al-Jumuʿa 62:7

Wa lā yatamannawnahū abadan bimā qaddamat aydīhim, wallāhu ʿalīmun bi'ẓ-ẓālimīn

"They will never wish for it, because of what their hands have sent on ahead. God knows the wrongdoers."

At al-Baqara 2/95 the answer was لَنْ يَتَمَنَّوْهُ (lan yatamannawhu). Here it is وَلَا يَتَمَنَّوْنَهُ (wa lā yatamannawnahū).

The difference looks small, but grammatically it says something:

Lan looks to the future and shuts a door definitively. Lā states the present situation: they do not want it, they are not going on wanting it. When أَبَدًا (abadan — never, at no time) is added to this, the joint work of the two particles is completed: they do not want it now, and they will never want it.

Whether a difference of form at this level between two sūras is deliberate I cannot say for certain. I record it, but I issue no ruling upon it.

This is the densest place in the sentence, and there are three separate ideas in three words.

قَدَّمَتْ — the root ق-د-م: to be in front, to go ahead. Qadam (foot) is from the same root: the part of the body that goes forward. In the tafʿīl form (qaddama) it becomes "to send in front, to dispatch ahead".

The Qurʾān regularly uses this verb in describing deeds: mā qaddamat — "what it has sent on ahead". The picture is this: a person stands here, and what he has done goes before him. That is, a deed is not a trace left behind but a thing sent on ahead. The person comes after it.

This conception explains directly the attitude taken towards death: if what you have sent on ahead is waiting for you, whether or not you want to arrive there depends on what you have sent. This is why the verse shows the cause precisely here — the reason they do not want death is not the fear of death but what waits ahead.

أَيْدِيهِمْ — "their hands". The hand is shown as the agent of the verb: qaddamat aydīhim, "their hands sent on ahead".

This is a repeated preference of the Qurʾān. As the agent of the deed it is not the person but the hand that is named. At al-Baqara 2/79 the same emphasis was present: bi-aydīhim — "writing with their hands". As was recorded there: "A detail that looks unnecessary; everyone knows that writing is done by hand. It has been put there for emphasis: the source is clear, the agent is clear."

It does the same work here: the outcome is not a misfortune that came from outside but a product that issued from one's own hand.

بِ (bāʾ) — it states cause: "because of…". A causal relation is established between their not wanting death and what they have sent on ahead.

The fifth verse had ended "God does not guide the wrongdoing people". The seventh verse ends "God knows the wrongdoers". The same word returns two verses later and the verb changes: lā yahdī → ʿalīm.

This order says something. First it was said that guidance is not given, then that being known goes on. That is, the cutting off of guidance is not the cutting off of attention.

عَلِيمٌ بِ — here too there is a bāʾ. The structure ʿalīmun bi- states in Arabic that the knowledge touches its object, that it goes down into its detail. Not a general "He knows"; He knows in detail, from within.

And this is connected with the test itself. The test produces a result for someone looking on from outside: they do not want it, so the claim is empty. But this is an inference needed by man. For God no such test is needed — the verse records this with its last sentence. For whom was the test set up? For those who put forward the claim. In order to show them their own condition.

The finding recorded at al-Baqara 2/9 for the hypocrites connects here: "the only real effect of the attempt to deceive is the person's hiding his own condition from himself." The test is set up in order to lift that hiding.