The Quran

100

۞ وَمَن يُهاجِر في سَبيلِ اللَّهِ يَجِد فِي الأَرضِ مُراغَمًا كَثيرًا وَسَعَةً ۚ وَمَن يَخرُج مِن بَيتِهِ مُهاجِرًا إِلَى اللَّهِ وَرَسولِهِ ثُمَّ يُدرِكهُ المَوتُ فَقَد وَقَعَ أَجرُهُ عَلَى اللَّهِ ۗ وَكانَ اللَّهُ غَفورًا رَحيمًا

Muhammad Asad

And he who forsakes the domain of evil for the sake of God shall find on earth many a lonely road,¹ as well as life abundant. And if anyone leaves his home, fleeing from evil unto God and His Apostle, and then death overtakes him - his reward is ready with God: for God is indeed much-forgiving, a dispenser of grace.

The word muragham is derived from the noun ragham ("dust") and is connected with the idiomatic expression raghima anfuhu, "his nose was made to cleave to dust", i.e., he became humbled and forced to do something against his will. Thus, muragham denotes "a road by the taking of which one leaves one's people against their will" (Zamakhshari), it being understood that this separation from one's familiar environment involves what is described as muraghamah, the "breaking off (from another)" or the "cutting off from friendly or living communion" (see Lane III, 1113). All this can best be rendered, in the above context, as "a lonely road" - a metaphor of that heartbreaking loneliness which almost always accompanies the first steps of one who sets forth on his "exodus from evil unto God". (Regarding this latter expression, see note on verse 97 above as well as surah 2, verse 218.)