Make room, and Allah will make room
فَٱفْسَحُوا۟ يَفْسَحِ ٱللَّهُ لَكُمْ
fa-ifsahū yafsaḥi llāhu lakum — then make room; Allah will make room for you
In 58:11 the root ف س ح appears three times in one verse: a command to the believers to make room, their compliance commanded again, and a matching act of 'making room' attributed to Allah in return, so that the human action and the divine response are expressed with the same verb.
Verse 58:11 builds a mirrored exchange on the root ف س ح. The verb appears first as تَفَسَّحُوا۟, a second-person masculine plural imperative, quoted as the words said to the believers: 'when it is said to you, "Make room in the sittings"'. The same imperative then returns as فَٱفْسَحُوا۟, prefixed with fāʾ, commanding compliance: 'then make room'. The third occurrence shifts person and subject: يَفْسَحِ is a third-person masculine singular imperfect in the jussive, with Allah as its subject and the believers as the object of لَكُمْ — 'Allah will make room for you'. The jussive form sits in a result-like position after the commanded act, so the verse presents the divine 'making room' as what follows from the believers' making room. The mirror is exact in root and verb form (Form V in all three words), while the grammatical shift — from second-person plural imperative to third-person singular jussive — marks the passage of the action from the addressed believers to Allah. The verse then constructs a parallel structure on a different root: ٱنشُزُوا۟ 'rise up' is commanded twice, and يَرْفَعِ ٱللَّهُ 'Allah will elevate' answers it, pairing the ف س ح mirror with a cross-root counterpart within the same verse.
Where it occurs
- 58:11 The verse commands the believers twice with the ف س ح imperative and answers with the same verb in the jussive, Allah as subject 'making room' for them in return.
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