al-Muʾminūn 23:109-111

innahū kāna farīqun min ʿibādī yaqūlūna rabbanā āmannā fa'ghfir lanā wa'rḥamnā wa anta khayru'l-rāḥimīn · fa'ttakhadhtumūhum sikhriyyan ḥattā ansawkum dhikrī wa kuntum minhum taḍḥakūn · innī jazaytuhumu'l-yawma bimā ṣabarū annahum humu'l-fāʾizūn

"There was a party of My servants who used to say, 'Our Lord, we have believed; forgive us and have mercy on us, and You are the best of those who show mercy.' And you took them for mockery — until it made you forget My remembrance; and you used to laugh at them. Today I have recompensed them for their patience: it is they who are the ones who have won."

The root ف-ر-ق: to separate. Farīq — a party set apart. The root was treated at al-Furqān 25/1 (al-Furqān) and at al-Dukhān 44/4.

And the construction must be recorded: min ʿibādī — "of My servants". The possessive is to the first person.

I give this as an observation: in this sentence the group that was mocked is presented as a party of the speaker's own servants. The target of the mockery, that is, is named with its owner claiming it.

And here the most striking weave of the sūra is built.

The speech of the group mocked in the hundred and ninth verse is this:

rabbanā āmannā fa'ghfir lanā wa'rḥamnā wa anta khayru'l-rāḥimīn

And the last verse of the sūra (118) is this:

wa qul rabbi'ghfir wa'rḥam wa anta khayru'l-rāḥimīn

The last three words are word for word the same. And the verbs too are from the same roots: ighfir and irḥam.

This can be verified from the wording of the two verses. And I record this as my own reading, its ground being this exact overlap:

The sūra takes the speech that was mocked in the hundred and ninth verse and makes it its own last sentence in the hundred and eighteenth. The prayer that was mocked, that is, becomes the sūra's closing command.

The root س-خ-ر: to laugh at someone in contempt; and to bend someone to one's service. Both senses come out of the root: sakhira minhu — he mocked him; sakhkharahū — he made him subservient (taskhīr).

A variant reading must be recorded, and the lexicographers connect it with the meaning:

Both readings are transmitted; I do not impose a preference. And some of the lexicographers record that there is no difference of meaning between the two readings, and that both report mockery. I pass both views on.

And the setting of the verse must be recorded: the continuation of the sentence is wa kuntum minhum taḍḥakūn (and you used to laugh at them) — the act of laughing is named openly. This is a datum within the sūra supporting the first sense, and I record it as an observation.

And this sentence is the core of the verse, and it must be recorded.

The word order: ansawkum — the subject of the verb is hum (they), its object kum (you). The party that makes them forget, that is, is the ones being mocked.

I record this as my own reading, its ground being this voice, and it carries an oddity: those who are mocked do nothing; but the occupation of mocking keeps the mocker from something. The sentence ascribes that keeping-away to them.

The lexicographers explain this as "ascription to the cause" — that is, what makes one forget is not the ones mocked but being occupied with them. I pass the explanation on as it is transmitted.

And what is forgotten must be recorded: dhikrī — "the remembrance of Me".

And the word is from the same root as dhikrihim in the seventy-first verse:

The same root, with two different possessives. This is a repetition that can be verified within the sūra.

And the ground of the recompense must be recorded: bimā ṣabarū — "for their patience".

The root ص-ب-ر: to hold a thing, to confine, to endure. The root was treated in al-ʿAṣr and at al-Balad 90/17.

And what the ṣabr here stands against must be recorded: the verse speaks of no hunger, illness or war — it speaks of patience under mockery.

I give this as my own reading, its ground being the setting of the verse: what calls for the recompense is the situation described in the hundred and tenth verse — being laughed at.

And the same ground was recorded at al-Furqān 25/75: ulāʾika yujzawna'l-ghurfata bimā ṣabarū. The same construction, in two sūras. I rely on that treatment.

The same ground, two different recompenses. And the two sūras' lists of attributes closed in the same way — one with a place, the other with a name. This overlap agrees with the comparison table at the opening of the sūra.

The concrete sense of the root: to escape and reach what is sought; and to perish (the lexicographers record the opposite sense as well). Fawz — gain, deliverance; mafāza — a place of deliverance, and a desert.

The root was treated at al-Ḥashr 59/20 (aṣḥābu'l-jannati humu'l-fāʾizūn), where its distinction from falāḥ was drawn:

Falāḥ… an inner working in this world. Fawz, by contrast… in the verse that reports the outcome. One names the process, the other the arrival.

I rely on that treatment. And in this sūra the distinction is in a testable state, and it was recorded at the hundred and second verse: falāḥ stands at the two ends of the sūra and in the scene of the scales (1, 102, 117); fawz only here (111) — in the verse where the recompense is given.

And the word order must be recorded: annahum humu'l-fāʾizūn — reinforced with the pronoun of separation. Not "they too are among those who have won", that is, but "those who have won are precisely they."