كَيْفَ يَهْدِى ٱللَّهُ قَوْمًا كَفَرُوا۟ بَعْدَ إِيمَٰنِهِمْ … إِلَّا ٱلَّذِينَ تَابُوا۟ مِنۢ بَعْدِ ذَٰلِكَ وَأَصْلَحُوا۟
Kayfa yahdi'llāhu qawman kafarū baʿda īmānihim wa shahidū anna'r-rasūla ḥaqqun wa jāʾahumu'l-bayyināt, wa'llāhu lā yahdi'l-qawma'ẓ-ẓālimīn · … · Illa'lladhīna tābū min baʿdi dhālika wa aṣlaḥū fa-inna'llāha ghafūrun raḥīm
"How shall God guide a people who disbelieved after they had believed, after they had borne witness that the messenger is true, and after the clear proofs had come to them? God does not guide a wrongdoing people. · … · Except those who turn back after that and set things right: God is much-forgiving, most merciful."
The eighty-sixth verse does not set the ruling down directly; it opens with a question: kayfa — "how?" And it is a question that carries its answer within it (in Arabic, istifhām inkārī).
| # | Note | What it conveys |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Baʿda īmānihim | They had believed |
| 2 | Wa shahidū anna'r-rasūla ḥaqq | They had borne witness |
| 3 | Wa jāʾahumu'l-bayyināt | The proofs had come |
Three notes, and all three are a repetition of the sūra's main note: something happens after knowledge has come. The same note is at verses 19, 61 and 105 as well. This is a repetition verifiable within the sūra.
And after a sequence of heavy rulings running three verses, verse 89 comes: illa'lladhīna tābū min baʿdi dhālika wa aṣlaḥū.
I record this as an observation about the word order: repentance alone is not counted sufficient; repair is added beside it. And the same pair occurred at 42/40 in al-Shūrā as well (fa-man ʿafā wa aṣlaḥa) — there for the one who forgives, here for the one who turns back. Two sūras apply the same pair to two different subjects.
And the difference in the ninetieth verse must be recorded: thumma'zdādū kufrā — "then they increased in disbelief". What is excluded from the exception is not the one who does not turn back but the one who increases in the opposite direction. That is, the axis of the ruling is not an event but a direction.
مِلْءُ ٱلْأَرْضِ ذَهَبًا (91) — milʾu'l-arḍi dhahabā: "the earth's fill of gold". And this lies along the same line as al-qanāṭīru'l-muqanṭara in verse 14: the sūra names the largest of hoarded amounts twice, and both times says that it is not enough.