لَا تَرْكُضُوا۟ وَٱرْجِعُوٓا۟ إِلَىٰ مَآ أُتْرِفْتُمْ فِيهِ وَمَسَٰكِنِكُمْ لَعَلَّكُمْ تُسْـَٔلُونَ · قَالُوا۟ يَٰوَيْلَنَآ إِنَّا كُنَّا ظَٰلِمِينَ · فَمَا زَالَت تِّلْكَ دَعْوَٰهُمْ حَتَّىٰ جَعَلْنَٰهُمْ حَصِيدًا خَٰمِدِينَ
Lā tarkuḍū wa'rjiʿū ilā mā utriftum fīhi wa masākinikum laʿallakum tusʾalūn · Qālū yā waylanā innā kunnā ẓālimīn · Fa-mā zālat tilka daʿwāhum ḥattā jaʿalnāhum ḥaṣīdan khāmidīn
"'Do not run! Return to the luxury you were given and to your dwellings — perhaps you will be questioned.' · They said: 'Woe to us! We were indeed doing wrong.' · That did not cease to be their cry until We made them a harvested field, an extinguished fire."
Utriftum — root ت-ر-ف, Form IV passive. Taraf — to grow soft in abundance, to be indulged. Mutraf — one made insolent by ease.
The root was treated at al-Zukhruf on 43/23 (qāla mutrafūhā) and at Sabaʾ on 34/34-35. I do not repeat it here.
What I add here is the form: the verb is passive — utriftum, "you were given to luxury". That is, the being made insolent is given not as something they did of themselves but as something poured over them. I record this as an observation about the pattern.
The order of the imperatives must be recorded: lā tarkuḍū (do not run) → irjiʿū (return) → laʿallakum tusʾalūn (perhaps you will be questioned).
In the classical commentaries it is widely said that this sentence is by way of tahzīl/istihzāʾ (mockery, rebuke): their return is not really wanted; an impossibility is set out in the imperative. I transmit this as a transmitted explanation.
And in respect of word order I add this — as my own reading: the verb laʿallakum tusʾalūn is from the root س-أ-ل, and this root will build the sūra's densest sentence in the twenty-third verse: lā yusʾalu ʿammā yafʿalu wa hum yusʾalūn. The same verb, the same passive pattern. What is said by way of mockery in this group of verses is set down as a ruling in the twenty-third. This is a sharing of wording that can be verified within the sūra.
This sentence occurs in three places in the sūra, and all three come from the same mouth: the mouth of those destroyed.
| Verse | Who | When |
|---|---|---|
| 14 | The people of the town that was broken | As the punishment comes |
| 46 | Those warned (inside a conditional sentence) | Were a breath of it to touch them |
| 97 | Those who deny, when the promise draws near | When the time is up |
Two of the three occurrences have taken place; one (46) is bound to a condition. This is a countable fact and is the sūra's most distinct refrain.
I record this as my own reading: the sūra repeats the same admission in three different spans of time — and in all three the admission comes at a time when it will be of no use.
| Word | Root | The concrete picture |
|---|---|---|
| حَصِيد | ح-ص-د | Harvested grain — cut with the sickle and lying on the ground |
| خَٰمِدِين | خ-م-د | A fire gone out — its flame finished, its ash left |
Khamada'n-nār — the fire went out; khāmid — that which has gone out. The lexicographers record a difference of degree between khumūd and humūd: khumūd is the ending of the flame, embers may still remain; the complete reduction to ash is called humūd.
And a point of word order is worth recording: ḥaṣīdan is singular, while khāmidīn is the plural used of rational beings (with wāw-nūn). That is, the first word names them like a thing, the second like a people. The two words carry two different treatments in the same sentence.
I record this as an observation about the structure. And the block closes here: the sūra's first block ends with a fire gone out.