وَقَالَ ٱلَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا۟ لِرُسُلِهِمْ لَنُخْرِجَنَّكُم مِّنْ أَرْضِنَآ أَوْ لَتَعُودُنَّ فِى مِلَّتِنَا ۖ فَأَوْحَىٰٓ إِلَيْهِمْ رَبُّهُمْ لَنُهْلِكَنَّ ٱلظَّٰلِمِينَ · وَلَنُسْكِنَنَّكُمُ ٱلْأَرْضَ مِنۢ بَعْدِهِمْ ۚ ذَٰلِكَ لِمَنْ خَافَ مَقَامِى وَخَافَ وَعِيدِ
Wa qāla'lladhīna kafarū li-rusulihim la-nukhrijannakum min arḍinā aw la-taʿūdunna fī millatinā · Fa-awḥā ilayhim rabbuhum la-nuhlikanna'ẓ-ẓālimīn · Wa la-nuskinannakumu'l-arḍa min baʿdihim · Dhālika li-man khāfa maqāmī wa khāfa waʿīd
"Those who denied said to their messengers: 'Either we shall drive you out of our land, or you shall surely return to our religion.' And their Lord revealed to them: 'We shall surely destroy the wrongdoers · and We shall surely settle you in the land after them. That is for whoever fears My station and fears My threat.'"
There is a fact of word order that must be recorded: across four verses the pattern lām + doubled nūn comes six times.
| Verse | Verb | Who says it |
|---|---|---|
| 7 | La-azīdannakum | God |
| 12 | La-naṣbiranna | The messengers |
| 13 | La-nukhrijannakum | Those who deny |
| 13 | La-taʿūdunna | Those who deny |
| 13 | La-nuhlikanna | God |
| 14 | La-nuskinannakum | God |
That is, this part of the sūra is a section of oath against oath. All three parties speak in the strongest pattern of pledge. And the last word remains with the party that uses the same pattern twice.
I record this as an observation about the language: the verb presupposes that the messengers were formerly in that religion. Yet the text says no such thing.
| # | Explanation | Ground |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | The verb has the sense "to become, to come to be"; it does not require a former state | In Arabic ʿāda is used in this sense |
| 2 | The other side counts its own religion the original; it sees whoever departs from it not as having "returned" but as having strayed | The logic of the address |
Both are transmitted. The second explanation is worth recording as an observation: the party that says "you shall return" is getting its own position accepted as the point of origin. This runs along the same line as yabghūnahā ʿiwajā in the third verse of the sūra: the measure is framed according to the one who measures.
| Reading | What maqāmī is | Sense |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | The place where the servant will stand before God | The station of standing for the reckoning |
| 2 | God's watch over the servant — "His standing over him" | Along the line of qāʾimun ʿalā kulli nafsin bimā kasabat (al-Raʿd 13/33) |
| 3 | Maqām here conveys majesty | A general expression of exaltedness |
The ground given for the second reading is verse 33 of Sūrat al-Raʿd. This verse has not yet been treated in the series (there is no file for Sūrat al-Raʿd), so I mention it not as a cross-reference but only as an opportunity for comparison.
And the construct had occurred at al-Raḥmān 55/46 (wa li-man khāfa maqāma rabbihi jannatān). There the same expression is mentioned together with a reward, here together with a settling.