al-Anbiyāʾ 21:108-109 commentary

21/108-109

قُلْ إِنَّمَا يُوحَىٰٓ إِلَىَّ أَنَّمَآ إِلَٰهُكُمْ إِلَٰهٌ وَٰحِدٌ فَهَلْ أَنتُم مُّسْلِمُونَ · فَإِن تَوَلَّوْا۟ فَقُلْ ءَاذَنتُكُمْ عَلَىٰ سَوَآءٍ وَإِنْ أَدْرِىٓ أَقَرِيبٌ أَم بَعِيدٌ مَّا تُوعَدُونَ

Qul innamā yūḥā ilayya annamā ilāhukum ilāhun wāḥid, fa-hal antum muslimūn · Fa-in tawallaw fa-qul ādhantukum ʿalā sawāʾ, wa in adrī a-qarībun am baʿīdun mā tūʿadūn

"Say: 'It is revealed to me only that your god is one God. Will you then submit?' · And if they turn away, say: 'I have announced it to you all alike. And I do not know whether what you are promised is near or far.'"

Two particles of restriction, in one sentence

And the word order of the hundred and eighth verse must be recorded: there are two particles of restriction in the sentence.

Particle	What it restricts
*innamā* yūḥā ilayya	The content of the revelation: only this is revealed to me
annamā ilāhukum ilāhun wāḥid	The number of the god: your god is only one God

Two restrictions, one inside the other. I record this as an observation about the structure.

فَهَلْ أَنتُم مُّسْلِمُونَ — and the question is framed as a nominal sentence — the same pattern as fa-hal antum shākirūn in the eightieth verse. It is a repetition that can be verified within the sūra.

And in the classical commentaries it is recorded that this form of question stands in place of a command: instead of saying "submit", "will you submit?" I transmit this as a transmitted explanation.

عَلَىٰ سَوَآءٍ

Ādhantukum — root أ-ذ-ن, Form IV: to announce, to make known. Udhun — the ear; the root conveys the bringing of a thing to the ear.

ʿAlā sawāʾ — "upon an equal footing". And two readings of the phrase are transmitted:

Reading	Sense
1	I have announced it to you all alike — none privileged, none left uninformed
2	I have announced it openly — leaving no hidden side

Both readings are transmitted; I do not impose a preference.

A similar phrase occurs in the Qurʾān at al-Anfāl 8/58: fa'nbidh ilayhim ʿalā sawāʾin — "cast (the treaty) back to them on equal terms". This is a verifiable sharing of wording.

وَإِنْ أَدْرِى — the sūra's closing move

And now I come to the sūra's most striking structural fact. It is wholly a datum of the text.

In adrī — here in is negative (in the sense of mā): "I do not know."

And this expression occurs twice in the sūra: 109 and 111.

Verse	The sentence	What is not known
109	wa in adrī* a-qarībun am baʿīdun mā tūʿadūn*	When the promise will come
111	wa in adrī* laʿallahu fitnatun lakum*	What the delay means

And now I set this beside the sūra's first verse:

Verse	The sentence
1	Iqtaraba li'n-nāsi ḥisābuhum — "their reckoning has drawn near"
109	wa in adrī a-qarībun am baʿīd — "I do not know whether it is near or far"

The same root (ق-ر-ب) is in both verses: in the first as a verb (iqtaraba), in the second as an adjective (qarīb).

I record this as my own reading, its ground being the root the two verses share:

The sūra opens with "it has drawn near" and closes, from the messenger's mouth, with "I do not know whether it is near or far". The two sentences do not conflict: the first says the reckoning is inescapable, the second that its calendar has not been given. And the difference between them is who holds the knowledge.

And this connects with the sūra's thirty-seventh verse too: sa-urīkum āyātī fa-lā tastaʿjilūn — "do not ask Me to hasten." The sūra first says "do not hasten" to the one who asks for haste, and at the end says that the messenger himself does not know the time.