وَإِذَآ أَذَقْنَا ٱلنَّاسَ رَحْمَةً مِّنۢ بَعْدِ ضَرَّآءَ مَسَّتْهُمْ إِذَا لَهُم مَّكْرٌ فِىٓ ءَايَاتِنَا
"When We let people taste a mercy after an affliction has touched them, at once they have a scheme against Our signs. Say: 'God is swifter in scheming.' Our messengers are writing down the schemes you devise."
| Verse | Subject | After the affliction |
|---|---|---|
| 12 | al-Insān — singular | Marra — he passes on |
| 21 | al-Nās — plural | Lahum makrun fī āyātinā — they scheme |
The two verses carry the same structure nine verses apart (massa / massathum, then deliverance, then the response) and in the second the conduct passes from passivity to activity. I record this as my own reading; its ground is the shared pattern of the two verses.
The root م-ك-ر: to lay a plan in secret, to take a measure without letting it be sensed. The lexicographers also give the root sense as "to turn a thing from its proper direction".
In the classical commentaries this usage is explained as mushākala: to answer with the very word the other side has used. It does not mean "God too deceives", but "He is the one who answers their scheme". I relate this explanation as it is transmitted.
And the epithet chosen is asraʿ — "swifter". I record this as an observation: the comparison is set up not in power but in speed. What is stated is not the quality of the scheme but that it comes first.
إِنَّ رُسُلَنَا يَكْتُبُونَ مَا تَمْكُرُونَ — rusul here means the angels; the lexicographers record that the sense "those sent" makes this possible. At al-Raʿd 13/11 the same field was treated on the occasion of muʿaqqibāt; I rely on that treatment.