وَلَوْ شَآءَ ٱللَّهُ لَجَعَلَكُمْ أُمَّةً وَٰحِدَةً وَلَٰكِن يُضِلُّ مَن يَشَآءُ وَيَهْدِى مَن يَشَآءُ وَلَتُسْـَٔلُنَّ عَمَّا كُنتُمْ تَعْمَلُونَ · وَلَا تَتَّخِذُوٓا۟ أَيْمَٰنَكُمْ دَخَلًۢا بَيْنَكُمْ فَتَزِلَّ قَدَمٌۢ بَعْدَ ثُبُوتِهَا وَتَذُوقُوا۟ ٱلسُّوٓءَ بِمَا صَدَدتُّمْ عَن سَبِيلِ ٱللَّهِ وَلَكُمْ عَذَابٌ عَظِيمٌ
Wa law shāʾa'llāhu la-jaʿalakum ummatan wāḥidatan wa lākin yuḍillu man yashāʾu wa yahdī man yashāʾ, wa la-tusʾalunna ʿammā kuntum taʿmalūn · Wa lā tattakhidhū aymānakum dakhalan baynakum fa-tazilla qadamun baʿda thubūtihā wa tadhūqu'l-sūʾa bimā ṣadadtum ʿan sabīli'llāhi wa lakum ʿadhābun ʿaẓīm
"Had God willed He would have made you one single community; but He lets go astray whom He wills and guides whom He wills. You will surely be questioned about what you were doing. · Do not make your oaths a means of deceit among yourselves, or a foot will slip after it had stood firm, and you will taste evil for having turned others from the way of God; and there will be a great punishment for you besides."
It must be recorded: the structure of the parable in the ninety-second verse is built here a second time, in another picture.
| Verse 92 | Verse 94 | |
|---|---|---|
| Before | Ghazlahā min baʿdi quwwatin — yarn made strong | Qadamun baʿda thubūtihā — a foot that had stood firm |
| After | Naqaḍat … ankāthā — unravelled shreds | Fa-tazilla — it slips |
| The shared structure | Firmness → undoing | The same |
Both parables are built on the same skeleton, and both use the particle baʿda. This is a repetition verifiable within the sūra.
And the difference must be recorded: in the first parable the one who undoes is the person herself (naqaḍat); in the second the foot slips (tazilla) — the verb is intransitive, there is no agent. The first parable tells of the intent, the second of the outcome.
زَلَّ — root ز-ل-ل: to slip, to stumble. Zalla — the foot slipped; zalla — a lapse. And the lexicographers record the root's connection with slippery ground.
ثُبُوت — root ث-ب-ت: to be fixed, to stand in place. And the word is ascribed to the foot as thubūtihā: "after its standing firm".
قَدَمٌۢ — and the noun comes indefinite: "a foot". The lexicographers record that the indefiniteness here is not taḥqīr (belittling) but ibhām (leaving unspecified) — whose foot it is, is not said.
I give this as an observation: the sentence does not say "your foot will slip". It says "a foot will slip". The warning is left without an address.