al-Zukhruf 43:9 commentary

43/9

وَلَئِن سَأَلْتَهُم مَّنْ خَلَقَ ٱلسَّمَٰوَٰتِ وَٱلْأَرْضَ لَيَقُولُنَّ خَلَقَهُنَّ ٱلْعَزِيزُ ٱلْعَلِيمُ

Wa la-in saʾaltahum man khalaqa's-samāwāti wa'l-arḍa la-yaqūlunna khalaqahunna'l-ʿazīzu'l-ʿalīm

"And if you ask them, 'Who created the heavens and the earth?', they will surely say, 'The Mighty, the Knowing created them.'"

The second block begins here, and its method changes

The first block (1-8) set out the Book and the stance of the other side. The second block opens with a question — and the question is put to the other side.

The method is this, and it is one of the most effective moves in the sūra: showing the inconsistency of the other side's position out of their own answer.

The construction of the sentence: two emphases side by side

The verse carries two lāms, and both are for emphasis:

Element	Its role
wa la-in saʾaltahum	The lām at the head of the condition — the herald of an oath (lām al-tawṭiʾa)
la-yaqūlunna	The answer to the oath — lām plus the nūn of emphasis

Grammatically, then, the sentence is an oath formula: "by God, if you ask, by God they will say this".

This piling-up of emphasis carries information, and I record it as my own reading: the verse is not guessing what the answer will be, it is stating it as certain. What is being said is this: that they will give this answer is already settled. The dispute is not about who the creator is.

The content of the answer must be recorded

The answer the other side gives is this: khalaqahunna'l-ʿazīzu'l-ʿalīm.

Note: the answer does not stop at saying "God", it names two attributes. The exegetes have dwelt on this, and two readings are transmitted:

Reading	What it says
1	The whole answer is from their mouths — these attributes are part of the answer they give
2	Khalaqahunna is theirs, the attributes are the text's own addition

I do not impose a preference. But this can be recorded: the two attributes chosen (ʿazīz — mighty, unconquerable; ʿalīm — knowing) are exactly the subject of the sūra's later argument. The sūra will dispute who is great and who knows.

Showing the contradiction by means of the admission itself

This is one of the methods the Qurʾān most often uses against its Meccan addressees, and it was recorded in al-Nabaʾ as follows:

"The Meccans did not deny that God was the creator (the Qurʾān records this in many places: al-ʿAnkabūt 29/61, al-Zukhruf 43/9). What they denied was that decayed bones could be gathered together again."

The same method will recur at the end of the sūra — in verse 87: wa la-in saʾaltahum man khalaqahum la-yaqūlunna'llāh — "if you ask them who created them, they will surely say 'God'."

The difference between the two verses is worth recording, and I give it as an observation:

	43/9	43/87
Question	Who created the heavens and the earth	Who created them
Scale	The universe	Themselves
Answer	al-ʿazīzu'l-ʿalīm	Allāh
What follows	A list of favours (10-13)	fa-annā yuʾfakūn (how are they turned away)

The sūra thus asks the same question twice: once about the universe, once about the one addressed himself. The second comes at the end of the sūra, with the scale reduced. This stands in the same place as the observation about "the distance of the proof" recorded in the discussion of al-Aḥqāf: the proof is brought to where the one addressed can reach it.