قُلْ مَن يَكْلَؤُكُم بِٱلَّيْلِ وَٱلنَّهَارِ مِنَ ٱلرَّحْمَٰنِ بَلْ هُمْ عَن ذِكْرِ رَبِّهِم مُّعْرِضُونَ · أَمْ لَهُمْ ءَالِهَةٌ تَمْنَعُهُم مِّن دُونِنَا لَا يَسْتَطِيعُونَ نَصْرَ أَنفُسِهِمْ وَلَا هُم مِّنَّا يُصْحَبُونَ · بَلْ مَتَّعْنَا هَٰٓؤُلَآءِ وَءَابَآءَهُمْ حَتَّىٰ طَالَ عَلَيْهِمُ ٱلْعُمُرُ أَفَلَا يَرَوْنَ أَنَّا نَأْتِى ٱلْأَرْضَ نَنقُصُهَا مِنْ أَطْرَافِهَآ أَفَهُمُ ٱلْغَٰلِبُونَ
Qul man yaklaʾukum bi'l-layli wa'n-nahāri mina'r-Raḥmān, bal hum ʿan dhikri rabbihim muʿriḍūn · Am lahum ālihatun tamnaʿuhum min dūninā, lā yastaṭīʿūna naṣra anfusihim wa lā hum minnā yuṣḥabūn · Bal mattaʿnā hāʾulāʾi wa ābāʾahum ḥattā ṭāla ʿalayhimu'l-ʿumur, a-fa-lā yarawna annā naʾti'l-arḍa nanquṣuhā min aṭrāfihā, a-fa-humu'l-ghālibūn
"Say: 'Who could keep watch over you by night and by day against the Merciful?' No — they turn away from the remembrance of their Lord. · Or have they gods to protect them against Us? They cannot help themselves, nor are they befriended by Us. · We let these and their fathers enjoy life so long that their lifetimes grew long. Do they not see that We come to the land and reduce it at its edges? Are they, then, the victors?"
Yaklaʾu — root ك-ل-أ. This root is analysed here for the first time in this commentary, and it occurs only here in the Qurʾān.
The sense the lexicographers give: kalaʾa is to watch over a thing and guard it — to guard it by keeping watch through the night. Kāliʾ — a watchman; kilāʾa — protection. And in the picture of the word there is sleeplessness: waiting without taking one's eyes away.
I record this as my own reading: the question is not a question about a contest of power but a question about keeping watch. "Who could stand watch over you?"
مِنَ ٱلرَّحْمَٰن — and the choice of the name must again be recorded. The one to be protected against is named not al-Jabbār or al-Muntaqim but al-Raḥmān. This technique was recorded at al-Shuʿarāʾ on 26/5; it is applied here for the third time in the sūra (26, 36, 42).
وَلَا هُم مِّنَّا يُصْحَبُونَ — yuṣḥabūn — root ص-ح-ب, passive: "they are not taken as companions / they are not given protection". There is disagreement about its sense:
| Reading | Sense |
|---|---|
| 1 | They receive no protection or company from Us |
| 2 | Ṣuḥba here means protection: they are not protected |
| 3 | The verb means "no one who has help from Us keeps them company" |
There is disagreement in the classical commentaries about what the sentence tells, and I give it in a table:
| View | Explanation |
|---|---|
| 1 | A reduction of land — the going of a part of the earth through destructions and ruin |
| 2 | A reduction of people — the diminishing of the population, its being cut down |
| 3 | The reduction of knowledge and of those who have it — the "edges" of the land going with the death of those who know |
| 4 | The narrowing of territory — the shrinking, from the perimeter inward, of the land in the hands of those who deny |
And I enter a note about word order: the sentence continues a-fa-humu'l-ghālibūn — "are they, then, the victors?" That is, the sentence stands inside a discussion of victory. This affords some support to the fourth explanation; it is not eliminative.
حَتَّىٰ طَالَ عَلَيْهِمُ ٱلْعُمُرُ — "the lifetime grew long upon them". And a point of word order: the subject is al-ʿumur, not the people. What grows long is the lifetime; they are in the passive position. I record this as an observation about the structure: a long life is told not as a gain but as something heaped upon them.