أُو۟لَٰٓئِكَ يُسَٰرِعُونَ فِى ٱلْخَيْرَٰتِ وَهُمْ لَهَا سَٰبِقُونَ
This construction occurred word for word in the fifty-sixth verse and was tabulated there. I do not repeat it here; I recall it briefly: in fifty-six the agent of the verb is the giver, here the servants. The same expression, five verses apart, with two different subjects.
The root س-ب-ق: to go before, to be ahead in a race. The root was treated in detail at al-Wāqiʿa 56/10 (wa'l-sābiqūna'l-sābiqūn) — where it was recorded that the word ceases to report an act and turns into the name of a class. I rely on that treatment.
| Reading | The work of lahā | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | The complement of sābiqūn | "They are the ones who go foremost in hurrying to them (the good things)" |
| 2 | The lām here carries the sense of ilā | "They are the ones who go foremost towards them" |
| 3 | The lām reports belonging | "The good things are theirs; they are the ones who go foremost" |
And the word order must be recorded: lahā has been brought forward — wa hum lahā sābiqūn, "in them — foremost". This is the same pattern of fronting as in the six items of the first list. The list, that is, keeps its own word order in its closing sentence as well.
| The first list | The second list | |
|---|---|---|
| The closing sentence | ulāʾika humu'l-wārithūn (10) | ulāʾika yusāriʿūna fi'l-khayrāt (61) |
| The predicate | A noun — al-wārithūn | A verb — yusāriʿūn |
| The time | What is to be received in the future | What is being done now |
| Its continuation | alladhīna yarithūna'l-firdaws — a place | wa hum lahā sābiqūn — a rank |
Both closings begin with ulāʾika, and both gather the list up and attach it to a verdict. This is a feature shared by the two lists and can be verified in them.
I give this as my own reading: the first list states the place arrived at, the second the speed of going. The sūra has thereby described deliverance from two different directions: what will be received, and how the going is done.