رُّبَمَا يَوَدُّ ٱلَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا۟ لَوْ كَانُوا۟ مُسْلِمِينَ
Rubba in Arabic is a particle of fewness. The classical description of the lexicographers is this: rubba is used for what is few, kam for what is many. Rubba rajulin laqītuhu — "many a man have I met" (but few in number).
And when mā is added, the particle becomes able to attach to a verb rather than a noun — rubba normally enters only upon a noun; mā opens to it the door of the verbal sentence. The lexicographers call this mā al-kāffa (the restraining mā).
Now the real matter: the verse announces that those who disbelieve will feel this regret. And it says so with a particle of fewness. Why?
| # | Explanation | Ground |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Rubba is used in Arabic for muchness as well; the particle works in both directions | Examples from poetry are transmitted |
| 2 | The particle here conveys a threat: even if it be little, such a moment will come — and that moment will be unbearable | The context |
| 3 | The fewness is real: the regret will be felt not often, but at a few particular moments (the moment of death, the moment of the reckoning, the moment of entering the fire) | Other scenes of regret in the Qurʾān |
There is a datum of word order that can be recorded, and I give it as an observation: in Arabic, when a particle of fewness is used with an unexpected piece of news, it produces not diminishment but unignorability. Had the sentence said "they will regret it much", it would stand like a prediction; when it says "they will regret it, if only a little", the weight of that little is left to the reader.
And the verb must be recorded: yawaddu — root و-د-د: to love, to desire, to wish. The word was treated at Maryam 19/96 and at al-Mumtaḥana 60/7 (mawadda). I rely on that treatment.
So what is said is not that they acquire a piece of knowledge — but that a desire is born. The verb of the sentence has to do not with the mind but with wanting.