al-Muʾminūn 23:96

idfaʿ bi'llatī hiya aḥsanu'l-sayyiʾa, naḥnu aʿlamu bimā yaṣifūn

"Repel the evil with what is best. We know best what they describe."

The word order must be recorded, and this is the most striking place in the verse: the object (al-sayyiʾa) has been thrown to the end. The normal order would be idfaʿi'l-sayyiʾata bi'llatī hiya aḥsan.

I give this as my own reading, its ground being this postponement: the sentence says first how it is to be repelled, and then what is to be repelled. The emphasis, that is, is on the instrument, not on what is met.

The construction is a relative clause, and the noun it qualifies has been elided. The lexicographers usually supply it as bi'l-khaṣlati'llatī hiya aḥsan (with the quality that is best) or bi'l-dafʿati'llatī hiya aḥsan.

And the elision itself is worth recording, and I give this as my own reading: the verse does not say what is to be done. It sets only a measure: aḥsan — that which is best. For this reason the command does not give a list of behaviours; it gives a measure to be worked out afresh in each case.

The same sentence occurs in a fuller form at Fuṣṣilat 41/34: idfaʿ bi'llatī hiya aḥsanu fa-idhā'lladhī baynaka wa baynahū ʿadāwatun ka-annahū waliyyun ḥamīm.

The two verses can be compared:

The difference is worth recording, and I give this as my own reading: Fuṣṣilat promises an outcome along with the command; al-Muʾminūn promises no outcome. In its place it says naḥnu aʿlamu — "We know."

The ground of the command here, that is, is not the expectation that the other side will change; it is the knowledge that what is said is on record.

And the construction comes from the same root (و-ص-ف) as ʿammā yaṣifūn in the ninety-first verse. There are four verses between the two.

The same verb, with two different responses: one tanzīh, the other knowledge. This is a repetition that can be verified within the sūra.