al-Shuʿarāʾ 26:210-213

Wa mā tanazzalat bihi'sh-shayāṭīn · Wa mā yanbaghī lahum wa mā yastaṭīʿūn · Innahum ʿani's-samʿi la-maʿzūlūn · Fa-lā tadʿu maʿa'llāhi ilāhan ākhara fa-takūna mina'l-muʿadhdhabīn

"The satans did not bring it down. · It is not for them to do, nor are they able. · For they are kept far from the hearing. · So do not call upon another god beside God, or you will be among those punished."

These three verses take up the second claim the sūra answers: "the satans are bringing this speech to him".

And the refutation has three stages:

The refutation descends, that is, from the fact to the cause: they did not bring it → they cannot bring it → because they cannot reach.

I record this as an observation about the structure: the sentence does not merely deny the claim; it gives the ground of its impossibility as well.

Form V (tanazzala): a gradual descent of itself. And the verb occurs three times in the sūra:

All three occurrences are of the satans. And the verb used of the revelation is different: nazala bihi'r-rūḥu'l-amīn (193) — Form I.

I record this as an observation: the sūra uses two different forms for two descents. And eleven verses lie between the two hundred and tenth and the two hundred and twenty-first — the sūra, that is, takes up the same subject twice, setting a section of commands between them.

The root ب-غ-ي: to seek, to want; and to overstep the bound. Form VII (inbaghā) — to be fitting and proper.

The transmitted explanation: the sentence carries both "it is not their business" and "it does not befit them". It stands, that is, between moral fitness and actual possibility. And the next clause closes off the possibility separately: wa mā yastaṭīʿūn.

The root ع-ز-ل: to set aside, to remove. Maʿzūl — a passive participle: kept away.

And the passive mould must be recorded: they do not keep away of themselves, they are kept away.

And this subject was treated at al-Jinn 72/8-9, at al-Takwīr 81/25 and at al-Ṣāffāt 37/6-10, and I rely on those treatments. The notes there were, in summary, these: the Qurʾān records in several sūras that the sky is "guarded" and that those who attempt to listen are driven off; this verse is the counterpart of that note in al-Shuʿarāʾ.

And in al-Jinn al-Shuʿarāʾ 26/210-212 was already cited; I rely on the note there.

And the word al-samʿ must be recorded: "the hearing". The same root occurred in several places in the sūra: innā maʿakum mustamiʿūn (15), alā tastamiʿūn (25), hal yasmaʿūnakum (72). And here it is said that the hearing is blocked.

Five occurrences, one root. This is a repetition that can be verified from the text. And the sūra builds a line through who hears what.

And the verse is one of the most unexpected transitions in the sūra: the address turns directly to the messenger, and a prohibition is set.

This is a disputed place. I give the transmitted explanations in a table:

I do not impose a preference. What is to be recorded is this: the verse sets down the exceptionlessness of the rule by exemplifying it at the highest station.

And the verb tadʿu must be recorded: the root د-ع-و — to call, to entreat. The same root occurred in Abraham's question in the seventy-second verse: hal yasmaʿūnakum idh tadʿūn. This is a repetition that can be verified from the text and binds the two sections: Abraham had asked his people "do they hear you when you call?"; here the one addressed is told "do not call upon another".

And the mina'l-muʿadhdhabīn mould must be recorded: one of the last instances of the "assignment to a group" mould that occurs often in the sūra (tabulated at 26/29-31). And in the hundred and thirty-eighth verse the people of ʿĀd had used the same word: wa mā naḥnu bi-muʿadhdhabīn — "we are not going to be punished". The same word, in two different mouths: one denies it, the other sets it down as a warning. This is an overlap that can be verified from the text.