al-Munāfiqūn 63:11

Wa lan yuʾakhkhira'llāhu nafsan idhā jāʾa ajaluhā, wa'llāhu khabīrun bimā taʿmalūn

"God will not grant respite to any soul when its term has come. And God is aware of what you do."

What was asked for in the preceding verse was taʾkhīr (respite). This verse answers with the same root: lan yuʾakhkhir.

لَنْ — the definite negation of the future. As was recorded at al-Jumuʿa 62/7, it is more definite than lā.

And note: the answer is given not to the man's request but to the whole class of requests. Nafsan — "any soul". An indefinite noun in a negative sentence denotes generality: there is no exception.

The root ن-ف-س: breath, breathing; and from there "life, person, self". At the concrete origin of the word is the drawing of breath — the most visible sign of being alive.

And that this word was chosen here is meaningful: the term comes to the thing that draws breath. The word says within itself what it is that stops.

Again the verb jāʾa (to come). In the tenth verse an yaʾtiya (its coming), here jāʾa (it came). Both denote "coming".

أَجَل — opened out in the tenth verse: an appointed period, a term, the point at which the period ends.

And the word occurs in the two verses in two different forms:

That is, in one an indefinite period that is asked for, in the other a definite and appointed period. The verse says that the second makes the first invalid: when the period that was given comes to an end, the period asked for is not given.

And from here a conclusion follows that looks to the sūra as a whole. The command in the tenth verse (wa anfiqū) was given with a qualification of time: "before death comes". This verse says why that qualification is serious: there is no possibility of making it up afterwards.

That is, the command is not a piece of advice but a work that has to be done within a period. And the end of the period is not announced.

The root خ-ب-ر. It has an interesting origin that the lexicographers record: khabara'l-arḍa — he ploughed the ground, turned it over, brought its inside out. From the same root comes khabrāʾ (soft, ploughed earth).

On this reckoning khibra, in the word's own logic, is knowing the inside of a thing: not from the surface but by turning its underside up. A khabīr is one who knows not a thing's outside but its inside.

From the same root comes khabar — news. But the distinction the lexicographers make between khabīr and ʿālim is this: ʿilm is general knowledge, whereas khibra is the knowledge of the hidden detail.

And that the sūra ends with this name is not chance.

This sūra was built from beginning to end on a distinction between inside and outside:

• What is said is true, but it is not the speaker's belief (63/1).
• The oaths are a shield — there is something behind it (63/2).
• The bodies are impressive, their insides are timber (63/4).
• The head is turned away — no word is said (63/5).

What is related over eight verses is a condition that cannot be seen from outside. And the sūra closes with precisely the name of the one who knows the inside.

This is the sūra's most elegant structure, and it forms a frame with the first verse:

The sūra opens with God's knowledge and closes with God's knowledge. The nine verses in between relate a field in which people's knowledge of one another is not enough.

بِمَا تَعْمَلُونَ — "of what you do". And note: the verb is in the second person plural — "what you do", not "what they do".

That is, the last sentence is directed not at the hypocrites but at the believers addressed in the ninth verse. The sūra does not end with "they"; it ends with "you".

This completes the sūra's manoeuvre of turning. For eight verses it was "they", in the ninth verse it became "you", and the last word stays with "you".

And there is the letter bāʾ: khabīrun bimā taʿmalūn. As was recorded for ʿalīmun bi'ẓ-ẓālimīn at al-Jumuʿa 62/7, this structure denotes that the knowledge touches its object, that it goes down into its detail.