رَبَّنَآ إِنَّكَ تَعْلَمُ مَا نُخْفِى وَمَا نُعْلِنُ ۗ وَمَا يَخْفَىٰ عَلَى ٱللَّهِ مِن شَىْءٍ فِى ٱلْأَرْضِ وَلَا فِى ٱلسَّمَآءِ · ٱلْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ ٱلَّذِى وَهَبَ لِى عَلَى ٱلْكِبَرِ إِسْمَٰعِيلَ وَإِسْحَٰقَ ۚ إِنَّ رَبِّى لَسَمِيعُ ٱلدُّعَآءِ
Rabbanā innaka taʿlamu mā nukhfī wa mā nuʿlin · Wa mā yakhfā ʿala'llāhi min shayʾin fi'l-arḍi wa lā fi's-samāʾ · Al-ḥamdu li'llāhi'lladhī wahaba lī ʿala'l-kibari Ismāʿīla wa Isḥāq · Inna rabbī la-samīʿu'd-duʿāʾ
"'Our Lord! You know what we hide and what we make known. Nothing in the earth or in the sky is hidden from God. · Praise belongs to God, who bestowed upon me, in my old age, Ishmael (Ismāʿīl) and Isaac (Isḥāq). My Lord is indeed the hearer of prayer.'"
Rabbanā innaka taʿlamu… (second person — Abraham is speaking) Wa mā yakhfā ʿalā Allāhi min shayʾ… (third person)
In Arabic this is called iltifāt (a shift in the direction of address) and it has been treated in many places in the series (in detail at al-Zukhruf 43/11). I do not repeat it here.
| # | Explanation | Whose the sentence is |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | The continuation of Abraham's words — he reinforces his prayer with a general statement | Part of the prayer |
| 2 | The text breaking in — a note confirming the prayer | The narrator's words |
And the first half of the thirty-eighth verse uses the same pair as the thirty-first verse of the sūra:
| Verse | The pair | Concerning what |
|---|---|---|
| 31 | Sirran wa ʿalāniya | Spending — the servant's act |
| 38 | Mā nukhfī wa mā nuʿlin | Being known — God's knowledge |
The same pair, once as a command and once as an acknowledgement. I record this as a weave within the sūra and it can be verified: the servant is to give in secret and openly; and for the One who knows, the difference between secret and open does not exist.
And at al-Ḥijr 15/54 the same word will come from Abraham's mouth inside a question: a-bashshartumūnī ʿalā an massaniya'l-kibar. The two sūras give the same situation in two different moods:
| Place | Expression | Mood |
|---|---|---|
| Ibrāhīm 14/39 | Wahaba lī ʿala'l-kibar | Praise — done and finished |
| al-Ḥijr 15/54 | ʿAlā an massaniya'l-kibar | A question — the moment of astonishment |
The same word, once at the moment of the good news and once afterwards. This is an overlap between sūras that can be verified and it will be taken up separately in the section on al-Ḥijr.
I record this as an observation about the word order: the placing of the sentence is meaningful. Abraham says this after a prayer that has already been answered — a child has been given, and then it is said "He is the hearer of prayer." That is, the attribute is drawn not from a wish but from an experience.