فَبَشِّرْ عِبَادِ · ٱلَّذِينَ يَسْتَمِعُونَ ٱلْقَوْلَ فَيَتَّبِعُونَ أَحْسَنَهُۥٓ
| Verb | Pattern | What |
|---|---|---|
| Yastamiʿūn | Form VIII — to lend an ear, to listen attentively | They listen to the word |
| Yattabiʿūn | Form VIII — to go after | They follow the best of it |
I record this as my own reading, and its ground is the generality of the word: the description leaves out both rejecting without listening and following everything one hears. There is a work of sorting here: listening is open, following is selective.
And this description is the exact opposite of the tactic treated in Fuṣṣilat at 41/26: there it was said lā tasmaʿū li-hādha'l-qurʾāni wa'lghaw fīh — "do not listen, make noise." Set the two verses side by side and it is seen that the two sūras hold the two ends of the same matter.
أُو۟لَٰٓئِكَ هُمْ أُو۟لُوا۟ ٱلْأَلْبَٰبِ — albāb is the plural of lubb: the kernel of a thing, its inside; the edible part of a fruit, the part separated from its husk. That is, the intellect is named as the capacity to throw away the husk and take the kernel — and the description matches exactly the work of sorting done one verse earlier.