أَفَمَن كَانَ مُؤْمِنًا كَمَن كَانَ فَاسِقًا لَّا يَسْتَوُۥنَ · أَمَّا ٱلَّذِينَ ءَامَنُوا۟ وَعَمِلُوا۟ ٱلصَّٰلِحَٰتِ فَلَهُمْ جَنَّٰتُ ٱلْمَأْوَىٰ نُزُلًۢا بِمَا كَانُوا۟ يَعْمَلُونَ · وَأَمَّا ٱلَّذِينَ فَسَقُوا۟ فَمَأْوَىٰهُمُ ٱلنَّارُ كُلَّمَآ أَرَادُوٓا۟ أَن يَخْرُجُوا۟ مِنْهَآ أُعِيدُوا۟ فِيهَا وَقِيلَ لَهُمْ ذُوقُوا۟ عَذَابَ ٱلنَّارِ ٱلَّذِى كُنتُم بِهِۦ تُكَذِّبُونَ
A-fa-man kāna muʾminan ka-man kāna fāsiqan, lā yastawūn · Ammā'lladhīna āmanū wa ʿamilu'l-ṣāliḥāti fa-lahum jannātu'l-maʾwā nuzulan bimā kānū yaʿmalūn · Wa ammā'lladhīna fasaqū fa-maʾwāhumu'l-nār, kullamā arādū an yakhrujū minhā uʿīdū fīhā wa qīla lahum dhūqū ʿadhāba'l-nāri'lladhī kuntum bihī tukadhdhibūn
"Is one who is a believer like one who has broken out of bounds? They are not equal. As for those who believe and do righteous works: they shall have the Gardens of Refuge as a lodging for what they used to do. As for those who broke out of bounds: the place they come to is the Fire. Every time they want to come out of it they are turned back into it, and they are told: 'Taste the punishment of the Fire that you used to call a lie'."
This expression has been treated in three places in the series. This is the fourth, and the four must be read together:
| Place | How it is built | What is compared |
|---|---|---|
| Fāṭir 35/19-22 | Four pairs, one after another | Blind/seeing · darkness/light · shade/heat · living/dead |
| Ghāfir 40/58 | Wa mā yastawi'l-aʿmā wa'l-baṣīru… | Blind/seeing, then the one who believes / the one who does evil |
| al-Jāthiya 45/21 | Am ḥasiba… an najʿalahum ka'lladhīna āmanū, sawāʾan maḥyāhum wa mamātuhum | Equality in life and in death |
| al-Sajda 32/18 | A-fa-man kāna muʾminan ka-man kāna fāsiqan, lā yastawūn | The believer / the fāsiq |
One — likeness or direct statement. Fāṭir and Ghāfir build the contrast by a comparison drawn from the senses (blind/seeing). Al-Sajda uses no comparison: it names the two sides directly.
Two — question or statement. Al-Jāthiya objects with am ḥasiba to a supposition ("did they suppose so?"). Al-Sajda first asks a question (a-fa-man…) and then gives its own answer: lā yastawūn. That is, the question is not left open.
Three — number. Lā yastawūn is plural, whereas there are two sides being compared; the dual (lā yastawiyāni) might have been expected. The lexicographers explain this by the relative pronoun man being singular in wording and plural in sense: what is compared is not two persons but two classes.
I record this as my own reading; its ground is this detail of number: the verse compares not two men but two groups. And the "series moving from the lighter to the heavier" recorded in Fāṭir 35/19-22 is absent here — al-Sajda sets up a single pair, but opens it out at once in two verses (19 and 20). Fāṭir lists them and leaves it there; al-Sajda goes into the single pair in detail.
The concrete sense of the root is given by the lexicographers thus: fasaqati'l-ruṭabatu ʿan qishrihā — the ripe date came out of its skin. That is, fisq is a thing's coming out of its own covering, its own boundary.
That muʾmin is set opposite the word is worth recording: the contrast is built not with kāfir but with fāsiq. And the verb carries this on: in the twentieth verse alladhīna fasaqū — a verb, not a noun.
I record this as an observation: what the verse describes is not a declaration of belief but the act of stepping outside the boundary. The same root was treated in al-Ḥujurāt 49/6-7; I rely on that treatment.
| Verse | Expression | The position of the word |
|---|---|---|
| 19 | Jannātu'l-maʾwā | The governing term — the name of the gardens |
| 20 | Fa-maʾwāhumu'l-nār | The predicate — the place they come to |
The root أ-و-ي: to take refuge, to shelter, to come back and settle. Maʾwā — the place one returns to and takes refuge in.
I record this as my own reading; its ground is that the two verses share the same word: for both sides the recompense is named "the place of refuge". The word is the same; the content is opposite. And this is the counterpart in word order of the ruling in the eighteenth verse of the sūra (lā yastawūn): two things that are not equal are put into two places bearing the same name.
نُزُلًا — root ن-ز-ل: to come down. Nuzul is the hospitality prepared for a guest when he alights. The word was treated in al-Wāqiʿa 56/56 and 56/93 — there nuzul was said of both sides. I do not repeat it here.
And the relation between the two verbs must be recorded: arādū (they wanted) — active; uʿīdū (they were turned back) — passive.
I record this as an observation about the word order: the subject of the verb of wanting is stated, the subject of the verb of turning back is not. That is, in the scene the will is on one side and the outcome on the other. And kullamā does not reduce this to a single occasion: the wanting is repeated, and so is the outcome.
This is the continuation of the request in the twelfth verse (fa'rjiʿnā), and it is a line that can be verified within the sūra: there a return was asked for, here a coming out. Both requests go unanswered.