura 105.