وَلِلَّهِ جُنُودُ ٱلسَّمَٰوَٰتِ وَٱلْأَرْضِ ۚ وَكَانَ ٱللَّهُ عَزِيزًا حَكِيمًا
The first half of this sentence occurred in the fourth verse in exactly the same wording. It is repeated with two verses in between. The only thing that changes is the pair of names at the end:
| Verse | Sentence | Closing |
|---|---|---|
| 4 | wa li'llāhi junūdu's-samāwāti wa'l-arḍ | wa kāna'llāhu عَلِيمًا حَكِيمًا |
| 7 | wa li'llāhi junūdu's-samāwāti wa'l-arḍ | wa kāna'llāhu عَزِيزًا حَكِيمًا |
- In the fourth verse the sentence came in the context of the sending down of sakīna upon the believers. There ʿAlīm (the knowing) is placed — because what was spoken of was something that comes down into hearts, and it is He who knows hearts.
- In the seventh verse the sentence comes in the context of the punishment of the other side. There ʿAzīz (the one who cannot be withstood) is placed — because what is spoken of is the carrying out of a sentence.
This is a closing technique often seen in the Qurʾān, and the same fact was dwelt on at al-Ḥashr: one and the same sentence closes two different pieces of work with two different pairs of names.
`` 4 — the hosts belong to God → the believers: sakīna 5 — the believers: gardens 6 — the other side: punishment 7 — the hosts belong to God ``
The section in which the two groups are separated, that is, has been set between two repetitions of the same sentence. This is the most regular structural weave in the sūra, and it says this: both groups are inside the same possession. The separation is not a change of ownership.
I record this as my own reading, but the datum of word order is plain: that the sentence is repeated twice, at exactly these two points, stands in the text.
In this block the pattern wa kāna'llāhu… occurred twice (4, 7). Throughout the sūra this pattern — or a variant of it — appears at the end of nine verses: 4, 5, 7, 11, 14, 19, 21, 24, 26. The rhythm of the sūra is largely built out of this repetition: each section is sealed with a pair of names.
This is a characteristic feature of the long Medinan sūras, and it was seen at al-Ḥadīd and al-Ḥashr as well.