al-Dukhān 44:50

Inna hādhā mā kuntum bihi tamtarūn

"This is the very thing about which you kept on doubting."

In the forty-ninth verse the address was singular: dhuq, innaka, anta. In the fiftieth it returns to the plural: kuntum, tamtarūn.

The scene changes person three times.

I record this as an observation about word order: the text brings a single person forward, and then makes that person the specimen of a community. What is told in the forty-ninth verse, that is, is not left as the story of a single man.

The root occurred in al-Baqara, al-Qamar, al-Raḥmān and al-Najm.

On its concrete sense the lexicographers record this: marā — to rub, to stroke an animal's udder in order to milk it. Mirya — the milk drawn.

And two branches issue from this:

• مِرَاء (mirāʾ) — to argue, to contend. The link the lexicographers make: in an argument too words are drawn out of the other party, the subject is worried at.
• Form VIII: امْتَرَى (imtarā) — to doubt, to remain in two minds.

I transmit this link as a relation established by the lexicographers; I issue no firm etymological ruling.

And the pattern matters: the verb is in Form VIII and comes with kāna + the imperfect: kuntum … tamtarūn.

The finding recorded for this pattern in al-Muṭaffifīn works here too: kāna + the imperfect conveys continuity. Not "you doubted", then, but "you kept on doubting".

And the choice of root is worth recording — I give it as my own reading: the verse does not say shakk (the word of the ninth verse), it says imtirāʾ. The difference between the two words comes out of the definition of the root:

The sūra names doubt twice, and the second time it chooses a more active word.

I present this as my own reading; the definitions of the two roots and the wording of the two verses are verifiable.

What it points to is not stated. The nearest referent is the scene described in verses forty-three to forty-nine.

And that the demonstrative indicates what is near is worth recording: hādhā — "this". Not dhālika ("that").

I give this as my own reading: what was doubted is set before the doubter. What was debated as a distant possibility is shown as an object close at hand. The same demonstrative was used in the eleventh verse too: hādhā ʿadhābun alīm.

The same pronoun of nearness in both verses. I record this as a verifiable repetition within the sūra.