al-Isrāʾ 17:58-60

Wa in min qaryatin illā naḥnu muhlikūhā qabla yawmi'l-qiyāmati aw muʿadhdhibūhā ʿadhāban shadīdā, kāna dhālika fi'l-kitābi masṭūrā · Wa mā manaʿanā an nursila bi'l-āyāti illā an kadhdhaba biha'l-awwalūn, wa ātaynā Thamūda'l-nāqata mubṣiratan fa-ẓalamū bihā, wa mā nursilu bi'l-āyāti illā takhwīfā · Wa idh qulnā laka inna rabbaka aḥāṭa bi'l-nās, wa mā jaʿalna'l-ruʾya'llatī araynāka illā fitnatan li'l-nāsi wa'l-shajarata'l-malʿūnata fi'l-qurʾān, wa nukhawwifuhum fa-mā yazīduhum illā ṭughyānan kabīrā

"There is no town but that We shall destroy it before the Day of Resurrection, or punish it with a severe punishment. This stands written in the Book. Nothing kept Us from sending the signs but that the ancients denied them. We gave Thamūd the she-camel as a sign to be seen, and they did wrong by her. We send the signs only to put men in fear. And when We said to you, 'Your Lord encompasses mankind.' The vision We showed you We made only a trial for people, and likewise the accursed tree in the Qurʾān. We put them in fear; but it serves only to increase their great insolence."

The verse answers a demand repeated several times in the sūra (this demand will be set out in detail from the ninetieth verse onward).

And the form of the ground is worth recording: the demand is not rejected; an experience is shown. Illā an kadhdhaba biha'l-awwalūn — "the ancients denied them."

And a concrete example is given: the she-camel of Thamūd.

مُبْصِرَة — the word occurs for the second time in the sūra (the first at 17/12, of the day).

The same word, once for an order and once for a miracle. This is a repetition that can be verified within the sūra, and I record this as my own reading: the sūra gives the attribute "that which makes one see" first to the thing everyone sees every day, and then to the extraordinary thing that is demanded. Read together, the two verses bring an order into view.

وَمَا نُرْسِلُ بِٱلْـَٔايَٰتِ إِلَّا تَخْوِيفًا — "We send the signs only to put men in fear."

The record must be entered, and this is an observation about the structure: the function of the miracle is given not as persuasion but as warning. The verse thus places the miracle less as an instrument of proof than as a notice of danger.

Both expressions have been disputed in the classical commentaries, and the disagreement is not to be concealed.

The explanations transmitted about ٱلرُّءْيَا:

The explanations transmitted about ٱلشَّجَرَة ٱلْمَلْعُونَة:

I transmit the explanations; I do not impose a preference and I do not pile up reports.

But one record can be verified from the text, and I give it: the verse qualifies both things with the same word — fitnatan li'l-nās (a trial for people). Both, that is, are named as things that cause division when they are shown.

The root ف-ت-ن was treated in detail at 29/2-10 in al-ʿAnkabūt (the testing of gold in fire) and its reciprocity was recorded at 25/20 in al-Furqān. I rely on those treatments.

And it was treated at 37/63 in al-Ṣāffāt that the tree of zaqqūm is named with the same word (fitnatan li'l-ẓālimīn). This is the in-text support for the first explanation, and I record it as a support, not as a preference.

وَنُخَوِّفُهُمْ فَمَا يَزِيدُهُمْ إِلَّا طُغْيَٰنًا كَبِيرًا — and the block arrives at the same result as the fifty-ninth verse: the putting in fear takes effect in the opposite direction.

The two verses build the same structure. I record this as an observation: the sūra records twice, and with two different words, that the methods remain without result.