al-Naml 27:71-75

wa yaqūlūna matā hādha'l-waʿdu in kuntum ṣādiqīn · qul ʿasā an yakūna radifa lakum baʿḍu'lladhī tastaʿjilūn · wa inna rabbaka la-dhū faḍlin ʿala'n-nāsi wa lākinna aktharahum lā yashkurūn · wa inna rabbaka la-yaʿlamu mā tukinnu ṣudūruhum wa mā yuʿlinūn · wa mā min ghāʾibatin fi's-samāʾi wa'l-arḍi illā fī kitābin mubīn

"They say: 'When is this promise, if you are telling the truth?' Say: 'It may be that some of what you seek to hasten is close behind you.' Your Lord is indeed bountiful towards people, but most of them are not thankful. And your Lord knows what their breasts conceal and what they declare. There is nothing hidden in the sky or the earth but it is in a clear Book."

The root ر-د-ف was worked out in al-Nāziʿāt at 79/7: to come behind someone; and in particular to ride behind him. Radīf — the one who rides behind on a mount. And this verse was already cited in that file. I do not repeat it here.

The concrete picture of the root works here, and I record it as an observation: the radīf is the one whom the rider in front cannot see but who is immediately behind him. The answer reports not the distance of what is asked for but the fact that it is not seen.

And the construction of the sentence must be recorded: three hedges are laid one on top of another.

The question asks "when"; the answer neither gives a date nor refuses one.

I record this as my own reading, and its ground is the three hedges: the answer changes the kind of the question. The time of the promise is not given; its nearness is. And this agrees with the ruling at verse 65: wa mā yashʿurūna ayyāna yubʿathūn — the knowledge of the hour had been given to no one.

And that the sentence is placed here is worth recording.

I record this as an observation about the word order: so that the delay of the punishment should not be read as a weakness or an indifference, a statement of bounty follows immediately. The same structure was treated in Fāṭir at 35/44-45: there too a statement of power and a decision to defer were set side by side. I rely on that treatment.

And the close must be recorded: wa lākinna aktharahum lā yashkurūn. The delay is thus a bounty, and the return due to a bounty is thanks — but it is not given.

The root ك-ن-ن: to cover, to keep hidden inside a vessel. Kinān — a cover; maknūn — kept hidden.

And the subject of the verb must be recorded: ṣudūruhum — their breasts. What conceals is thus not the person but the breast itself.

I record this as an observation about the word order: the sentence describes concealment not as an act of the will but as a weight the breast carries. And mā yuʿlinūn (what they declare) is set opposite it.

The same pair had occurred at verse 25 of the sūra — and there it was the hoopoe who spoke:

Both verses have the same pair, and in the second element the word is exactly the same: yuʿlinūn. This is a repetition that can be verified within the sūra.

I record this as my own reading, and its ground is the overlap of the two verses: the measure spoken by a bird inside the narrative is applied, once the narrative is over, directly to those addressed. The sūra carries a sentence from inside its narrative out of it.

غَآئِبَة — root غ-ي-ب, the same root as the al-ghayb of verse 65. And the lexicographers dwell on its coming in the feminine form: either it conveys intensity (what is deeply hidden) or it is the adjective of an elided noun (everything that is hidden).

And the construction must be recorded: fī kitābin mubīn — "in a clear Book."

The same construction had occurred in the sūra's first verse:

The same construction, at the two ends of the sūra, with two different referents. This is a repetition that can be verified within the sūra.

I record this as an observation, and I make no claim that the two books are the same. Different views on what the kitāb of verse 75 is are transmitted in the classical commentaries (the Preserved Tablet, the divine knowledge, the register of deeds) and I do not impose a preference. What I record is that the same construction occurs at the two ends of the sūra.

And its relation to verse 65 must be recorded, and I write plainly that there is no contradiction: verse 65 says who knows the unseen; verse 75 says that the unseen is recorded. The two are two faces of the same ruling: there is a record, but access to that record is His alone.