قَالَ رَبِّ ٱنصُرْنِى بِمَا كَذَّبُونِ · قَالَ عَمَّا قَلِيلٍ لَّيُصْبِحُنَّ نَٰدِمِينَ · فَأَخَذَتْهُمُ ٱلصَّيْحَةُ بِٱلْحَقِّ فَجَعَلْنَٰهُمْ غُثَآءً فَبُعْدًا لِّلْقَوْمِ ٱلظَّٰلِمِينَ
qāla rabbi'nṣurnī bimā kadhdhabūn · qāla ʿammā qalīlin la-yuṣbiḥunna nādimīn · fa-akhadhathumu'l-ṣayḥatu bi'l-ḥaqqi fa-jaʿalnāhum ghuthāʾan, fa-buʿdan li'l-qawmi'l-ẓālimīn
"He said: 'My Lord, help me, for they have denied me.' He said: 'In a little while they will be full of regret.' Then the cry seized them in truth, and We made them scum. Away with the wrongdoing people!"
It is the same as the twenty-sixth verse without the difference of a single letter. Two messengers, two peoples, the same prayer. This is a repetition that can be verified within the sūra.
| Verse | Prayer | Answer |
|---|---|---|
| 26 | rabbi'nṣurnī bimā kadhdhabūn | 27 — fa-awḥaynā ilayhi ani'ṣnaʿi'l-fulka — a task is given |
| 39 | rabbi'nṣurnī bimā kadhdhabūn (the same) | 40 — ʿammā qalīlin la-yuṣbiḥunna nādimīn — a piece of news is given |
The same prayer, two different responses. I record this as an observation: in the first a preparation is asked of the messenger; in the second nothing is asked of him.
The construction: ʿan + mā (redundant) + qalīl. The lexicographers record that the mā here is redundant and reinforcing. The sense: "after a little while."
نَادِمِين — the root ن-د-م: regret. The lexicographers also record the branch of the root meaning "to come after a thing" (nadīm — a table companion).
And the form of the news is worth recording: what is reported is not the punishment itself but the state of the other side — nādimīn. What is promised, that is, is not a punishment but a regret.
The root ص-ي-ح: to cry out loudly. Ṣayḥa — a cry, a din. The root was treated at Yāsīn 36/29, 36/49 and 36/53, and in al-Qamar.
بِٱلْحَقِّ — this must be recorded: the seizing is qualified with truth. The punishment, that is, is named not as an arbitrary display of power but as a deserved outcome.
The root غ-ث-و / غ-ث-ي: the debris a torrent carries down, the frothy refuse that gathers on the water.
The word was worked out at al-Aʿlā 87/5 (fa-jaʿalahū ghuthāʾan aḥwā) — and this very verse was cited there as the word's other occurrence. I rely on that treatment and do not repeat it here.
| Place | What ghuthāʾ is | The process |
|---|---|---|
| al-Aʿlā 87/5 | Pasture — greening and then drying | A natural cycle — its adjective aḥwā (blackened) |
| al-Muʾminūn 23/41 | A people | A punishment — with no adjective |
The same word, once for a plant and once for a community. And at al-Zumar 39/21 and al-Wāqiʿa 56/65 the same idea was given with a different word (ḥuṭām — crumbled fragments).
I record this as my own reading, its ground being the picture in the word: ghuthāʾ is not a thing that has ceased to exist — it is a thing that stands on the water but is not held. The same finding recorded for habāʾ (dust) at al-Furqān 25/23 holds here too: not annihilation, but not remaining in hand.
The pattern: an absolute object with its verb elided. Buʿdan — "(let there be) distance". In Arabic it is a pattern of imprecation.
| Verse | Sentence | Of whom |
|---|---|---|
| 41 | fa-buʿdan li'l-qawmi'l-ẓālimīn | The wrongdoers — definite, that people |
| 44 | fa-buʿdan li-qawmin lā yuʾminūn | A people who do not believe — indefinite, general |
Two differences must be recorded: the first is definite (al-qawm), the second indefinite (qawmin); the first is qualified by wrongdoing, the second by not believing. At the end of the sequence, that is, the verdict passes from a people to an attribute. This is a difference that can be verified from the text, and it is what the principle recorded in Method — that a verdict is attached to an attribute and not to a group — comes to in this sūra.