قُلْ أَرَءَيْتُمْ إِنْ أَتَىٰكُمْ عَذَابُهُۥ بَيَٰتًا أَوْ نَهَارًا … أَثُمَّ إِذَا مَا وَقَعَ ءَامَنتُم بِهِۦٓ ءَآلْـَٰٔنَ وَقَدْ كُنتُم بِهِۦ تَسْتَعْجِلُونَ · وَيَسْتَنۢبِـُٔونَكَ أَحَقٌّ هُوَ قُلْ إِى وَرَبِّىٓ إِنَّهُۥ لَحَقٌّ
"Say: 'Tell me: if His punishment comes to you by night or by day, what part of it do the guilty seek to hasten?' · 'Will you believe in it only once it has fallen? Now? When you were the ones seeking to hasten it!' · Then it will be said to those who did wrong: 'Taste the lasting punishment! Are you being repaid with anything but what you earned?' · They ask you: 'Is it true?' Say: 'Yes, by my Lord, it is true; and you cannot escape it.'"
| Verse | To whom it is said | Sentence |
|---|---|---|
| 51 | To those who sought to hasten the punishment | A-āl'āna wa qad kuntum bihī tastaʿjilūn |
| 91 | To Pharaoh | A-āl'āna wa qad ʿaṣayta qablu |
The same word, the same pattern (a-āl'āna wa qad …), two distinct addressees. This is a repetition that can be counted and verified within the sūra.
I record this as my own reading, and its ground is the sameness of pattern in the two sentences: the sūra gives the question of faith that does not come in time first as a general rule (51) and then with an example from history (91). And in both the objection is made to the same point: "now?" What is refused, that is, is not the content of the faith but its time.
And the difference between the two verses must be recorded too: in the fifty-first verse the charge is seeking haste (kuntum bihī tastaʿjilūn); in the ninety-first it is disobedience (ʿaṣayta qablu). Two distinct pasts, one outcome.
بَيَٰتًا أَوْ نَهَارًا — and this pair has the same structure as laylan aw nahārā in the twenty-fourth verse.
Bayāt — the root ب-ي-ت: to pass the night. Bayātan — at night, while asleep. The word is narrower than laylan in the twenty-fourth verse: not merely night, but the state of being asleep at night.
The question exposes a break in the logic: what is sought in haste is the very thing that will not be wanted when it comes. And the eleventh verse had already stated the outcome of this haste.
This verse had taken its place in the table set up at Sabaʾ 34/3. I take the table from there, because one of the verses is this one:
| Place | Expression | What is sworn to |
|---|---|---|
| Yūnus 10/53 | Qul ī wa rabbī innahū la-ḥaqq | The reality of the punishment |
| Sabaʾ 34/3 | Qul balā wa rabbī la-taʾtiyannakum | That the Hour will come |
| al-Taghābun 64/7 | Qul balā wa rabbī la-tubʿathunna | That the resurrection will take place |
And the difference recorded in the section on Sabaʾ holds here too: the oath is by wa rabbī, that is, by the speaker's own Lord.
The difference that belongs here is the particle: in Sabaʾ and al-Taghābun there is balā (the particle of answer that rebuts a negative); in Yūnus there is ī — a particle in Arabic meaning "yes", used only together with an oath. The word occurs only here in the Qurʾān.
And the reason lies in the sentence itself, and I record this as an observation about the language: the question is asked not in the negative but in the affirmative — a-ḥaqqun huwa ("is it true?"). An affirmative question is answered not with balā but with ī. This is a choice required by the grammar.
وَيَسْتَنۢبِـُٔونَكَ — Form X: to ask for news, to seek information. The root ن-ب-أ: news that matters, news that has consequences.
أَحَقٌّ هُوَ — and the backbone word of the sūra occurs here as a question. The answer is given with the same word: innahū la-ḥaqq. The question, that is, is answered with the question's own word.