Al Muqaddim

Qadam is a foot, and qaddama is to put something forward — this root is about what goes first, and about what a person sends on ahead of themselves.

The form is not written in the Qur’an; the list keeps it directly beside its opposite. The root itself is there, in an ayah about a foot slipping after it had been firmly placed — the everyday version of the same idea, and a reminder that going first is a position rather than an achievement. What arrives early and what arrives late are both arrivals.