al-Anbiyāʾ 21:112

Qāla rabbi'ḥkum bi'l-ḥaqq, wa rabbuna'r-Raḥmānu'l-mustaʿānu ʿalā mā taṣifūn

"He said: 'My Lord, judge with truth.' And our Lord is the Merciful, whose help is sought against what you ascribe."

A variant reading is transmitted in the first word of the verse:

Both readings are transmitted; I name no reciter and impose no preference.

And the same disagreement was present in the sūra's fourth verse. That is, the sūra carries the same variant reading at both its ends. This is a fact; I build no ruling upon it.

And the last verse gathers three key words of the sūra together. All three can be verified from the text:

And the link with the eighteenth verse is especially tight — two words are shared at once:

In the eighteenth verse the truth was a thing hurled; in the last verse it is a judgement asked for. And both verses have the same preposition: bi'l-ḥaqq.

I record this as my own reading, its ground being the words the two verses share: in its middle the sūra had said that falsehood is shattered by the truth. At its end it shows the same truth being asked for as a judgement. And what has changed in between is whose the act is: there naqdifu (we hurl), here iḥkum (do You judge).

Mustaʿān — root ع-و-ن, a Form X (istifʿāl) passive participle. ʿAwn — help; istiʿāna — asking for help. And because it is a passive participle: "the one from whom help is sought".

The word is from the same root as wa iyyāka nastaʿīn, treated at al-Fātiḥa. I rely on that treatment.

And the name set beside the attribute must be recorded: al-Raḥmān.

I record this as my own reading, its ground being the sūra's use of the name: in the twenty-sixth verse a child was imputed to this name; in the thirty-sixth the mention of this name was denied; in the forty-second protection from this name was asked about. And the sūra names that same name in its closing sentence as the one whose help is sought.

That is, the sūra makes the name most objected to the name taken refuge in, in its last sentence.

عَلَىٰ مَا تَصِفُونَ — and the sūra closes with the addressee's own language: the help is asked against what they ascribe.

And one last observation about the structure: the verse ends with taṣifūn — an imperfect verb. That is, at the moment it closes, the sūra is looking at an act still going on.