The Ocean of the Quran

A verse by verse explanation of The Ultimate Scripture

Al-Fajr – Verse 7

إِرَمَ ذاتِ العِمادِ

Iram, [the city] of the [lofty] pillars.

EXEGESIS

The proper noun Iram is variously identified as the name of the legendary capital city of the people of ʿĀd, or alternatively as a tribe rather than the name of a place.‎[1] Additional considerations for this term are discussed under Exposition.

The noun ʿimād, which is in the singular, means pole, pillar, colonnade, support, lofty structure, and building supported on a colonnade. It is also suggested to mean tent pole/s, enabling the dwellers to travel in search of pasture.‎[2]

EXPOSITION

Ṭabrisī writes that iram occurs as an explanatory apposition (ʿaṭf bayān) to ʿĀd, that is, as a second expression identifying or supplementing the first expression‎[3] and thus synonymous with ʿĀd. But what does it refer to exactly in its role as an explanatory apposition to ʿĀd?

Several suggestions have been made for the identity of iram, yet two identifications appear more popular among the exegetes, which are that it refers to a city inhabited by the people of ʿĀd,‎[4] or that it refers to a distinct group of people‎[5] such as a tribe, community, or civilisation. The latter opinion is attributed to Abū ʿUbaydah‎[6] and Mujāhid.‎[7] However, Tabatabai inclined to the idea that iram refers to a city, which he argued comes across from the apparent sense of these verses. He further writes that time has erased traces of this city and only that which is narrated about it in the Quran is available to us as information.‎[8] Yet as noted earlier, at least one verse in the Quran seems to suggest that the ruined vestiges of the people of ʿĀd were visible and observable to the contemporaries of Prophet Muhammad (s) (29:38). Recently, archaeologists have identified the site of a caravan city dating from the first millennium BCE in the desert north of the Dhofar region of Oman as the site of the fabled city of Iram.‎[9] On the other hand, Ṭabrisī writes that if iram refers to a distinct group of people, then it is a name given to it because of it being named after a common ancestor, Iram.‎[10] Hence it is suggested that Iram was the grandfather of ʿĀd: ʿĀd ibn Aws ibn Iram ibn Sām ibn Nūḥ.‎[11] In light of this, iram could be a subgroup of the people of ʿĀd, or just another name for the same entity, i.e. the people of ʿĀd; this latter view was an opinion held by Jubbāʾī, who is attributed to have suggested that iram refers to a title for the people of ʿĀd.‎[12] However, Tabatabai expresses doubt on the identification of iram to mean a distinct group of people as it does not sit well with the apparent meaning of these verses,‎[13] yet Ṭabarī, while mentioning both suggestions as potentially correct explanations for this term, added that his preferred opinion was that it referred to a distinct group of people.‎[14] Here, Mudarrisi offers an ingenious solution for these two competing suggestions regarding the identity of iram. He reconciles them by writing that iram could be considered both the name of a people and the place they inhabited, since customarily a place is known by its inhabitants.‎[15]

The choice of identification for the term iram has an effect on the second half of the verse, which is the identification and meaning of the term ʿimād, which we defined previously. If iram is understood to refer to a city then ʿimād means a reference to tall, lofty buildings standing on pillars or a colonnade,‎[16] which Ṭūsī reports was the opinion of Hasan al-Baṣrī and Ibn Zayd.‎[17] Hence, Mudarrisi, who writes that the word ʿimād means tall, lofty buildings standing on pillars/colonnade, writes further that in Arabic, a person whose house is tall and lofty like a signpost, making it easy for those wishing to go to it, is called ṭawīl al-ʿimād – of lofty build.‎[18]

It would probably be useful to make the following note here. The term ʿimād is a noun in the singular and its plural is ʿumud and aʿmidah.‎[19] The meaning of this term in the singular is: pole, pillar, colonnade, support, lofty structure, and building supported on a colonnade. Yet translators tend to translate this word in this verse in the plural, that is, as pillars, poles, tent pegs, etc., and even the exegetes interpret this term in the plural. How does one reconcile this anomaly? It may be possible to reconcile this anomaly by bringing to mind one of the suggested meanings of this term in its singular form, which is: a colonnade. A colonnade does refer to a series of regularly spaced columns that support something. These columns could be pillars and even a line of trees. Hence, it is probable that the translation of this verse as [the city] of the [lofty] pillars is made in light of this meaning. Perhaps it was a city built on a colonnade (i.e. pillars) or supported by one.

On the other hand, if iram is identified with a distinct group of people then ʿimād could refer to their huge and tall stature, physical comportment,‎[20] and strength,‎[21] which Ṭūsī writes was the opinion of Ibn Abbas and Mujāhid, who maintained that the phrase dhāt al-ʿimād meant their tall stature.‎[22] This was also the opinion of Muqātil.‎[23] Al-Ḍaḥḥāk understood it to mean ‘possessing immense power’.‎[24] Their being a tall statured people is insinuated in the Quran. The verses of 7:69, 54:19-20, and 68:7-8 depict them as resembling uprooted date palm trees after their punishment had abated. Such a description could probably prove their huge and tall stature, physical comportment, and strength.

Taking a cue from Mudarrisi’s ingenious reconciliation regarding the identity of iram, it could be argued that the phrase dhāt al-ʿimād can be taken to mean both tall stature and lofty buildings, since if iram could be considered to be the name of a people and the place they inhabited, then the phrase dhāt al-ʿimād can be taken to mean their tall stature and their lofty buildings. And God knows best.

REVIEW OF TAFSĪR LITERATURE

Iram as a city is sometimes identified in the sources as the city of Damascus or the city of Alexandria.‎[25] However, Rāzī writes that there are some who have criticised and rejected these two locations for the city of Iram because its location is said to have been in south or south-east Arabia‎[26] while these two named cities are in north-west Arabia and North Africa, respectively.

From among the less popular identifications suggested for iram is that it refers to the signposts or landmarks of the people of ʿĀd which they built in the form of minarets or graves.‎[27] As observed previously, 26:128-130 does say that the people of ʿĀd had a tendency to extravagantly build signs on every prominence.

With respect to the identity of ʿimād, Rāzī makes a curious statement in his commentary. He writes that if the term iram is taken to mean a distinct group of people then the term ʿimād refers to their Bedouin lifestyle which required living in tents, which consequently required the support and use of tent poles or pegs. Thus he seems to be identifying the term ʿimād to mean tent poles or tent pegs. Mujāhid is also reported by Suyūṭī to have apparently been of the opinion that dhāt al-ʿimād meant ‘the people of the tent poles’ as they did not stay put in one place. He is however also attributed to have had an alternative explanation where he said that iram meant ‘a community’ and dhāt al-ʿimād meant their tall stature which rose high up in the sky.‎[28]

However, the Quran does not portray the people of ʿĀd as a nomadic people, but rather suggests that they were a sedentary people. In 26:128-135 they are described as a people that built and thus possessed monuments and fortresses, livestock and sons, and gardens and springs. Hence, the suggestion that they were a roving nomadic people living in tents seems improbable from this perspective.

[1] Arabic-English Dictionary of Qur’anic Usage, pp. 25-36.
[2] Arabic-English Dictionary of Qur’anic Usage, p. 642.
[3] Tabrisi.J, 4/486; Zamakhshari, 4/746.
[4] Tabrisi, 10/737; Razi, 31/153.
[5] Tabrisi.J, 6/486.
[6] Tabrisi.J, 6/486.
[7] Nahj al-Bayān ʿan Kashf Maʿānī al-Qurʾān, 5/360.
[8] Mizan, 20/280-281.
[9] Arab Prophets of the Qur’an and the Bible, p. 38.
[10] Tabrisi.J, 6/486.
[11] Tabrisi, 10/737.
[12] Tabrisi, 10/737.
[13] Mizan, 20/280-281.
[14] Tabari, 30/112.
[15] Mudarrisi, 18/90.
[16] Razi, 31/153; al-Aṣfā fī Tafsīr al-Qurʾān, 2/1439; Irshād al-Adhhān, 1/599; Tabrisi, 10/737.
[17] Tibyan, 10/42; Tabrisi.J, 6/485.
[18] Mudarrisi, 18/90.
[19] Hans Wehr, p. 752.
[20] Razi, 31/153; Tabrisi.J, 6/486; Irshād al-Adhhān, 1/599.
[21] Tabrisi, 10/737.
[22] Tibyan, 10/342.
[23] Muqatil, 4/687.
[24] Tibyan, 10/342.
[25] Tabrisi, 10/737.
[26] Razi, 31/153.
[27] Razi, 31/153.
[28] Suyuti, 6/347.