وَمَآ أَرْسَلْنَا مِن قَبْلِكَ مِن رَّسُولٍ وَلَا نَبِىٍّ إِلَّآ إِذَا تَمَنَّىٰٓ أَلْقَى ٱلشَّيْطَٰنُ فِىٓ أُمْنِيَّتِهِۦ فَيَنسَخُ ٱللَّهُ مَا يُلْقِى ٱلشَّيْطَٰنُ ثُمَّ يُحْكِمُ ٱللَّهُ ءَايَٰتِهِۦ · لِّيَجْعَلَ مَا يُلْقِى ٱلشَّيْطَٰنُ فِتْنَةً لِّلَّذِينَ فِى قُلُوبِهِم مَّرَضٌ وَٱلْقَاسِيَةِ قُلُوبُهُمْ · وَلِيَعْلَمَ ٱلَّذِينَ أُوتُوا۟ ٱلْعِلْمَ أَنَّهُ ٱلْحَقُّ مِن رَّبِّكَ فَيُؤْمِنُوا۟ بِهِۦ فَتُخْبِتَ لَهُۥ قُلُوبُهُمْ
Wa mā arsalnā min qablika min rasūlin wa lā nabiyyin illā idhā tamannā alqa'sh-shayṭānu fī umniyyatih · Fa-yansakhu'llāhu mā yulqi'sh-shayṭānu thumma yuḥkimu'llāhu āyātih · Wa'llāhu ʿalīmun ḥakīm · Li-yajʿala mā yulqi'sh-shayṭānu fitnatan li'lladhīna fī qulūbihim maraḍun wa'l-qāsiyati qulūbuhum · Wa inna'ẓ-ẓālimīna la-fī shiqāqin baʿīd · Wa li-yaʿlama'lladhīna ūtu'l-ʿilma annahu'l-ḥaqqu min rabbika fa-yuʾminū bihi fa-tukhbita lahu qulūbuhum
"We have sent no messenger or prophet before you but that, when he desired / when he recited, Satan cast something into his desire / into what he recited. God abolishes what Satan casts, then makes His signs firm. God is knowing, wise. That He may make what Satan casts a trial for those in whose hearts is a sickness and for those whose hearts are hardened; and that those who have been given knowledge may know that it is the truth from your Lord, and may believe in it, and that their hearts may be lowered before Him."
This verse has been associated in the history of exegesis with a certain report. The matter was treated in al-Najm, and the stance adopted there is kept here exactly. I repeat the records made in al-Najm:
- I do not pass over the matter, because per the method disagreement is not concealed.
- The report has been widely rejected in the tradition of ḥadīth criticism; the discontinuity of its chains (their being mursal) and the absence of an unbroken line of transmission are given as the grounds. I give this judgement as a report.
- I do not transmit the wording of the sentence that is alleged.
- I do not speculate on the details of the report.
And I add one thing more here, because this verse is intelligible on its own, apart from that report:
The verse itself does not narrate an event. No name of a person, no time, no place occurs in it. The sentence is built in the form of a general rule: wa mā arsalnā min qablika min rasūlin wa lā nabiyyin illā … — that is, "it holds for all messengers and prophets without exception".
I record this as an observation about word order: the pattern of the sentence is universal. Its being tied to a particular incident arises not from the verse's own wording but from a report coming from outside.
Root: م-ن-ي. The root was treated in al-Najm and in al-Qiyāma, and its derivatives were recorded thus:
- مَنَىٰ (manā) — he apportioned, he measured, he determined. - مَنِيَّة — death; "that which has been apportioned". - أُمْنِيَّة (umniyya), its plural أَمَانِىّ — a wish, a fancy.
It is transmitted that the word is read in two separate senses in this verse, and both readings occur in the classical sources:
| The first reading | The second reading | |
|---|---|---|
| Tamannā | He desired, he wished | He recited — he gave voice to a text |
| Umniyya | His desire, his wish | What he recited |
| Ground | The common sense of the root: to apportion, to wish | The second usage recorded by the lexicographers: tamanna'l-kitāba — he recited the book |
| The sense of the verse | When the messenger wished for something, Satan mixed something into that wish | When the messenger recited, Satan cast something around what was recited |
That the second sense (to recite) exists in Arabic is recorded by the lexicographers. I transmit both readings and impose no preference.
What must be recorded is this: whichever reading is taken, the second half of the verse does not change. Fa-yansakhu'llāhu mā yulqi'sh-shayṭānu thumma yuḥkimu'llāhu āyātih — what is cast is removed, and the signs are made firm.
The root ن-س-خ: to remove a thing and put another in its place; and to copy. The lexicographers record both senses: naskh is both "abrogation" and "transcription".
The root ح-ك-م: to make firm, to restrain. The concrete sense of the root is ḥakama — the bit placed in a horse's mouth: the thing that holds and controls the animal. From this come ḥukm, ḥikma, muḥkam.
The order of the two verbs must be recorded, and I give this as an observation about word order: first removal, then making firm. And between them stands thumma — a particle conveying an interval.
The verse thus enumerates two separate operations: the taking out of what was mixed in, and the strengthening of the text. The second is not a repetition of the first; it is a distinct operation.
| Who | The state of the heart | Outcome |
|---|---|---|
| Alladhīna fī qulūbihim maraḍun | Sickness | Fitna — a trial |
| Al-qāsiyati qulūbuhum | Hardness | Fitna — a trial |
| Alladhīna ūtu'l-ʿilma | — | Fa-tukhbita lahu qulūbuhum — being lowered |
And two kinds of sickness are distinguished: maraḍ (sickness — working but disordered) and qaswa (hardness — not working at all). The two are enumerated separately.
فَتُخْبِتَ لَهُۥ قُلُوبُهُمْ — the root خ-ب-ت was treated in the thirty-fourth verse: khabt — low, level ground; ikhbāt — to be lowered, to submit. What the two occurrences share is the heart.
| Verse | Expression |
|---|---|
| 34 | Wa bashshiri'l-mukhbitīn — an attribute of a person |
| 54 | Fa-tukhbita lahu qulūbuhum — an act of the heart |
The same root twenty verses apart: one names the person, the other says where that naming takes place.
And the order in the fifty-fourth verse must be recorded: yaʿlama (let them know) → yuʾminū (let them believe) → tukhbita (let it be lowered). Three stages: knowledge, faith, the settling of the heart.
This order agrees with the distinction treated at al-Baqara 2/260: there faith and iṭmiʾnān were distinguished and it was recorded that "one is acceptance, the other a settling within". Here the same distinction is given in three steps. I rely on that treatment.