وَٱلَّذِينَ جَٰهَدُوا۟ فِينَا لَنَهْدِيَنَّهُمْ سُبُلَنَا وَإِنَّ ٱللَّهَ لَمَعَ ٱلْمُحْسِنِينَ
"Those who strive for Our sake — We shall surely guide them to Our ways. God is surely with those who do good."
The root ج-ه-د had occurred in the sixth verse of this sūra: wa man jāhada fa-innamā yujāhidu li-nafsih — "whoever strives, strives only for himself."
| Verse | Expression | What it announces |
|---|---|---|
| 6 | Man jāhada fa-innamā yujāhidu li-nafsih | To whom the striving belongs |
| 69 | Alladhīna jāhadū fīnā la-nahdiyannahum subulanā | The recompense of the striving |
The sūra closes with the same root the matter it opened with. This is a ring that can be verified from the text.
The root ج-ه-د: to expend strength, to go to the end of one's capacity. Jahd — strength, capacity. The root occurred at al-Ḥujurāt, Muḥammad and al-Mumtaḥana.
I record this as my own reading, and its ground is the plural form of the word: guidance is named not as a single route but as more than one way. And the condition is not finding the way — it is the striving itself. The sequence is worth recording: first the striving, then the guiding.
وَإِنَّ ٱللَّهَ لَمَعَ ٱلْمُحْسِنِين — and the sūra closes with an answer to the question of trial in the first block: the one who is tested is not left alone.
In the second verse the question had been asked: a-ḥasiba'n-nāsu an yutrakū — "did they suppose they would be left alone?" The sixty-ninth verse gives the opposite of that same verb: la-maʿa'l-muḥsinīn — He is with them. The sūra opens with "you will not be left" and closes with "you are not alone."