كَذَٰلِكَ سَلَكْنَٰهُ فِى قُلُوبِ ٱلْمُجْرِمِينَ · لَا يُؤْمِنُونَ بِهِۦ حَتَّىٰ يَرَوُا۟ ٱلْعَذَابَ ٱلْأَلِيمَ · فَيَأْتِيَهُم بَغْتَةً وَهُمْ لَا يَشْعُرُونَ · فَيَقُولُوا۟ هَلْ نَحْنُ مُنظَرُونَ · أَفَبِعَذَابِنَا يَسْتَعْجِلُونَ · أَفَرَءَيْتَ إِن مَّتَّعْنَٰهُمْ سِنِينَ · ثُمَّ جَآءَهُم مَّا كَانُوا۟ يُوعَدُونَ · مَآ أَغْنَىٰ عَنْهُم مَّا كَانُوا۟ يُمَتَّعُونَ · وَمَآ أَهْلَكْنَا مِن قَرْيَةٍ إِلَّا لَهَا مُنذِرُونَ · ذِكْرَىٰ وَمَا كُنَّا ظَٰلِمِينَ
Kadhālika salaknāhu fī qulūbi'l-mujrimīn · Lā yuʾminūna bihi ḥattā yarawu'l-ʿadhāba'l-alīm · Fa-yaʾtiyahum baghtatan wa hum lā yashʿurūn · Fa-yaqūlū hal naḥnu munẓarūn · A-fa-bi-ʿadhābinā yastaʿjilūn · A-fa-raʾayta in mattaʿnāhum sinīn · Thumma jāʾahum mā kānū yūʿadūn · Mā aghnā ʿanhum mā kānū yumattaʿūn · Wa mā ahlaknā min qaryatin illā lahā mundhirūn · Dhikrā wa mā kunnā ẓālimīn
"Thus have We threaded it into the hearts of the guilty. · They will not believe in it until they see the painful punishment. · It will come upon them suddenly, and they will not be aware. · Then they will say: 'Are we to be given respite?' · Do they then seek to hasten Our punishment? · Tell me, then: if We let them enjoy themselves for years, · and then what they were promised came to them, · of what use to them would be what they were allowed to enjoy? · And We have destroyed no township that did not have its warners — · as a reminder. And We were never unjust."
The root س-ل-ك: to pass a thing through a way or a hole, to thread. Its concrete use: to pass a thread through the eye of a needle. The Qurʾān uses the same root in the form naslukuhu fī qulūbi'l-mujrimīn (al-Ḥijr 15/12) as well — almost the same sentence.
| Reading | The pronoun | Its meaning |
|---|---|---|
| To the Qurʾān | The same as the innahu pronouns in the preceding verses | "We threaded the Qurʾān into their hearts — yet they do not believe" |
| To the denial, the rejection | To the shared outcome of the preceding accounts | "We threaded this attitude into their hearts" |
Both readings are transmitted; I do not impose a preference. What is to be recorded is this: on the first reading the emphasis is that the speech has reached them but found no response; on the second, that the attitude is an outcome.
And the word kadhālika ("thus") must be recorded: the word attaches to the preceding verses. It comes, that is, after the supposition of verses 198-199 ("even if a foreigner recited it they would not believe"). This is a contextual datum that supports the first reading.
ٱلْمُجْرِمِين — the root was analysed in the ninety-ninth verse (ج-ر-م — to pluck fruit, and from there to earn guilt); I do not repeat it.
I record this as my own reading, and its ground is the link with 26/4: in the fourth verse it was said "if We willed We would send down a sign from heaven and their necks would bow". In the two hundred and first verse it is said that they will believe when they see the punishment. The two verses say the same thing: when a compelling sign comes, no resistance remains — but that belief is not what counts as belief.
And the Qurʾān says this openly elsewhere: fa-lam yaku yanfaʿuhum īmānuhum lammā raʾaw baʾsanā (al-Muʾmin 40/85 — treated in Ghāfir (al-Muʾmin)).
And the addition of wa hum lā yashʿurūn must be recorded: baghtatan already announces suddenness; on top of it "while they are not aware" is added. In Arabic this is reinforcement.
The root ش-ع-ر: to perceive what is fine and hidden. The root was mentioned in the hundred and thirteenth verse (law tashʿurūn) and will return by name in the final section of the sūra: al-shuʿarāʾ (224). This is a repetition that can be verified from the text, and the full analysis of the root will be made there.
I record an observation: the sense of the root is "to perceive". And in saying that the punishment comes unperceived, the verse uses this root. Twenty-four verses later the sūra will speak of a group that takes its name from the same root.
The root ن-ظ-ر: to look; and to wait, to grant a term. Inẓār — the granting of respite. Munẓar — a passive participle: one granted respite.
And the word must not be confused with mundhir (a warner — from the root ن-ذ-ر); they are two different roots. Both occur in the sūra: munẓarūn (203) and mundhirūn (208).
And a point of word order must be recorded: what is asked for is not an opportunity to believe but time.
| Verse | The demand | When |
|---|---|---|
| 203 | Hal naḥnu munẓarūn — "give us respite" | When the punishment comes |
| 204 | A-fa-bi-ʿadhābinā yastaʿjilūn — "they seek to hasten it" | Before the punishment |
The same people, at two different times, two opposite demands. This is an overlap that can be verified from the text.
And the demand of the people of al-Ayka attaches to this verse: fa-asqiṭ ʿalaynā kisafan mina's-samāʾ (187) — "drop a fragment of the sky". The sūra, that is, applies here to those addressed a scene it recounted twenty verses before.
The root ع-ج-ل: to hasten. Form X (istaʿjala) — to ask for haste, to demand that a thing be hastened.
After the hundred and ninety-fifth verse the sūra sets up a question to think on, and the question spreads across three verses (205-207).
| Verse | Element |
|---|---|
| 205 | Condition — "if We let them enjoy for years" |
| 206 | Second condition — "and then what was promised came" |
| 207 | Answer — "of what use would be what they enjoyed?" |
And the word sinīn (years) must be recorded: the term is set long. The question says not "if it lasts a short time" but "even if it lasts a long time".
The root م-ت-ع: to derive benefit from a thing, to enjoy it for a time. Matāʿ — a passing benefit, a provision. At the core of the word lies transience, and this was recorded in many sections of the series.
And the verb occurs twice: mattaʿnāhum (205), yumattaʿūn (207). The same root, one active and one passive.
And at al-Ṣāffāt 37/148 the same root closed an account: fa-mattaʿnāhum ilā ḥīn — "so We let them enjoy for a time". The same mould, in two sūras.
م-ا أَغْنَىٰ عَنْهُم — root غ-ن-ي: to be free of need, to suffice. Mā aghnā ʿanhu — "it warded nothing off from him, it did not suffice him".
And the mood of the sentence is perfect: mā aghnā. That the apodosis of a conditional comes in the perfect is exactly the technique recorded in the fourth verse: to recount as already done what is certain to happen.
A point of word order must be recorded: the sentence is built with the mā … illā mould — a rule without exception. And the min in min qaryatin, coming after a negative, announces comprehensiveness: "no township whatever".
And mundhirūn is plural. The singular (mundhirun) could also have been said. The transmitted explanation: that more than one warner may have come to each township, or that the class is meant.
And the word ties to the hundred and seventy-third verse: fa-sāʾa maṭaru'l-mundharīn — "the rain of those who were warned". The same root, two different voices: there those warned, here those who warn. This is an overlap that can be verified from the text.
And at Fāṭir 35/24 the same rule is set down with another word: wa in min ummatin illā khalā fīhā nadhīr — "there is no community in which a warner has not passed". It was treated there and I rely on that treatment.
A point of word order: the word stands alone and can be attached grammatically in several ways (as an object of purpose, mafʿūl lahu — "so that it be a reminder"; as a circumstantial — "as a reminder"). The sense does not change: the reason the warners are sent.
And the work of the sentence must be recorded: this is a note set upon all the accounts of destruction in the sūra. Through seven accounts peoples were destroyed. The two hundred and ninth verse says that this was not an injustice — and its ground is in the verse before it: warning had been given.
I record this as an observation about the structure: the two verses together build an argument. Punishment without warning would be an injustice; because warning was given, it is not.