وَلَمَّا جَآءَ أَمْرُنَا نَجَّيْنَا شُعَيْبًا وَٱلَّذِينَ ءَامَنُوا۟ مَعَهُۥ بِرَحْمَةٍ مِّنَّا وَأَخَذَتِ ٱلَّذِينَ ظَلَمُوا۟ ٱلصَّيْحَةُ فَأَصْبَحُوا۟ فِى دِيَٰرِهِمْ جَٰثِمِينَ
"When Our command came, We delivered Shuʿayb and those who believed with him by a mercy from Us. And the Cry seized those who had done wrong; morning found them fallen prone in their homes, as though they had never dwelt there. Take note: as Thamūd was put far away, so was Midian."
The sūra closes each narrative with the same three elements, and this is a structure that can be verified from the text:
| Narrative | The deliverance | What seizes | The closing |
|---|---|---|---|
| Noah (11/48-49) | ihbiṭ bi-salām | The flood | — |
| Hūd (11/58-60) | najjaynā Hūdan | rīḥun ṣarṣar (41/16, 54/19, 69/6) | alā buʿdan li-ʿĀd |
| Ṣāliḥ (11/66-68) | najjaynā Ṣāliḥan | al-ṣayḥa | alā buʿdan li-Thamūd |
| Lot (11/81-83) | fa-asri bi-ahlik | ḥijāratun min sijjīl | wa mā hiya … bi-baʿīd |
| Shuʿayb (11/94-95) | najjaynā Shuʿayban | al-ṣayḥa | alā buʿdan li-Madyana kamā baʿidat Thamūd |
And the last closing refers back to an earlier one: kamā baʿidat Thamūd. The fifth seal, that is, cites the third.
Jāthimīn (ج-ث-م) and ka-an lam yaghnaw fīhā (غ-ن-ي) were treated in the Ṣāliḥ narrative (11/67-68); here they are repeated letter for letter.
| Place | Pattern | Sense |
|---|---|---|
| 11/89 | wa mā … bi-baʿīd | Not far — nearness |
| 11/95 | alā buʿdan li-Madyan | Away with them — expulsion |
The same root, six verses apart, once as a warning and once as a verdict. The warning said "not far"; the verdict says "away with them".