al-Ṣāffāt 37:167-170

Wa in kānū la-yaqūlūn · Law anna ʿindanā dhikran mina'l-awwalīn · La-kunnā ʿibāda'llāhi'l-mukhlaṣīn · Fa-kafarū bihi fa-sawfa yaʿlamūn

"They used to say: 'If only we had a reminder from those of old, we would surely have been God's chosen servants.' But then they denied it. Soon they will know."

In here is not the negative but mukhaffafa mina'th-thaqīla — the lightened inna. The grammarians know it by the presence of the lām: la-yaqūlūn. The same structure was present in the fifty-sixth verse: in kidta la-turdīn.

The sense: "they really used to say".

Kānū + imperfect: a habit continuing in the past. A word said not once but continually.

And this is the sūra's most elegant internal link, and it is read entirely off the text.

Dhikran mina'l-awwalīn — "a reminder from those of old".

And the root ذ-ك-ر occurs for the fourth and last time in the sūra. The table was given in the section on the structure. Now the table is completed:

This is a single story the sūra builds from beginning to end, and it is countable at five verse-points.

And the word al-awwalūn also occurs for the fourth and last time (17, 71, 126, 168). The table was given in the section on the seventy-first verse.

I record this as my own reading: the irony of the sentence is this — what they ask for is in their hands. Dhikr is one of the Qurʾān's own names. And the hundred and seventieth verse says so directly: fa-kafarū bihi — "then they denied it".

The conditional clause (law), that is, is a condition that has been realised, but the apodosis has not been realised. In Arabic law announces an unrealised condition; here the condition has been realised and the apodosis has not. This is the structure of word order that refutes the sentence's claim.

And this is the sūra's most striking structural fact.

The construction had occurred four times in the sūra as an exception (40, 74, 128, 160) — each time naming the group saved from a ruling. The table was given in the section on the fortieth verse.

The fifth occurrence is here, and this time the construction is:

• Not an exception but a claim.
• Not in the mouth of the text but of the deniers.
• Not realised, but the apodosis of an unrealised condition.

This is a fact that can be verified from the text and is the one transformation performed with the sūra's key construction.

I record this as my own reading: the construction the sūra set down four times as the address of deliverance it sets, the fifth time, inside an unrealised claim. And immediately after, it says how the claim breaks down. The construction itself does not change; what changes is the state of the one who says it.

Kafarū — root ك-ف-ر: to cover, to hide. Kāfir in Arabic also means a farmer (one who covers the seed with earth). The root was analysed in al-Baqara.

Bihi — a pronoun. What does it refer to? To the dhikr (168). What they asked for has come, that is, and they have covered it over.

Fa-sawfa yaʿlamūn — "soon they will know".

Sawfa — in Arabic the particle announcing the future. And it differs from sa-: sawfa announces a more distant future and a heavier emphasis.

I record this as my own reading: the sentence of threat is built with a verb of knowing: yaʿlamūn — "they will know". Not punishment but learning is promised. And this is consistent with the subject of the block: the block was built from beginning to end on a lack of knowledge — wa hum shāhidūn (150 — were they witnesses?), sulṭānun mubīn (156 — have you a warrant?), fa'tū bi-kitābikum (157 — bring your book), dhikran mina'l-awwalīn (168 — if only there were an announcement).

Through five verses the side asked "do you know?" is warned "you will know".

And the root ع-ل-م will occur once more in the sūra, in a different pattern: fa-sawfa yubṣirūn (175, 179) — there not knowing but seeing. When the two moulds stand side by side, the two verbs of the sūra's last block emerge: to know and to see.