قَدْ خَلَتْ مِن قَبْلِكُمْ سُنَنٌ فَسِيرُوا۟ فِى ٱلْأَرْضِ
Qad khalat min qablikum sunanun fa-sīrū fi'l-arḍi fa'nẓurū kayfa kāna ʿāqibatu'l-mukadhdhibīn · Hādhā bayānun li'n-nāsi wa hudan wa mawʿiẓatun li'l-muttaqīn
"Ways have passed before you. So travel in the land and see what the end of the deniers was. · This is a clear statement for people, and a guidance and an admonition for those who guard themselves."
The root س-ن-ن: to make a thing flow evenly and continuously, to open a way. The lexicographers explain the root by continuous flow: sanna'l-māʾa — he made the water flow. Sinān — a spear-point (levelled by whetting). Sunna — a way opened and travelled.
I record this as an observation about the word order: the sentence conveys not a single law but more than one way. And the verb is khalat — "have passed": it conveys what has been left behind.
And the form of the command must be recorded, and this is the verse's own distinctive side: fa-sīrū fi'l-arḍi fa'nẓurū.
Both commands are concrete. That is, the verse does not transmit a piece of knowledge; it gives a method: go and see.
I record this as my own reading, and its ground is the concreteness of the two verbs: the conclusion to be drawn is not stated. What is stated is where the conclusion is to be found. And that place is outside the text — in the land.
And this is what the verse says to the present: the past is set down not as a narrative handed on but as a field to be gone to and looked at. I record this as a point of view and do not force it: the work the verse commands is a method that coincides with the work done today by fields such as history and archaeology — going to the remains and drawing a conclusion from them. This is recorded not as a claim of a "miracle" but as a direct consequence of the wording of the verse.
هَٰذَا بَيَانٌ لِّلنَّاسِ وَهُدًى وَمَوْعِظَةٌ لِّلْمُتَّقِينَ — and the word order must be recorded: three words, two addressees.
That is, the clear statement to everyone; the guidance and the admonition to the one who profits by it. This has the same structure as the note hudan li'l-muttaqīn at 2/2 in al-Baqara, and I rely on that treatment.