al-Isrāʾ 17:73-75

Wa in kādū la-yaftinūnaka ʿani'lladhī awḥaynā ilayka li-taftariya ʿalaynā ghayrah, wa idhan la'ttakhadhūka khalīlā · Wa lawlā an thabbatnāka laqad kidta tarkanu ilayhim shayʾan qalīlā · Idhan la-adhaqnāka ḍiʿfa'l-ḥayāti wa ḍiʿfa'l-mamāti thumma lā tajidu laka ʿalaynā naṣīrā

"They came near to luring you away from what We revealed to you, so that you might invent something else against Us; and then they would have taken you as a friend. Had We not made you firm, you would have come near to leaning towards them a little. In that case We would have made you taste a double punishment in life and a double one in death; and then you would have found no helper for yourself against Us."

This verb was treated at 2/71 in al-Baqara, and it was recorded there: the verb kāda conveys "to come close, to all but happen". I rely on that treatment.

And the record of the usage here is indispensable: the verse does not describe something that happened. Kādū and kidta — both are the "all but" pattern. Both the pressure and the inclination, that is, are described as not having happened at all.

And the second verse gives the ground: wa lawlā an thabbatnāka — "had We not made you firm".

I record this as my own reading, and its support is the conditional structure of the sentence: the source of the resistance is tied not to the person himself but to a support that comes from outside. And the same verb (ث-ب-ت) occurred at 25/32 in al-Furqān: li-nuthabbita bihi fuʾādak — there the instrument was the Qurʾān's coming down piece by piece.

And al-Isrāʾ will name the same instrument in the hundred and sixth verse: wa qurʾānan faraqnāhu li-taqraʾahu ʿala'l-nāsi ʿalā mukth. Read together, the two verses show the sūra giving an answer within itself. I give this as my own reading.

The root: to lean on something, to prop oneself against it. Rukn — the corner of a building, its support.

I record this as an observation about the language, and its support is the concrete sense of the root: the verse does not say "you would have joined them" or "you would have followed them". It says "you would have leaned on them" — that is, you would have seen them as a side to draw support from.

And the qualification must be recorded: shayʾan qalīlā — "a little". What is in question, that is, is not a full turning but a small inclination.

The requital is worth recording, and I give this as an observation about the structure: for "a small inclination" the verse states a doubled punishment. The disproportion is in the sentence itself.

The lexicographers explain this by the way position makes responsibility heavier — indeed a similar measure was treated at 33/30 in al-Aḥzāb. I transmit this explanation; the verse gives no ground.

And these verses require a record, per the method: the verse is addressed to the Prophet and its content is a warning. To read the verse as though it recounted an event that took place runs against the text; the patterns kāda and lawlā close that off.