وَلَوْ أَنَّمَا فِى ٱلْأَرْضِ مِن شَجَرَةٍ أَقْلَٰمٌ وَٱلْبَحْرُ يَمُدُّهُۥ مِنۢ بَعْدِهِۦ سَبْعَةُ أَبْحُرٍ مَّا نَفِدَتْ كَلِمَٰتُ ٱللَّهِ
"Were all the trees on earth pens, and were the sea — with seven more seas added to it — ink, still the words of God would not run out."
| Element | What |
|---|---|
| Mā fi'l-arḍi min shajara | All the trees — as pens |
| Al-baḥru … sabʿatu abḥur | The sea + seven seas — as ink |
And the lexicographers dwell on the number sabʿa (seven): in Arabic this number most often conveys not a definite count but multiplicity. I transmit this explanation as it has been transmitted.
I record this as my own reading, and its support is the structure of the sentence: the verse does not state inexhaustibility as an attribute and pass on — it shows how exhaustion would be measured and then reports that the measure does not suffice. That is, an abstract claim is built out of countable material.
كَلِمَٰتُ ٱللَّه — "the words of God". What this construct covers has been debated in the classical commentaries: His knowledge, His decrees, His commands of creation, or all of them. I transmit the disagreement and impose no preference.