Al-Hijr
IN THE NAME OF GOD, THE MOST GRACIOUS, THE DISPENSER OF GRACE
[15:60]
excepting only his wife, [of whom God says,] ‘We have ordained [that], behold, she should be among those who stay behind!’"


* v.60 : See 7:83 and the corresponding note 66, as well as 11:81 and 66:10. My interpolation of the words “of whom God says” is necessitated by the elliptic use of the verb qaddarnā – which, in the sense of “We have ordained” or “decreed,” is an act attributed in the Qur’ān invariably, and exclusively, to God. As I have repeatedly pointed out in my notes, God’s “ordaining” a sinner to commit a sin or His “decreeing” that he should remain deaf to the voice of truth is a metonym for the natural law instituted by Him, which has been explained in sūrah 2, note 7; it refers also, generally speaking, to God’s absolute fore-knowledge of how any of His creatures will act in a given situation (Zamakhsharī). See also note 56 on 11:34 and note 4 on 14:4.