Then those waves are themselves covered by clouds.

Here, then, are layers of darkness: the darkness of the deep sea, the darkness of the waves above it, and the darkness of the clouds above them all. If someone in this sea puts out his hand, he can hardly see it.

There is disagreement over what this means.

Many grammarians said: It denies his coming anywhere close to seeing it. This is more emphatic than denying that he sees it, since the occurrence of something may be denied without denying that it nearly occurred. It is as though He said: He did not come anywhere close to seeing it.

These scholars said: Kāda (“almost”) is one of the verbs of approximation and follows the same rules of affirmation and negation as other verbs. Thus, saying “He almost did it” affirms that the action nearly occurred, while saying “He hardly did it” denies that it even came close to occurring.

Another group said: Rather, this indicates that he sees it only after great difficulty. It thus affirms that he sees it, but only with the utmost difficulty because of those layers of darkness.

They said: Kāda has a property unlike that of other verbs: when affirmative, it negates; when negative, it affirms. When you say, “I could hardly reach you,” the meaning is: I reached you after great effort and difficulty. This therefore affirms that you reached the person. But when you say, “Zayd almost stood up,” it negates his having stood up. As Allah Most High says:

“And when the servant of Allah stood up calling upon Him, they almost crowded around him in dense throngs.” [72:19]

Another example is His saying, Most High:

“And indeed, those who disbelieve almost make you slip with their eyes when they hear the Reminder.” [68:51]

One of them recited the following riddle on this subject:

O grammarian of this age, what is the word
That passed upon the tongues of Jurhum and Thamūd?
When used in negative form, it affirms;
Yet when affirmed, it serves to deny?

A third group, including Abū Abd Allāh ibn Mālik and others, said: Its affirmative use entails the negation of its predicate, as when you say, “Zayd almost stood up,” while its negative use entails