أَوَلَمْ يَهْدِ لِلَّذِينَ يَرِثُونَ ٱلْأَرْضَ مِنۢ بَعْدِ أَهْلِهَآ أَن لَّوْ نَشَآءُ أَصَبْنَٰهُم بِذُنُوبِهِمْ وَنَطْبَعُ عَلَىٰ قُلُوبِهِمْ فَهُمْ لَا يَسْمَعُونَ
A-wa lam yahdi lilladhīna yarithūna'l-arḍa min baʿdi ahlihā an law nashāʾu aṣabnāhum bi-dhunūbihim wa naṭbaʿu ʿalā qulūbihim fa-hum lā yasmaʿūn · Tilka'l-qurā naquṣṣu ʿalayka min anbāʾihā, wa laqad jāʾathum rusuluhum bi'l-bayyināti fa-mā kānū li-yuʾminū bimā kadhdhabū min qabl, kadhālika yaṭbaʿu'llāhu ʿalā qulūbi'l-kāfirīn · Wa mā wajadnā li-aktharihim min ʿahd, wa in wajadnā aktharahum la-fāsiqīn
"Has it not been made plain to those who inherit a land after its former people that, if We willed, We could strike them for their sins and set a seal upon their hearts so that they would not hear? · Those are the towns — We recount to you something of their tidings. Their messengers did come to them with clear proofs; but they were not going to believe in what they had called a lie before. Thus does God set a seal upon the hearts of the deniers. · In most of them We found no keeping of a covenant; most of them We found to be transgressors."
| Verse | Who after whom | Expression |
|---|---|---|
| 69 | ʿĀd, after the people of Noah | Jaʿalakum khulafāʾa min baʿdi qawmi Nūḥ |
| 74 | Thamūd, after ʿĀd | Jaʿalakum khulafāʾa min baʿdi ʿĀd |
| 100 | The addressee, after all of them | Yarithūna'l-arḍa min baʿdi ahlihā |
That is, the sūra ties to the reader, in a third link, the chain of succession it built in two stories. This is a weave that can be verified within the sūra, and I record it as an observation.
And the tense of the verb must be recorded: yarithūna — the imperfect, the present. The stories are built in the past tense, this sentence in the present.
The root ط-ب-ع: to press a stamp upon a thing, to seal it. The lexicographers tie the root to the picture of the stamping of coin and of wax. Ṭabīʿa (nature) is from the same root: what has been stamped on, a settled condition.
And the occurrences of the root in the sūra are countable: 100, 101 — and at 7/40 (in the context of wa kadhālika najzi'l-mujrimīn) other verbs of the same field will be used.
And per the method (Method) a note is required, and I write it plainly: the question of the seal is a field of kalām debate (the relation between the servant's act and divine decree). This commentary takes no side in that debate.
| Order | Verse | What |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 101 | Fa-mā kānū li-yuʾminū bimā kadhdhabū min qabl — first the calling of a lie |
| 2 | 101 | Kadhālika yaṭbaʿu'llāh ʿalā qulūbi'l-kāfirīn — then the seal |
The verse places the seal after a prior calling of a lie. I record this as an observation about word order; I build no ruling beyond it.
The root ع-ه-د: to guard a thing, to watch over it, to keep one's word. ʿAhd is the word that is given, and within the root lies the idea of "watching over" — a word is given in order to be kept.
And the placing of the word here is worth recording, because the eighth block of the sūra (172-174) will be built precisely on this word: there a testimony will be taken from man.
I record this as my own reading and it is not binding; its ground is the words of the two blocks: the hundred and second verse says "in most of them We found no keeping of a covenant"; the hundred and seventy-second tells when that word was taken. There are seventy verses between the two, and the sūra sets down the claim first and gives its ground afterwards. This is an explanation, not a ruling.
The root ف-س-ق: a thing's coming out of its husk or out of its place. The lexicographers tie the root to the picture of a date coming out of its skin (fasaqa'r-ruṭabu). That is, a fāsiq is one who has come out of the place where he should be.
And this word closes the block: wa in wajadnā aktharahum la-fāsiqīn. In the section on the structure of the sūra this was recorded as the closing sentence of the sixth block.