وَقَالَ يَٰبَنِىَّ لَا تَدْخُلُوا۟ مِنۢ بَابٍ وَٰحِدٍ وَٱدْخُلُوا۟ مِنْ أَبْوَٰبٍ مُّتَفَرِّقَةٍ وَمَآ أُغْنِى عَنكُم مِّنَ ٱللَّهِ مِن شَىْءٍ إِنِ ٱلْحُكْمُ إِلَّا لِلَّهِ عَلَيْهِ تَوَكَّلْتُ
"And he said: 'My sons! Do not enter by a single gate; enter by different gates. I cannot avail you anything against God. Judgement belongs to God alone; on Him I have relied, and let those who rely rely on Him alone.' When they entered as their father had commanded them, it availed them nothing against God; it only fulfilled a wish within Jacob's soul. And he was possessed of knowledge, because We had taught him; but most people do not know."
And these two verses are the Qurʾān's plainest text on this question. A precaution is taken, and in the same breath its limit is set.
| Element | Expression |
|---|---|
| The precaution | Lā tadkhulū min bābin wāḥidin wa'dkhulū min abwābin mutafarriqa |
| The limit | Wa-mā ughnī ʿankum mina'llāhi min shayʾ |
| The judgement | Ini'l-ḥukmu illā li'llāh |
| The stance | ʿAlayhi tawakkaltu |
I record this as my own reading, and its ground is the order of the four elements: the precaution is taken and its ineffectiveness is stated at the same moment. That is, the text neither abolishes the precaution nor ascribes power to it.
And verse 68 confirms this: mā kāna yughnī ʿanhum mina'llāhi min shayʾ — the precaution did not change the outcome. Indeed the drinking-cup will still be found in their load.
I give this as an observation about the structure, and it is worth recording: the verse does not say that the precaution served no purpose at all. It says that it did do something, and it names the place where it did it: fī nafsi Yaʿqūb — within him.
That is, the return on the precaution is not in the outer world but in the one who takes it. This is one of the finest notes in the sūra.
The sentence occurred in Joseph's mouth in verse 40, and I tabulated it there. Here its ground is seen: the same sentence in two different contexts — one of divine oneness, the other of precaution.
And the construction of the sentence must be recorded: it is said that he possessed knowledge and its source is added at once: li-mā ʿallamnāhu — "because We had taught him".
I record this as my own reading, and its ground is the preposition (li): the sentence does not give the knowledge as an attribute — it gives it as the result of a teaching. And this lays the ground for the sentence wa-fawqa kulli dhī ʿilmin ʿalīm in verse 76.
مُّتَفَرِّقَة — and the word is worth recording: the same root (ف-ر-ق) occurred in verse 39 as arbābun mutafarriqūn. There the scattering was a defect; here it is a precaution. The same word in two different offices — this is a countable repetition within the sūra.