لَقَدْ أَنزَلْنَآ إِلَيْكُمْ كِتَٰبًا فِيهِ ذِكْرُكُمْ أَفَلَا تَعْقِلُونَ
"Indeed We have sent down to you a Book in which is your remembrance. Will you not use your reason?"
| Reading | What dhikr is | Sense |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Honour, being spoken of | "A Book in which is your honour, the mention of your name" |
| 2 | Admonition, reminder | "A Book containing an admonition addressed to you" |
| 3 | What you are to remember by | "A Book by which you are to remember your Lord" |
I transmit the disagreement and do not impose a preference. The two basic aspects of the root ذ-ك-ر — to remember, and to mention or be spoken of — are the source of this disagreement, and the root was treated at Yāsīn on 36/69 (wa mā huwa illā dhikrun wa qurʾānun mubīn) and at Ṣād on 38/1 (dhi'dh-dhikr). I do not repeat it here.
And a note within the sūra: in the seventh verse it was commanded to ask ahla'dh-dhikr; in the tenth it is said that the dhikr is in the addressee's own hands. This completes a movement of three verses: ask (7) → if you do not know (7) → you already have it (10).
أَفَلَا تَعْقِلُونَ — root ع-ق-ل: to bind, to tether a camel. ʿIqāl — the cord tied to a camel's leg. So intelligence is, by its root, a capacity for binding: holding together what would scatter. This question occurs twice in the sūra: 10 and 67 (in Abraham's mouth). This is a countable fact.