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, 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.