Ṣabbār Shakūr: signs for the enduring and grateful
صَبَّارٍ شَكُورٍ
ṣabbār shakūr — greatly endures and is greatly grateful
In all four occurrences the pair closes the fixed formula 'in that are signs for every...' (inna fī dhālika laāyātin li-kulli...), marking the intended readers of the signs just described: those who endure and give thanks. The pair names the two dispositions required to read the verse's signs.
The pair ṣabbār shakūr always appears as the closing element of the formula 'inna fī dhālika laāyātin li-kulli ṣabbār shakūr' — 'surely in that are signs for every one who greatly endures and is greatly grateful.' The demonstrative 'that' points back to what the verse has just narrated, so the pair defines the audience for whom those events count as signs. In (14:5) the signs are the sending of Moses, the command to bring a people 'from the darknesses into the light,' and the reminder of 'the days of Allah'; in (31:31) they are ships running in the sea by Allah's favor; in (34:19) they are the destruction of a people who asked for distance between their journeys and 'wronged their own selves'; in (42:33) they are the wind that can be stilled at will, leaving ships motionless. Ṣabbār is built on the fa''āl pattern and shakūr on the fa''ūl pattern; the Qur'an elsewhere calls God shakūr, while ṣabbār is said only of human beings, so the pair joins a specifically human endurance to a gratitude the Qur'an also attributes to God. The pairing of a destructive sign (34:19) with beneficent ones (14:5, 31:31) shows that the same double disposition is what turns both blessing and punishment into legible signs.
Where it occurs
- 14:5 Closes the verse by naming those for whom the signs in Moses' mission and the days of Allah are signs.
- 31:31 Closes the verse by naming those who can read the sign of ships running by Allah's favor.
- 34:19 Closes the verse by naming those for whom the destruction of the people who wronged their own selves is a sign.
- 42:33 Closes the verse by naming those who read the sign of the wind stilled at Allah's will.
All Qur'anic expressions