before and behind: a framing pair
بَيْنِ أَيْدِيهِمْ وَمِنْ خَلْفِهِمْ
bayna aydīhim wa-min khalfihim — from in front of them and from behind them
Across these verses the pair "in front of" (literally "between the hands") and "behind" recurs as a fixed frame that encloses a person or thing from both directions, applied to attack, protection, knowledge, warning, and obstruction; read together, the occurrences show the pair functioning as a complete two-sided enclosure whose meaning is supplied entirely by the verb that governs it.
The pair combines bayna aydīhim (literally "between their hands", i.e. in front of them) with khalfihim ("behind them"), and in the verses given it always appears as a matched couple, never one member alone. What changes is the action done to the enclosed party. In (7:17) the speaker vows to come at them from all four directions, of which this pair supplies the first two, an assault. In (13:11) attendants stand in front of and behind a man to guard him, the same frame turned to protection. In (21:28) and (22:76) the frame belongs to knowledge: He knows what is between their hands and what is behind them, enclosing the known rather than the knower. In (36:9) barriers are placed in front of and behind them so that they do not see, an enclosure that blinds. In (36:45) the pair marks what people are told to be wary of on both sides. In (41:14) messengers come from before and behind with a message; in (41:25) companions make appealing what was before and behind them; in (41:42) falsehood cannot come to the sending-down from before it or behind it, the frame now guarding a text. In (46:21) warners passed away before and after him, extending the pair into time; in (72:27) watchers are inserted before and behind a messenger. The pair itself carries no single sense: it is a spatial frame that each verb fills.
Where it occurs
- 7:17 Two of four directions from which the speaker vows to come at them.
- 13:11 Positions of attendants who guard a man from in front and behind.
- 21:28 Objects of knowledge: He knows what is between their hands and what is behind them.
- 22:76 Objects of knowledge, paired with the return of all affairs to Allah.
- 34:9 What is before and behind them of the sky and the earth, which they have not seen.
- 36:9 Positions of two barriers placed so that they do not see.
- 36:45 What people are told to be wary of on both sides of them.
- 41:14 Directions from which the messengers came to them.
- 41:25 What the assigned companions made appealing to them, before and behind.
- 41:42 Directions from which falsehood does not come to the sending-down.
- 46:21 Warners who had passed away before him and after him.
- 72:27 Positions where watchers in ambush are inserted around a messenger.
All Qur'anic expressions