Āl ʿImrān 3:98-101

Qul yā ahla'l-kitābi lima takfurūna bi-āyāti'llāhi wa'llāhu shahīdun ʿalā mā taʿmalūn · Qul yā ahla'l-kitābi lima taṣuddūna ʿan sabīli'llāhi man āmana tabghūnahā ʿiwajan wa antum shuhadāʾ, wa ma'llāhu bi-ghāfilin ʿammā taʿmalūn · Yā ayyuha'lladhīna āmanū in tuṭīʿū farīqan mina'lladhīna ūtu'l-kitāba yaruddūkum baʿda īmānikum kāfirīn · Wa kayfa takfurūna wa antum tutlā ʿalaykum āyātu'llāhi wa fīkum rasūluh, wa man yaʿtaṣim bi'llāhi fa-qad hudiya ilā ṣirāṭin mustaqīm

"Say: 'People of the Book! Why do you deny the signs of God? God is witness to what you do.' · Say: 'People of the Book! Why do you turn the believer away from the path of God, seeking to make it crooked — and you yourselves witnesses?' … · You who believe! If you obey a group of those who were given the Book, they will turn you back to denial after your believing. · How can you deny — when the signs of God are recited to you and His messenger is among you? Whoever holds fast to God has been guided to a straight path."

The ninety-ninth verse closes the third block; with the hundredth the addressee changes: instead of yā ahla'l-kitāb, yā ayyuha'lladhīna āmanū.

And this transition was recorded in the structure of the sūra (the table of blocks in the introduction). Here the form of the transition must be recorded:

And in the hundredth verse the caveat is entered again: farīqan mina'lladhīna ūtu'l-kitāb — "a group". The same particle min for the fifth time. This is a repetition verifiable within the sūra.

The root ع-و-ج: crookedness. The lexicographers record a distinction: ʿiwaj (with i) for crookedness in abstract things — speech, an affair, a religion; ʿawaj (with a) for crookedness in visible things — a wall, a staff.

And the form used in the verse is ʿiwajan: that is, what they want to bend is not a visible object but a way — sabīlu'llāh.

I record this as an observation about the word and rely on the lexicographers' distinction; I make no claim that the choice of word was deliberate.

And the verb must be recorded: tabghūnahā — root ب-غ-ي, "to want, to seek". The same root occurred at verse 19 as baghyan baynahum, and at verse 83 as yabghūn, at verse 85 as yabtaghi. This root in four separate places in the sūra, at four separate pieces of work.

And the hundred and first verse gives in advance the key verb of the next block: yaʿtaṣim.

The root ع-ص-م: to hold on, to cling fast; and from this, to protect. ʿIṣma — being kept safe. Maʿṣūm — the one kept safe. And the concrete usage the lexicographers record: ʿiṣām — the cord that ties the mouth of a waterskin.

The root was treated at 22/78 in al-Ḥajj, at 33/17 in al-Aḥzāb, at 60/10 in al-Mumtaḥana and at 11/43 in Hūd. I rely on those treatments.

And what belongs here is this, and it is a fact of word order: the same verb comes twice, two verses apart, and its objects differ:

Two verses, one root, two different objects. And the first is singular (man), the second plural (iʿtaṣimū), and to the second jamīʿan has been added.

I record this as my own reading, and its ground is the word order of the two verses: the first verse describes the holding fast of a single person, the second the holding fast of a community together. And in the second an object comes in between: ḥabl. That is, one person holds on directly; a community holds on to something shared.