أَلَمْ يَرَوْا۟ كَمْ أَهْلَكْنَا قَبْلَهُم مِّنَ ٱلْقُرُونِ أَنَّهُمْ إِلَيْهِمْ لَا يَرْجِعُونَ · وَإِن كُلٌّ لَّمَّا جَمِيعٌ لَّدَيْنَا مُحْضَرُونَ
Alam yaraw kam ahlaknā qablahum mina'l-qurūni annahum ilayhim lā yarjiʿūn · Wa in kullun lammā jamīʿun ladaynā muḥḍarūn
"Have they not seen how many generations before them We destroyed? They do not return to these. And all of them, gathered together, will be brought present before Us."
Qarn, root ق-ر-ن: to bind together, to yoke side by side. Qirān — the joining of two things; qarīn — a close companion (qarīn was treated in Qāf); qarn — an animal's horn (what is joined to the head).
From here comes the sense of qarn as a body of people: people who lived at the same time and are bound to one another — a generation.
The rendering "century" settled on the word later; the usage in the Qurʾān runs towards generation. The lexicographers differ over its length; I give no definite figure.
| Reading | What annahum attaches to | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | The second object of alam yaraw | "Have they not seen that these do not return to them?" — that is, that the destruction is permanent |
| 2 | An independent sentence, an explanation | "They do not return to these" — the state of those destroyed is announced |
| 3 | An explanation of kam ahlaknā | The destroyed generation's not coming back to this world |
I do not impose a preference. The common point can be verified: on all three readings what is announced is that there is no return.
And the word is the spine-root of the sūra: ر-ج-ع. A table of the five occurrences was given in the section on structure. This is the second occurrence of the root and the first negative one.
I record this as my own reading, and its ground is the distribution within the sūra: in the twenty-second verse the man had said "you will be returned to Him" — there is a return, but its direction is upward. In the thirty-first it is said "they do not return to these" — there is no going back. The sūra sets the two sentences nine verses apart and they complete one another: there is a return, but not to where it began.
This sentence is one of the most disputed places of parsing in the sūra, and two readings are transmitted:
| Reading | The work of in and lammā | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| لَمَّا (with shadda) | In = negating, lammā = illā | "All of them will only be brought present before Us" |
| لَمَا (without shadda) | In = the lightened form of inna, lām = distinguishing, mā = otiose | "All of them will surely be brought present before Us" |
Both readings are transmitted, and I record them, because they change the parsing entirely. But there is no difference in meaning: the first reading reaches the same result by way of restriction (only), the second by way of emphasis (surely). I do not impose a preference.
The root: to be present, to be in a place. Ḥāḍir — present; ḥaḍar — settled life (as against bedouin life).
And the pattern must be recorded: muḥḍar — a passive participle, from Form IV. Not "one who is present" but "one who is brought present" — that is, one who is brought. The verb is passive; who brings them is not said.
| Verse | Expression | Who |
|---|---|---|
| 32 | jamīʿun ladaynā muḥḍarūn | The destroyed generations and these |
| 53 | jamīʿun ladaynā muḥḍarūn | Those raised |
| 75 | wa hum lahum jundun muḥḍarūn | The gods taken up / those who take them up |
The three words in verses 32 and 53 are exactly the same: jamīʿun ladaynā muḥḍarūn. This is a verifiable repetition.
My own reading: the section of the story (block III) closes with this sentence, and the section on the resurrection is built with the same sentence. The sūra ties the outcome of the story and the outcome of the resurrection to the same words — that is, the story is set down not as an account of the past but as the same outcome seen in advance.
And a detail of word order: ladaynā — "with Us". The word announces a narrower nearness than ʿinda, and the lexicographers record this: ladā covers being in someone's presence; ʿinda covers belonging as well. What is chosen here is the word that announces presence.