Yūnus 10:90-92

Wa jāwaznā bi-banī Isrāʾīla'l-baḥra fa-atbaʿahum Firʿawnu wa junūduhū baghyan wa ʿadwā, ḥattā idhā adrakahu'l-gharaqu qāla āmantu annahū lā ilāha illa'lladhī āmanat bihī banū Isrāʾīla wa ana mina'l-muslimīn · Āl'āna wa qad ʿaṣayta qablu wa kunta mina'l-mufsidīn · Fa'l-yawma nunajjīka bi-badanika li-takūna li-man khalfaka āyatan, wa inna kathīran mina'n-nāsi ʿan āyātinā la-ghāfilūn

"We brought the Children of Israel across the sea; Pharaoh and his troops pursued them in overreaching and enmity. Then, when the drowning overtook him, he said: 'I believe that there is no god but the one in whom the Children of Israel believe; and I am among those who submit.' · 'Now? When you disobeyed before and were among those who spread corruption!' · Today We shall save you in your body, so that you may be a sign to those who come after you. But many people are indeed heedless of Our signs."

This principle was treated in two places in the index and I rely on them.

At Ghāfir (al-Muʾmin) 40/84-85 (fa-lammā raʾaw baʾsanā qālū āmannā bi'llāhi waḥdahū … fa-lam yaku yanfaʿuhum īmānuhum lammā raʾaw baʾsanā) what was recorded was this: the belief comes not by proof but by sight; and the ground of the refusal is named as a rule: sunnata'llāhi'llatī qad khalat fī ʿibādih — the way that has always run, it was so in the past as well.

At al-Zumar 39/56-59 three excuses were tabulated, and it was recorded there: the second excuse ("if only I had been guided") is refused with balā qad jāʾatka āyātī.

The three places can be set side by side:

And what Yūnus adds must be recorded: the ground is rested not on a rule but on the addressee's own past. Qablu — "before". The verdict is given in a personalised form.

And the link with the fifty-first verse closes here: the same word (a-āl'āna), the same pattern (wa qad …). The sūra laid down the rule in the fifty-first verse and applied it in the ninety-first. This is a weave that can be verified within the sūra, and I record it as my own reading.

أَدْرَكَهُ ٱلْغَرَقُ — the root د-ر-ك: to catch up with, to reach, to overtake. And the word order must be recorded: the subject is the drowning, the object Pharaoh. The sentence, that is, does not say "he drowned": it says "the drowning overtook him".

I record this as my own reading: the verse relates the event not as an act of Pharaoh's but as the overtaking of him by something that came after him. And the preceding sentence was already a scene of pursuit: fa-atbaʿahum — he had gone after them. The pursuer becomes the pursued. This is an observation that follows from the verse's own choice of verbs.

And the pattern ḥattā idhā must be recorded. It occurs three times in the sūra:

Three occurrences, one pattern. And in all three the same work is done: a process is related, and then with ḥattā idhā the breaking point comes.

I record this as my own reading, and its ground is the repetition of the pattern: the sūra marks the moment of the break three times with the same grammatical instrument. And in all three the break comes at the peak — while the ship runs on a fair wind, while the field is at its most splendid, while the pursuer is about to catch up.

بَغْيًا وَعَدْوًا — and the word baghy comes from the twenty-third verse.

The same root: in the one the conduct on land of those saved from the sea, in the other the conduct of one who is about to drown in it. I record this as an observation about the wording.

This expression is one of the most debated places in the sūra. I give the classical explanations in a table.

The root ب-د-ن: body, frame; and the lexicographers record in particular the sense of a body without a soul or a large, bulky body. Badana — a large animal for sacrifice.

And the work of the particle bi- has been dwelt on.

All four explanations are transmitted in the classical sources; I do not impose a preference.

And the fourth explanation about the root ن-ج-و is worth recording, because it rests on the concrete sense of the word: najwa — a raised place, a mound. The sense "to be saved" comes from this picture: when the flood comes, the one who climbs high is saved. I relate this derivation as the lexicographers record it.

Per the method (Method) I draw a plain limit, and writing it is obligatory:

I draw no conclusion from this verse about modern archaeology, about any mummy held in a museum, or about any particular historical person. The verse gives no name, no date, no place. One does not enter into detail the Qurʾān does not give — this is the rule this series applies in the narratives. And once such a link is made, the truth of the text is bound to the fate of the link. The same reasoning was written at al-Sajda 32/5 and in al-Maʿārij; I rely on that treatment.

لِتَكُونَ لِمَنْ خَلْفَكَ ءَايَةً — "so that you may be a sign to those who come after you."

And the word must be recorded: āya — a sign, a proof. Throughout the sūra āya had been used of God's proofs (5, 6, 15, 20, 21, 67, 92, 97, 101). Here a human being becomes a sign.

I record this as my own reading, and its ground is the use of the word within the sūra: in the twentieth verse a sign (a miracle) had been demanded. In the ninety-second verse a sign is given — but not to the one who demanded it, to those who come after; and the thing that becomes the proof is the demander himself.

وَإِنَّ كَثِيرًا مِّنَ ٱلنَّاسِ عَنْ ءَايَٰتِنَا لَغَٰفِلُونَ — and the verse ends by saying that even a proof that is given may go unnoticed.

I record this as an observation about the word order: the sentence at once qualifies the elation of the preceding sentence. And the word ghafla comes from the seventh verse: wa'lladhīna hum ʿan āyātinā ghāfilūn. It is a repetition that can be verified within the sūra.