Ibrāhīm 14:47-48

Fa-lā taḥsabanna'llāha mukhlifa waʿdihi rusulah · Inna'llāha ʿAzīzun Dhu'ntiqām · Yawma tubaddalu'l-arḍu ghayra'l-arḍi wa's-samāwāt · Wa barazū li'llāhi'l-Wāḥidi'l-Qahhār

"Do not suppose that God will break the promise He made to His messengers. God is indeed Mighty, the Lord of retribution. · On the day the earth is changed into other than the earth, and the heavens too, and they come forth before God, the One, the Overwhelming."

The construction of the construct is striking in Arabic: mukhlifa waʿdihi rusulah — "one who breaks the promise He made to His messengers."

There are two objects: waʿdahu (His promise) and rusulahu (His messengers). And the construct attaches both to the active participle.

A point of word order must be recorded: rusulah stands at the end of the sentence, although in sense it belongs to waʿd. In Arabic this postponement gives emphasis to the word placed at the end. That is, the stress falls on to whom the word was given.

And this sets up a contrast with the twenty-second verse:

The same root (خ-ل-ف), in the same sūra, once as a confession and once as a denial. I record this as my own reading, and its ground is the shared root of the two occurrences and their being in the same sūra: the sūra first has the breaking of a word confessed by Satan's own mouth, then forbids it concerning the other party.

The root ن-ق-م: to find a thing abhorrent and reject it; and from there to punish. The root was treated in al-Zukhruf in the table of repetitions within that sūra and at al-Dukhān 44/16. I rely on that treatment.

The pattern of the construct must be recorded: Dhu'ntiqām — "the possessor of retribution." Not a name but a construct of possession. The lexicographers record that this pattern conveys that the attribute is attached not to the Essence but to an act.

The verb is from the same root as the twenty-eighth verse of the sūra (ب-د-ل):

I record this as my own reading, and its ground is the difference of voice: the sūra first gives the verb of changing to man, then answers it with a change in which man is not the agent. A small changing and the greatest changing are recounted with the same root.

Different explanations of what the change is are transmitted in the classical commentaries — a change in the quality of the earth, the coming of another earth, the levelling of the earth's surface. The wording of the verse specifies none of these; for this reason I adopt no preference and do not enter into description.

ٱلْوَٰحِدِ ٱلْقَهَّار — these two names were treated together at al-Zumar 39/4 and at Ghāfir (al-Muʾmin) 40/16. I rely on those treatments.

And the verb barazū comes for the second time after the twenty-first verse — this was tabulated above.