لَقَدْ جِئْنَٰكُم بِٱلْحَقِّ وَلَٰكِنَّ أَكْثَرَكُمْ لِلْحَقِّ كَٰرِهُونَ · أَمْ أَبْرَمُوٓا۟ أَمْرًا فَإِنَّا مُبْرِمُونَ · أَمْ يَحْسَبُونَ أَنَّا لَا نَسْمَعُ سِرَّهُمْ وَنَجْوَىٰهُم ۚ بَلَىٰ وَرُسُلُنَا لَدَيْهِمْ يَكْتُبُونَ
Laqad jiʾnākum bi'l-ḥaqqi wa lākinna aktharakum li'l-ḥaqqi kārihūn · Am abramū amran fa-innā mubrimūn · Am yaḥsabūna annā lā nasmaʿu sirrahum wa najwāhum · Balā wa rusulunā ladayhim yaktubūn
"We brought you the truth, but most of you had no liking for the truth. Or have they made a matter fast? Then We too make fast. Or do they suppose that We do not hear their secrets and their whisperings? Indeed We do! And Our messengers are with them, writing."
| Reading | Who, where |
|---|---|
| 1 | Spoken there — the continuation of the seventy-seventh verse, to those in Hell |
| 2 | Spoken here — a return to this world, addressing those addressed |
Li'l-ḥaqq — the prepositional phrase (jārr wa majrūr) has come before the active participle (kārihūn). In Arabic this fronting conveys specification.
The sentence, then, does not say "most of you had no liking"; it says "what you had no liking for was the truth itself".
I record this as an observation about the arrangement and link it with the thirtieth verse of the sūra: there it was said wa lammā jāʾahumu'l-ḥaqqu qālū hādhā siḥr. The two verses say the same thing: the name of what is refused is put by the text.
The root ك-ر-ه was treated in al-Baqara at 2/216 and 2/256, and also in al-Aḥqāf at 46/15: dislike, difficulty, heaviness.
The concrete sense of the root comes from rope-making: abrama'l-ḥabl — he twisted the rope double and made it strong.
- مُبْرَم — a rope twisted double, a strong rope. Its opposite is مُسْحَل — single-stranded.
- أَبْرَمَ الأَمْر — he made the matter fast, he settled it. A picture close to the English idiom "to tie up a matter".
- بَرِيم — a band woven of two-coloured thread.
And the word's work in this verse is exactly this picture: making a matter certain by twisting it, tightening it.
I record this as an observation about the arrangement: the verse does not use a different verb. It gives the same verb straight back.
This is a known device in the Qurʾān — in al-Aḥqāf the giving back of the word ifk to its author was treated (46/11 and 46/28), and something similar was recorded in places such as al-Qalam and al-Ṭāriq (yakīdūna kaydan wa akīdu kaydā).
And what is to be recorded in this verse is this, and it attaches to the sūra's question of measure: ibrām is making a rope strong with one's own hand. The work the other side does, that is, is sound by its own measure. The verse does not deny it. It only says that the same act works at another scale as well.
And the nakth (unpicking a rope) in the fiftieth verse and the ibrām (twisting a rope) in this one come from the same field. The two words are from different roots (ن-ك-ث / ب-ر-م); what I record is that the sūra uses, in two separate places, words that rest on the picture of rope-making. I give this as an observation, not as a link the text makes.
With a third am comes a third question. This particle is used often in the sūra: 16, 21, 52, 58, 79, 80.
The root ح-س-ب occurred in the thirty-seventh verse (yaḥsabūna annahum muhtadūn). The same verb, in the same pattern.
| Verse | What is supposed |
|---|---|
| 37 | About themselves — that they are on the right way |
| 80 | About the other side — that they are not heard |
The concrete sense of the root ن-ج-و: high ground, a rise; and separating a thing off and saving it. Najāt (deliverance) is from the same root. The lexicographers explain najwā thus: two people drawing apart from the rest and speaking in a space of their own — that is, setting speech apart.
The root was treated in al-Mujādala (where the subject of najwā was taken up in detail); I rely on that treatment.
And the root س-ر-ر is the same root as surur (couches) in the thirty-fourth verse. The lexicographers make the link between sirr (secrecy) and sarīr (couch) in differing ways; I issue no ruling on this relation.
The choice of words conveys a scope, and I record this as my own reading: the verse closes off both layers — what has never been spoken and what has been spoken to a few. It leaves no gap between them.
Balā in Arabic is the affirmative answer given to a negative question: "no, it is not so — on the contrary".
And the continuation of the answer must be recorded: the answer does not content itself with saying "We hear", it adds a record too.
I record this as an observation about the arrangement: hearing is momentary, writing is lasting. The verse lays the two one on top of the other.
The root ك-ت-ب comes for the second time in the sūra. In the nineteenth verse there was sa-tuktabu shahādatuhum (their testimony will be written down).
The sūra, that is, sets up the idea of a record twice: once for open speech, once for hidden speech. This is a verifiable datum of the text.
The question of the record was treated in detail in the sections al-Infiṭār (kirāman kātibīn) and al-Muṭaffifīn (kitābun marqūm); I rely on those treatments and do not repeat them. The same subject was taken up in Qāf at 50/17-18 (raqībun ʿatīd) as well.