قُلْ سِيرُوا۟ فِى ٱلْأَرْضِ فَٱنظُرُوا۟ كَيْفَ كَانَ عَٰقِبَةُ ٱلَّذِينَ مِن قَبْلُ كَانَ أَكْثَرُهُم مُّشْرِكِينَ
"Say: Travel in the earth and look at how the end of those before you was. Most of them were mushrikūn."
This evidence had already occurred in the ninth verse of the sūra. The two occurrences must be set side by side, because the mood changes:
| Verse | Expression | Mood |
|---|---|---|
| 9 | A-wa-lam yasīrū fi'l-arḍi fa-yanẓurū… | A question of reproach — third person |
| 42 | Qul sīrū fi'l-arḍi fa'nẓurū… | An imperative — second person, and with qul |
I record this as my own reading, and its ground is this difference of mood: in the ninth verse something not done was being called into question; in the forty-second the same thing is commanded. Thirty-three verses apart, the same verb turns from a reproach into a call.
| Verse | What is said of those before |
|---|---|
| 9 | Kānū ashadda minhum quwwatan… wa ʿamarūhā akthara — power and building up |
| 42 | Kāna aktharuhum mushrikīn — the state of their belief |
The ninth verse enumerates the side on which they were superior; the forty-second names their failing. And when the two verses are read together, it is seen that the superiority granted in the ninth verse did not change the outcome.
And the note aktharuhum (most of them) must be recorded: the sentence does not characterise a community in its entirety. The same limitation is seen at Fāṭir 35/32 and in the thirty-third verse of this sūra (farīqun minhum). Per the method (Method) this note matters: the verse describes an attribute; it does not pass a blanket judgement on a community.