Tafsir of At-Tur 52:46

Surah At-Tur (The Mount): Verse 46

(46) A Day when their plotting will not avail them at all, nor will they be helped.

When Allah said, {They will meet their Day} (At-Tur: 45), and every righteous and wicked person will meet their Day, He returned to describe the nature of their Day, mentioning what distinguishes it from the Day of the believers. He said: {A Day when their plotting will not avail them at all}.

This is in contrast to the Day of the believers, concerning whom Allah said: {A Day when the truthful will benefit from their truthfulness} (Al-Ma'idah: 119).

Herein lie several issues:

There are two interpretations for the phrase {A Day}:

1. It is an appositive (badal) for His saying {their Day} (At-Tur: 45).
2. It is an adverb of time (ẓarf) related to the verb {they will meet}, meaning: they will meet their Day on a day...

If one objects, saying this implies that the Day is contained within a Day, making the Day an adverb of the Day, we reply: This is similar to the usage of those who say, "The day of so-and-so's killing will come," or "The day their crimes become clear." There is no inherent prohibition against this. We have already discussed the issue of time and the permissibility of the Day being an adverb in the context of {On that Day} (Yawma'idhin), and the permissibility of adding the word 'Day' to a time reference even though 'Day' itself is a time reference.

Allah Almighty said: {A Day when their plotting will not avail them at all} (lā yughnī ‘anhum kayduhum), and did not say, "A Day when their plotting will not benefit them" (lā yughnīhim kayduhum), even though the verb aghna (to benefit/make sufficient) can be transitive by itself. This is for a subtle linguistic reason:

The phrase "So-and-so benefited me" (Aghnānī kadhā) implies that it brought me something beneficial. However, the phrase "So-and-so availed me/stood in for me" (Aghnā ‘annī) implies that it warded off harm from me.

This is because the literal meaning of aghnānī is "it made me self-sufficient without needing something else." The meaning of aghna ‘annī is "it made me not need to be present," such as when someone requests: "Take my son in my place, for he will avenge me (i.e., stand in for me), thus warding off the hardship of my presence."

Therefore, {will not avail them} (lā yughnī ‘anhum) means it will not ward off harm from them. Undoubtedly, saying "it will not ward off harm from them" is more emphatic than saying "it will not bring them benefit."

However, concerning the believer, if Allah had said, "A Day when their truthfulness will avail them" (yawma yughnī ‘anhum ṣidquhum), it would have been understood as bringing them benefit. Thus, He said: {A Day when the truthful will benefit} (yawma yanfa‘u aṣ-ṣādiqīn) (Al-Ma'idah: 119), as if to say, "A Day when their truthfulness will make them self-sufficient."

It is as if He used the transitive form (yughnīhim) for the believer and the prepositional form (yughnī ‘anhum) for the disbeliever. This is a subtlety that only someone with deep knowledge of rhetoric (‘ilm al-bayān) can grasp by contemplating Allah's verses with a sharp intellect, and may Allah grant success.

The general rule is to place the subject (doer) before the object, and to place the pronoun before the explicit noun.

1. Subject before Object: This is because the subject is intrinsically linked to the verb. For this reason, they say fa‘altu (I did) and keep the lām unvoweled to avoid having four consecutive vowels in one word. They say ḍarabaka (he struck you) but do not keep the kāf unvoweled because the kāf is the pronoun object, which is separate.
2. Pronoun before Explicit Noun: This is for greater conciseness. If you say ḍarabanī Zayd (Zayd struck me), it is more concise than saying ḍaraba Zaydun iyyāya (Zayd struck me). If there is no conciseness gained, such as in murabbī Zayd (the one who raises Zayd) versus murabbīhi, the former (placing the explicit noun first) is preferred.

Here, if Allah had said, {A Day when their plotting will not make them self-sufficient} (lā yughnīhim kayduhum), placing the object (kayduhum) first would have been better according to the rule.

However, by saying {will not avail them} (lā yughnī ‘anhum), it becomes like the case of ḍaraba Zaydun bī (Zayd struck me), where the subject (Zayd) is not placed first. Why?

We say there is a benefit derived from rhetoric: Placing the more important element first is preferable. If He had said, "A Day when their plotting will not make them self-sufficient" (lā yughnī kayduhum), the listener might think, "Perhaps someone else's plotting will avail them," leading them to hope for good regarding others. But when they hear {will not avail them} (lā yughnī ‘anhum), their hope is cut off, and they await the matter that will not be of any avail.

We have previously established that kayd (plotting/scheme) means an action that brings harm to the recipient, even if it appears good from the perspective of the perpetrator. What is the wisdom in specifying the harmful action and not saying, "A Day when their deeds (af‘ālihim) will not avail them at all"?

We reply: This is an argument by way of the more obvious case (al-awlawiyyah). They used to perform actions against the Prophet (PBUH) and the believers, believing these actions to be their best deeds. Thus, Allah mentioned the least effective of their deeds—the very deeds they believed in most—to cut off their hope regarding everything else.

There is another interpretation: Since Allah previously said, {Or do they intend a plot?} (At-Tur: 42), and most commentators agree this refers to their scheme to assassinate the Prophet (PBUH), He then says: {They are the ones plotted against} (i.e., their plot will not benefit them in this world), so what will they do on the Day when that plot neither benefits them nor helps them, but rather harms them?

{nor will they be helped} (wa lā hum yunṣarūn): This has several interpretations:

1. Complementary Explanation: The supplicant first arranges matters to repel harm without needing external help or favor. If that fails, they seek help from others. Thus, Allah says: their own actions will not benefit them, nor will they be helped when they despair and hopelessness sets in.
2. Analogy to Intercession: This refers to the meaning of Allah's saying: {Their intercession will not avail them at all, nor will they be saved} (Yā-Sīn: 23). Thus, {their plotting will not avail them at all} refers to their worship of idols and their claim: {These are our intercessors with Allah} (Yūnus: 18), and their saying: {We only worship them so that they may bring us nearer to Allah} (Az-Zumar: 3). And {nor will they be helped} means they will have no helper, just as they have no intercessor to avert punishment, whether through the intercession of an intercessor or the help of a helper.
3. Grammatical Analysis (Source of the Plot): We can argue that the iḍāfah (genitive construction) in kayduhum is the addition of the verbal noun (masdar) to the object, not the subject. It is as if He meant: "The plot of Satan against them will not avail them."

• Explanation: When you say, a‘jabanī ḍarbu Zaydin ‘Amran (Zayd’s striking of Amr pleased me), and a‘jabanī ḍarbu ‘Amr (Amr’s striking pleased me), if you only state the verbal noun and the following noun, the meaning (whether the noun is the doer or the recipient) is only known by context and intention. If you hear, a‘jabanī ḍarbu Zayd (Zayd’s striking pleased me), it could mean Zayd was the striker or the struck. However, if you hear, a‘jabanī qaṭ‘u al-līṣi ‘alā sariqatihi (The cutting of the thief for his theft pleased me), context indicates that the thief was the one being cut (the object).

• Addressing an Objection: If one objects that this interpretation is flawed because it explains something obvious—that the plot of the plotted-against person is certainly useless—and thus needs no clarification, while the plot of the plotter is thought to be beneficial, we reply: The plot of Satan against them regarding idol worship was something they believed to be beneficial. As for their plot against the Prophet (PBUH), they knew it would not benefit them in the Hereafter; they only sought worldly benefit. Thus, the difficulty shifts back to the proponent of the first view, while both interpretations remain sound upon deeper reflection.

{And indeed, for those who have wronged there is a punishment before that, but most of them do not know.}