قَالُوا۟ يَٰشُعَيْبُ مَا نَفْقَهُ كَثِيرًا مِّمَّا تَقُولُ وَإِنَّا لَنَرَىٰكَ فِينَا ضَعِيفًا وَلَوْلَا رَهْطُكَ لَرَجَمْنَٰكَ وَمَآ أَنتَ عَلَيْنَا بِعَزِيزٍ
"They said: 'Shuʿayb! We do not understand much of what you say. We see you as weak among us. Were it not for your clan we would surely have stoned you. You are not mighty over us.'"
| Expression | What it admits |
|---|---|
| mā nafqahu kathīran mimmā taqūl | We do not understand — but we have decided |
| innā la-narāka fīnā ḍaʿīfā | Our measure is strength |
| wa law lā rahṭuka la-rajamnāk | And what holds us back from you is a clan, not an argument |
I record this as my own reading: the third sentence refutes the second out of their own mouths — the reason they cannot touch a man they call "weak" is a balance of power they themselves acknowledge.
The root fiqh (ف-ق-ه) was treated at al-Tawba 9/122 (li-yatafaqqahū fi'l-dīn). There a journey was undertaken in order to understand; here judgement is passed without understanding.
قَالَ يَٰقَوْمِ أَرَهْطِىٓ أَعَزُّ عَلَيْكُم مِّنَ ٱللَّهِ وَٱتَّخَذْتُمُوهُ وَرَآءَكُمْ ظِهْرِيًّا (92)
The answer takes up the word they used and puts it back in place: they had said mā anta ʿalaynā bi-ʿazīz; the messenger asks a-rahṭī aʿazzu ʿalaykum mina'llāh. The same root (ع-ز-ز), in the same context, two verses apart.
وَرَآءَكُمْ ظِهْرِيًّا — ẓihriyy: root ظ-ه-ر — "back". The idiom means to throw a thing behind one's back, to pay it no heed. The lexicographers record it as an expression used of what is abandoned, what is not needed.
إِنَّ رَبِّى بِمَا تَعْمَلُونَ مُحِيطٌ — and ʿadhāba yawmin muḥīṭ from eight verses earlier (84) finds its counterpart here. What is thrown behind is what encompasses.
The same sentence comes a second time in the sūra — at 11/121, where it will this time be spoken to the Prophet: wa qul li'lladhīna lā yuʾminūna'ʿmalū ʿalā makānatikum innā ʿāmilūn.
I record this as an observation about the structure: the sūra gives the sentence Shuʿayb speaks to his people, twenty-eight verses later, directly to the one addressed. The narrative ceases to be a counsel and becomes an instruction.
وَٱرْتَقِبُوٓا۟ إِنِّى مَعَكُمْ رَقِيبٌ — the root raqaba (ر-ق-ب): to watch, to wait. The imperative and the noun come one after the other from the same root: "watch, and I am watching with you".