in his head,” “he felt pain in his belly,” and “he was rightly guided in his affairs.” The underlying constructions were “his soul was foolish” and “his affairs followed the right course.”

Other examples include “his judgment was weak” and “his soul grew insolent.” Allah’s words:

“Grew insolent in its livelihood”

belong to this category: it is the livelihood itself that is described as insolent. Thus, when the verb … (1), He made the noun accusative as a specifying complement. Allah Most High says:

“And do not be like those who came out of their homes in insolence and to show off before people.”

Thus, His words “makes a fool of himself” mean “except one whose soul is foolish”—that is, whose soul is characterized by foolishness. When He attributed the verb to the person, He made “his soul” accusative as a specifying complement, as in His words:

“And my head has flared with grey hair,”

and similar expressions. This is the interpretation preferred by Ibn Qutayba and others. However, “grey hair” is indefinite, whereas “his soul” is definite. This explanation given by the Kufan grammarians is more sound in both language and meaning, for it is the person himself who is foolish, as Allah Most High says:

“The foolish among the people will say,”

and:

“And do not give to the foolish.”

Likewise, His words “You betray yourselves” mean “your souls commit betrayal”: it is the souls that have committed betrayal, just as it is they that are foolish.

He used ikhtānat rather than khānat, because the augmented form ifti‘āl conveys an additional degree of action beyond simple betrayal. ‘Ikrima said: “What is meant by ‘those who betray themselves’ is Ibn Ubayriq, who stole food and cloth. He and his people began saying, ‘It was so-and-so who stole it,’ referring to another man.”