وَقَالَ ٱللَّهُ لَا تَتَّخِذُوٓا۟ إِلَٰهَيْنِ ٱثْنَيْنِ إِنَّمَا هُوَ إِلَٰهٌ وَٰحِدٌ فَإِيَّٰىَ فَٱرْهَبُونِ · وَلَهُۥ مَا فِى ٱلسَّمَٰوَٰتِ وَٱلْأَرْضِ وَلَهُ ٱلدِّينُ وَاصِبًا أَفَغَيْرَ ٱللَّهِ تَتَّقُونَ · وَمَا بِكُم مِّن نِّعْمَةٍ فَمِنَ ٱللَّهِ ثُمَّ إِذَا مَسَّكُمُ ٱلضُّرُّ فَإِلَيْهِ تَجْـَٔرُونَ
Wa qāla'llāhu lā tattakhidhū ilāhayni'thnayn, innamā huwa ilāhun wāḥid, fa-iyyāya fa'rhabūn · Wa lahū mā fi'l-samāwāti wa'l-arḍi wa lahu'l-dīnu wāṣibā, a-fa-ghayra'llāhi tattaqūn · Wa mā bikum min niʿmatin fa-mina'llāh, thumma idhā massakumu'l-ḍurru fa-ilayhi tajʾarūn
"God said: 'Do not take two gods; He is only one god. So fear Me, and Me alone.' · To Him belongs whatever is in the heavens and the earth, and to Him belongs religion, unceasingly. Will you then guard yourselves against any but God? · Every favour you have is from God. Then, when hardship touches you, it is to Him that you cry aloud."
The lexicographers count this as emphasis. But one further explanation belonging here must be recorded, and I give it as an observation: the stress falls not on two but on more than one. And the answering clause bears this out: innamā huwa ilāhun wāḥid — here too the adjective wāḥid (one) has been added separately.
| Explanation | Sense | Ground |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Continuous, unbroken | Waṣaba — it continued; wāṣib — perpetual |
| 2 | Obligatory, that to which submission is due | Waṣab — weariness, toil; from this, "what is burdensome" |
The majority of the lexicographers give the first sense. I transmit both explanations; I do not impose a preference.
The lexicographers give the concrete sense of the root thus: the long, pain-drawn bellowing of an animal. Juʾār — the cry of cattle and of like beasts.
The choice of the word is worth recording, and I give this as my own reading: the verse does not say tadʿūn (you call, you pray). It chooses the sound that comes before speech. The turning in the moment of distress is thus named not as a considered prayer but as a sound that escapes without thought.
The word occurs at few places in the Qurʾān; it is recorded that in this form it is found here and in the twenty-third sūra (al-Muʾminūn 23/64).
The same cycle was treated at many places in this commentary: al-ʿAnkabūt 29/65, al-Rūm 30/33 and 30/49-51, Luqmān 31/32. I rely on those treatments. In the al-Rūm section this cycle was tabulated: hardship → turning → mercy → association. al-Naḥl builds the same cycle between its fifty-third and fifty-fifth verses.