أَمْ حَسِبْتُمْ أَن تَدْخُلُوا۟ ٱلْجَنَّةَ وَلَمَّا يَعْلَمِ ٱللَّهُ ٱلَّذِينَ جَٰهَدُوا۟ مِنكُمْ
Am ḥasibtum an tadkhulu'l-jannata wa lammā yaʿlami'llāhu'lladhīna jāhadū minkum wa yaʿlama'ṣ-ṣābirīn · Wa la-qad kuntum tamannawna'l-mawta min qabli an talqawhu fa-qad raʾaytumūhu wa antum tanẓurūn
"Or did you suppose that you would enter the garden before God had marked out those of you who strive and those who are steadfast? · You were indeed wishing for death before you met it. Now you have seen it — and you were looking on."
The root ح-س-ب occurs six times in the sūra in the sense of "to suppose", and four of the occurrences were recorded in the table in the introduction (169, 178, 180, 188). Two further occurrences must be added here: 78 (li-taḥsabūhu) and 142 (am ḥasibtum).
| Verse | Wording | Who supposes |
|---|---|---|
| 78 | Li-taḥsabūhu mina'l-kitāb | The one addressed — another makes him suppose |
| 142 | Am ḥasibtum an tadkhulu'l-jannata | The one addressed — he supposes it himself |
| 169 | Wa lā taḥsabanna'lladhīna qutilū… amwātā | The one addressed — a false supposition is forbidden |
| 178 | Wa lā yaḥsabanna'lladhīna kafarū | The other side |
| 180 | Wa lā yaḥsabanna'lladhīna yabkhalūn | The miserly |
| 188 | Lā taḥsabanna'lladhīna yafraḥūn | The one addressed — about others |
Six occurrences, in a single sūra. This is a fact verifiable within the sūra and is the completed form of the table in the introduction.
I record this as my own reading, and it is not binding: the sūra uses one verb of "supposing" in six separate places, and each time it corrects a false reckoning. And all the reckonings corrected are of the same kind: drawing a conclusion from what is seen.
There is a difficulty in the sentence, and the classical sources take it up: does an event have to occur for God to know?
| Reading | How yaʿlam is understood |
|---|---|
| 1 | The coming to pass of the knowledge in fact — that is, the realising of what the knowledge requires |
| 2 | In the sense of marking out — the knowledge is already there, the separating comes about |
| 3 | Making visible — the knowledge comes out for others |
But one datum of the text can be recorded: in the same sūra verse 179 devotes a sentence directly to this question — mā kāna'llāhu li-yadhara'l-muʾminīna ʿalā mā antum ʿalayhi ḥattā yamīza'l-khabītha mina'ṭ-ṭayyib. And the verb used there is yamīza: to separate. That is, the sūra supplies its own word. This is a link verifiable within the sūra.
| Verb | Root | What it conveys |
|---|---|---|
| Raʾaytumūhu | ر-أ-ي | You saw — a seeing accomplished |
| Tanẓurūn | ن-ظ-ر | You were looking — a looking still going on |
The lexicographers distinguish the two: naẓar is looking, ruʾya is seeing. A person may look and not see.
And the verse uses both at once. I record this as an observation about the words: the sentence says "you saw" and adds to it "you were looking". Two verbs together set up a record of witnessing that leaves no excuse.