وَجَآءَ مِنْ أَقْصَا ٱلْمَدِينَةِ رَجُلٌ يَسْعَىٰ قَالَ يَٰقَوْمِ ٱتَّبِعُوا۟ ٱلْمُرْسَلِينَ · ٱتَّبِعُوا۟ مَن لَّا يَسْـَٔلُكُمْ أَجْرًا وَهُم مُّهْتَدُونَ
Wa jāʾa min aqṣa'l-madīnati rajulun yasʿā, qāla yā qawmi'ttabiʿu'l-mursalīn · Ittabiʿū man lā yasʾalukum ajran wa hum muhtadūn
"And from the farthest part of the city a man came running and said: 'O my people! Follow the messengers. Follow those who ask of you no reward and who are rightly guided.'"
| Element | Text | What it gives / withholds |
|---|---|---|
| From where | min aqṣa'l-madīna | Not a place, but a distance |
| Who | rajulun — indefinite | Not a name, but a kind |
| What he is doing | yasʿā — imperfect, circumstantial | Not an attribute, but a movement |
| What he said | yā qawmi | Not a position, but a belonging |
His name is not given. His trade, his age, his standing are not given. The only information about position that is given is a distance: aqṣā — farthest.
أ-ق-ص-ى / ق-ص-و — the root: distance. Qaṣā — he went far off; aqṣā — the elative: farthest. The word also occurs in the Qurʾān in the construction al-masjid al-aqṣā (al-Isrāʾ 17/1).
I record this as my own reading, and its ground is the word itself: the man comes not from the centre but from the edge. The part of the city that decides, argues and threatens is in the middle; this person joins it on foot, from outside. And after he has said his say he is on his own again — no one joins him.
The concrete sense of the root: to walk fast, to go at a pace close to running. The root has occurred in many places in the index (al-Nāziʿāt, al-Jumuʿa, al-Layl and others); I do not repeat its basic analysis.
First — the second branch of the root: saʿy is at the same time "to work, to exert oneself". Wa an laysa li'l-insāni illā mā saʿā (al-Najm 53/39). The word, that is, announces both the speed of the body and the effort of the will. The lexicographers record this doubleness.
Second — word order: rajulun yasʿā — an imperfect verb serving as an attribute to an indefinite noun. In Arabic the imperfect verb announces continuity and liveliness. The man is introduced not as one who "had come" but as "a man coming at a run". The verb is still going on in the scene.
My own reading: running is the sign of being aware of lateness. The verse does not describe the man's intention; it describes his speed — and how much a person cares about a matter usually shows in the pace at which he goes to it.
A point of word order: not qawmī but qawmi; the yāʾ at the end (the first-person pronoun) has been dropped and a kasra left in its place. In Arabic this elision is common in the vocative and announces closeness.
And the word itself must be recorded: the man says to them not "O people" but "O my people". He counts the body he has stepped in front of as his own body. This is the key to the whole story, and it will return in the twenty-sixth verse — there too he will say qawmī.
The argument the man builds is the most striking piece of the story, and its structure should be examined.
The man does not prove that the messengers are telling the truth. He gives a measure: lā yasʾalukum ajran — "they ask no reward of you."
The property of this measure is this, and it can be verified: the other side cannot test the messengers' word — because the word concerns the hereafter. But it can test the messengers' interest, because that is something visible. The man puts forward what can be tested.
And the word order supports this: the sentence is built twice with the imperative ittabiʿū — at 20 ittabiʿu'l-mursalīn (follow the messengers), at 21 ittabiʿū man lā yasʾalukum ajran (follow those who ask no reward). The second sentence is not a repetition of the first but its ground. The same command is given a second time with an attribute.
| Sentence | Command | The name of the one addressed |
|---|---|---|
| 20 | Ittabiʿū | al-mursalīn — "the messengers", that is, their claim |
| 21 | Ittabiʿū | man lā yasʾalukum ajran — "those who ask no reward", that is, their testable attribute |
I record this as my own reading: the man advances in two steps. First he names them as messengers — he states his own acceptance. Then he names the same people with an attribute the other side too can accept. The argument, that is, comes down to common ground.
A point of word order — a shift of number: man lā yasʾalukum (singular verb), then wa hum muhtadūn (plural pronoun). In Arabic man can be singular in form and plural in sense; the sentence follows the form first and the sense afterwards. The lexicographers call this ḥamlu'l-lafẓ and ḥamlu'l-maʿnā. This is not an error but a settled usage.
مُهْتَدُون — root ه-د-ي, the active participle of Form VIII: one who has found the way. Form VIII here announces a state realised in the person himself. And note: not hādūn (those who guide) but muhtadūn (those who have found the way). The man names the messengers not as people who direct others but as people who themselves stand in the right place.