Hūd 11:66-68

fa-lammā jāʾa amrunā najjaynā Ṣāliḥan wa'lladhīna āmanū maʿahū bi-raḥmatin minnā wa min khizyi yawmiʾidh, inna rabbaka huwa'l-qawiyyu'l-ʿazīz · wa akhadha'lladhīna ẓalamū'l-ṣayḥatu fa-aṣbaḥū fī diyārihim jāthimīn · ka-an lam yaghnaw fīhā, alā inna Thamūda kafarū rabbahum, alā buʿdan li-Thamūd

"When Our command came, We delivered Ṣāliḥ and those who believed with him by a mercy from Us, and from the disgrace of that day. Your Lord is indeed the Strong, the Mighty. · And the Cry seized those who had done wrong, and morning found them fallen prone in their homes · — as though they had never dwelt there. Take note: Thamūd denied their Lord. Take note: away with Thamūd!"

Root: ص-ي-ح — to shout aloud. Ṣayḥa — a single cry.

The word occurs in many places in the Qurʾān as the instrument of destruction and has been treated across this series (Yāsīn 36/29 and 36/49, al-Ḥijr — not in this series, al-Qamar 54/31 — there ṣayḥatan wāḥida). I rely on Yāsīn.

And in Hūd the word occurs twice: for Thamūd (67) and for Midian (94) — in word-for-word the same sentence.

The two sentences are identical but for a single letter (the feminine tāʾ of the verb). This is the longest word-for-word repetition in Sūrat Hūd, and it can be verified from the text.

I record this as an observation and compare it with the seal technique of al-Shuʿarāʾ: in al-Shuʿarāʾ the repetition was the closing formula; in Hūd the repetition is the depiction of the destruction. What is repeated in Hūd, that is, is not the outcome but the event itself.

The root ج-ث-م: to sink down in a place and stay there, to collapse onto the knees. The lexicographers record that the word is used of a bird crouching to the ground as well.

And the choice of word must be recorded: the verse does not say "they died". It says "they were left fallen prone in their homes" — the body in its place, and no life in it.

The root غ-ن-ي: to have no need of a thing; and to remain in a place, to dwell. Maghnā — the place one lives in.

And the sentence occurs twice in Hūd: 68 (Thamūd) and 95 (Midian). Both in the same position: immediately after the depiction of the destruction.

I record this as an observation: the sentence is one of following a trace — that when one looks back, nothing at all is left. And at al-Shuʿarāʾ 26/128-129 the monuments and strongholds of ʿĀd were mentioned. The two depictions can be read together: the things built were thought to be lasting.

And at the end of the sixty-sixth verse the address changes: inna rabbak — "your Lord".

Inside the narrative, in the middle of a third-person telling, the text turns suddenly to the Prophet. This is the technique called iltifāt in Arabic (a shift in the direction of address), and it has been treated in many places across this series.

And the choice of names must be recorded: al-Qawiyyu'l-ʿAzīz. The attribute that stood out in Thamūd was strength (carving houses out of the mountains — al-Shuʿarāʾ 26/149). The name cited at the closing is likewise a name of strength.

I record this as my own reading, and it is not binding: the sūra closes each narrative with a name suited to that narrative's subject. This is a choice that departs from the fixed seal of al-Shuʿarāʾ (each time al-ʿAzīzu'l-Raḥīm).

And it can be verified as a table:

Four narratives, four different pairs of names. This is a difference that can be verified from the text.