فَرَجَعُوٓا۟ إِلَىٰٓ أَنفُسِهِمْ فَقَالُوٓا۟ إِنَّكُمْ أَنتُمُ ٱلظَّٰلِمُونَ · ثُمَّ نُكِسُوا۟ عَلَىٰ رُءُوسِهِمْ لَقَدْ عَلِمْتَ مَا هَٰٓؤُلَآءِ يَنطِقُونَ · قَالَ أَفَتَعْبُدُونَ مِن دُونِ ٱللَّهِ مَا لَا يَنفَعُكُمْ شَيْـًٔا وَلَا يَضُرُّكُمْ · أُفٍّ لَّكُمْ وَلِمَا تَعْبُدُونَ مِن دُونِ ٱللَّهِ أَفَلَا تَعْقِلُونَ
Fa-rajaʿū ilā anfusihim fa-qālū innakum antumu'ẓ-ẓālimūn · Thumma nukisū ʿalā ruʾūsihim laqad ʿalimta mā hāʾulāʾi yanṭiqūn · Qāla a-fa-taʿbudūna min dūni'llāhi mā lā yanfaʿukum shayʾan wa lā yaḍurrukum · Uffin lakum wa limā taʿbudūna min dūni'llāh, a-fa-lā taʿqilūn
"At this they returned to themselves and said: 'It is you who are the wrongdoers!' · Then they were turned back onto their heads: 'You know well that these do not speak!' · He said: 'Do you then worship, besides God, what can neither benefit you at all nor harm you? · Fie on you and on what you worship besides God! Will you not use your reason?'"
And this sentence is the most striking place in this section — perhaps in the whole sūra. The fact belongs entirely to the text.
fa-jaʿalahum judhādhan illā kabīran lahum laʿallahum ilayhi yarjiʿūn — "that perhaps they might turn back to it."
| Verse | Verb | Where the turning goes |
|---|---|---|
| 58 | yarjiʿūn — imperfect, expected | ilayhi — to it |
| 64 | rajaʿū — perfect, actual | ilā anfusihim — to themselves |
I record this as my own reading, its ground being the two verses' shared verb: the device set up expected a return to an object; the return that took place was to the subject. And the text does not comment on this separately — it only attaches the same verb to two different places.
In Arabic the idiom rajaʿa ilā nafsihi is used in the sense of "to come to oneself, to begin to think". So the sentence carries both a physical turning and a mental awakening.
إِنَّكُمْ أَنتُمُ ٱلظَّٰلِمُونَ — and the verdict they pass is the same verdict that came from their own mouths in the fifty-ninth verse.
| Verse | Sentence | Of whom |
|---|---|---|
| 59 | innahu la-mina'ẓ-ẓālimīn | Of an unknown doer |
| 64 | innakum antumu'ẓ-ẓālimūn | Of themselves |
The same word, five verses apart, turned in the opposite direction. I record this as an observation about wording.
Nukisū — root ن-ك-س, passive. And the concrete sense of the root: to turn a thing over, to set it upside down. Nakasa'sh-shayʾ — he put its top under. Mankūs — turned upside down. From the same root naks: the relapse of an illness, its coming back.
I record this as an observation about the structure: in the sixty-fourth verse they themselves turned (rajaʿū, active). In the sixty-fifth they were turned (nukisū, passive). The voices of the two verbs are opposite.
The particle thumma is worth recording too: it conveys an interval. Not fāʾ but thumma. That is, there is a span between the waking and the going back.
عَلَىٰ رُءُوسِهِمْ — "upon their heads". The idiom pictures a complete inversion: feet up, head down.
لَقَدْ عَلِمْتَ مَا هَٰٓؤُلَآءِ يَنطِقُونَ — and what they say is the very thing Abraham had shown them: "these do not speak."
I record this as my own reading, its ground being the last word of the sixty-third verse: Abraham had said in kānū yanṭiqūn. The other side answers mā hāʾulāʾi yanṭiqūn. The same verb. That is, the sentence spoken as an objection repeats the conclusion of the proof.
Uff — a noun standing for a verb. The lexicographers define the word as a sound conveying weariness and disgust; for its original sense such explanations are transmitted as "the dirt under a fingernail" or "dust blown away". The meaning of the word is in its sound.
And in the Qurʾān the same word occurs at al-Aḥqāf on 46/17 and was treated there: wa'lladhī qāla li-wālidayhi uffin lakumā.
| al-Aḥqāf 46/17 | al-Anbiyāʾ 21/67 | |
|---|---|---|
| Who says it | A son | A prophet |
| To whom | li-wālidayhi — to his parents | lakum — to his people and their idols |
| The text's verdict | Condemned — ulāʾika'lladhīna ḥaqqa ʿalayhimu'l-qawl (46/18) | Not condemned |
The same word, in two places, with two opposite judgements. I record this as my own reading, its ground being the two contexts themselves: what makes the word blameworthy is not the word itself but to whom it is said. In al-Aḥqāf it is said to those who have a claim; in al-Anbiyāʾ to those who have none.
And the addressee of uffin is twofold: lakum (to you) and limā taʿbudūn (to what you worship). That is, the expression covers both the worshipper and the worshipped.
أَفَلَا تَعْقِلُونَ — and this question for the second time in the sūra. In the tenth verse the text itself asked it; here Abraham asks it. It is a repetition that can be verified within the sūra.