أَوَلَمْ يَتَفَكَّرُوا۟ فِىٓ أَنفُسِهِم مَّا خَلَقَ ٱللَّهُ ٱلسَّمَٰوَٰتِ وَٱلْأَرْضَ وَمَا بَيْنَهُمَآ إِلَّا بِٱلْحَقِّ وَأَجَلٍ مُّسَمًّى وَإِنَّ كَثِيرًا مِّنَ ٱلنَّاسِ بِلِقَآئِ رَبِّهِمْ لَكَٰفِرُونَ · أَوَلَمْ يَسِيرُوا۟ فِى ٱلْأَرْضِ فَيَنظُرُوا۟ كَيْفَ كَانَ عَٰقِبَةُ ٱلَّذِينَ مِن قَبْلِهِمْ كَانُوٓا۟ أَشَدَّ مِنْهُمْ قُوَّةً وَأَثَارُوا۟ ٱلْأَرْضَ وَعَمَرُوهَآ أَكْثَرَ مِمَّا عَمَرُوهَا · ثُمَّ كَانَ عَٰقِبَةَ ٱلَّذِينَ أَسَٰٓـُٔوا۟ ٱلسُّوٓأَىٰٓ أَن كَذَّبُوا۟ بِـَٔايَٰتِ ٱللَّهِ
A-wa-lam yatafakkarū fī anfusihim, mā khalaqa'llāhu's-samāwāti wa'l-arḍa wa mā baynahumā illā bi'l-ḥaqqi wa ajalin musammā, wa inna kathīran mina'n-nāsi bi-liqāʾi rabbihim la-kāfirūn · A-wa-lam yasīrū fi'l-arḍi fa-yanẓurū kayfa kāna ʿāqibatu'lladhīna min qablihim, kānū ashadda minhum quwwatan wa athāru'l-arḍa wa ʿamarūhā akthara mimmā ʿamarūhā · Thumma kāna ʿāqibata'lladhīna asāʾu's-sūʾā an kadhdhabū bi-āyāti'llāh
"Have they never thought within themselves? God created the heavens and the earth and what is between the two only with truth and for a set term. Yet most people deny the meeting with their Lord. Have they not travelled in the earth and looked at how the end of those before them was? They were stronger than these; they turned the soil over and built the land up more than these have built it up. Then the end of those who did evil was the worst of ends — because they had cried lies to the signs of God."
| Reading | What fī anfusihim attaches to |
|---|---|
| 1 | To the verb — "did they not think within their own selves" (the place itself: the inner world) |
| 2 | To the subject of the thinking — "did they not think about their own selves" |
Both readings are transmitted; I do not impose a preference. The second reading overlaps with the āfāq / anfus pair at Fuṣṣilat 41/53 — there the two fields of the evidence (the outer world and the person himself) were tabulated. I rely on that treatment.
وَأَجَلٍ مُّسَمًّى — "a term whose name has been set". The construct was treated at al-Aḥqāf 46/3, at al-Zumar 39/42 and at Fāṭir 35/45. I do not repeat it here. What was recorded there: the term is fixed and its name has been set; but the one who set the name is not man.
And the place of the construct in this sūra is worth recording, and I give this as an observation: four verses earlier a political outcome had been bounded by a few years (fī biḍʿi sinīn). Here the universe itself is bounded by a term. The two sentences say the same thing on two scales: the small event and the great order alike have a term falling due.
This piece of evidence has been treated in several places in the series — Fāṭir 35/44 and Ghāfir (al-Muʾmin) 40/21, 40/82. I rely on those treatments and do not repeat them.
| Place | What is said of those before |
|---|---|
| Ghāfir 40/21 | Kānū hum ashadda minhum quwwatan wa āthāran fi'l-arḍ — power and remains |
| Fāṭir 35/44 | Kānū ashadda minhum quwwatan — power only |
| al-Rūm 30/9 | Ashadda minhum quwwatan wa athāru'l-arḍa wa ʿamarūhā akthara mimmā ʿamarūhā — power, the turning over of the soil, and building up more |
al-Rūm is the most detailed of the three, and it sets up a comparison: akthara mimmā ʿamarūhā — "more than these have built it up". That is, the superiority is granted not in power alone but in what they made and did as well.
أَثَارُوا۟ — the root أ-ث-ر / ث-و-ر was analysed at Fāṭir 35/9 (fa-tuthīru saḥāban): to raise, to send up into the air, to lift from the ground and scatter; and the connection the lexicographers record with ploughing and lifting the soil (thawr — ox). I do not repeat it here.
The usage here is worth recording: in Fāṭir the verb is attributed to a cloud, here to the soil. The same root, one in the sky and one on the ground.
عَمَرُوهَا — root ع-م-ر: to live long; and to make a place flourish, to build it up. The root was treated by way of nuʿammirkum (to give a lifespan) at Ghāfir (al-Muʾmin) 40/67 and a-wa-lam nuʿammirkum at Fāṭir 35/37. I do not repeat it here.
That the two branches of the root come together here is worth recording, and I give this as an observation about the language: the same root means both lifespan and building up. And the verse is recounting the end of a people that gave its lifespan to building up. The word itself gathers what is spent and what is made into a single root.
| Reading | What al-sūʾā is | Sense |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | The predicate of kāna (ʿāqibata in the accusative) | "The end of those who did evil was the worst of ends" |
| 2 | The object of the verb asāʾū | "The end of those who did the worst was this…" |
ٱلسُّوٓأَىٰ — like aswad/sawdāʾ, the feminine of the elative pattern (fuʿlā): "the worst there is". And its counterpart al-ḥusnā occurs elsewhere in the Qurʾān. That the word comes in this pattern must be recorded: the recompense is named not as a degree but as the end of the scale.
And the sentence of cause is worth recording: an kadhdhabū bi-āyāti'llāh — "because they cried lies to the signs of God". That is, the outcome is not attached to weakness or to a want of building up. After granting their superiority in the ninth verse, the verse puts the cause somewhere else.