وَإِذَا مَسَّ ٱلْإِنسَٰنَ ضُرٌّ دَعَا رَبَّهُۥ مُنِيبًا إِلَيْهِ ثُمَّ إِذَا خَوَّلَهُۥ نِعْمَةً مِّنْهُ نَسِىَ مَا كَانَ يَدْعُوٓا۟ إِلَيْهِ مِن قَبْلُ · أَمَّنْ هُوَ قَٰنِتٌ ءَانَآءَ ٱلَّيْلِ سَاجِدًا وَقَآئِمًا … قُلْ هَلْ يَسْتَوِى ٱلَّذِينَ يَعْلَمُونَ وَٱلَّذِينَ لَا يَعْلَمُونَ
"When harm touches man, he calls upon his Lord, turning to Him. Then, when He grants him a favour from Himself, he forgets what he was calling upon Him for before… Or is he who is devout through the hours of the night, prostrating and standing… Say: are those who know and those who do not know equal?"
Here the sūra sets two human beings side by side, and the very portrait treated in Fuṣṣilat at 41/49-51 stands first:
| Place | Portrait |
|---|---|
| Fuṣṣilat 41/49-51 | He does not weary of asking for good; when evil touches him he despairs; when favour is given he draws his side aside |
| Al-Zumar 39/8 | When harm touches him he calls, turning to Him; when favour is given he forgets |
The two sūras end the same behaviour with two different verbs: the one drawing aside, the other forgetting.
خَوَّلَهُ — root خ-و-ل: to give someone something to look after and to use. The lexicographers record the sense of the word as "given in trust, given together with the responsibility for it". The choice of word is worth recording: what is given is named not as property but as something to be looked after.
قَٰنِتٌ ءَانَآءَ ٱلَّيْل — qānit: root ق-ن-ت, to stand in reverent awe and in unbroken obedience. Ānāʾ — the hours of the night.
The placing of the question must be recorded: the opposition between knowing and not knowing comes immediately after the description of worship. That this opposition is the whole axis of al-Jāthiya I set out in a table there; here the same opposition is joined to deed.