al-Aʿrāf 7:127-129

Wa qāla'l-malaʾu min qawmi Firʿawna a-tadharu Mūsā wa qawmahū li-yufsidū fi'l-arḍi wa yadharaka wa ālihatak, qāla sanuqattilu abnāʾahum wa nastaḥyī nisāʾahum wa innā fawqahum qāhirūn · Qāla Mūsā li-qawmihi'staʿīnū bi'llāhi wa'ṣbirū, inna'l-arḍa li'llāh yūrithuhā man yashāʾu min ʿibādih, wa'l-ʿāqibatu li'l-muttaqīn · Qālū ūdhīnā min qabli an taʾtiyanā wa min baʿdi mā jiʾtanā, qāla ʿasā rabbukum an yuhlika ʿaduwwakum wa yastakhlifakum fi'l-arḍi fa-yanẓura kayfa taʿmalūn

"The notables of Pharaoh's people said: 'Will you leave Moses and his people free to work corruption in the land and to forsake you and your gods?' He said: 'We shall slay their sons and spare their women. We hold overwhelming power above them.' · Moses said to his people: 'Seek help from God and be patient. The earth belongs to God; He gives it in inheritance to whom He wills of His servants. The outcome belongs to those who guard themselves.' · They said: 'We suffered harm before you came to us, and after you came to us.' He said: 'It may be that your Lord will destroy your enemy and make you successors in the land, and then see how you act.'"

This verse is a reversal that must be recorded in the sūra, and it is read entirely from the text:

That is, in the hundred and third verse the sūra ascribes corruption to one side; in the hundred and twenty-seventh it lets the same word be heard in the mouth of the other side.

I record this as my own reading and it is not binding; its ground is that the two verses use the same root: the word is the same, the ascription reversed. The sūra does not interpret this; it leaves the two sentences side by side.

And a like attitude was recorded at 40/26 in Ghāfir (al-Muʾmin): there too the decision to kill is presented with a ground of protection, and the word in the ground (fasād) was exactly the name of what was being done there. I rely on that treatment; al-Aʿrāf builds the same structure once more.

Several readings are transmitted of this expression, and I record it because the difference affects the meaning:

Both readings are transmitted; I do not impose a preference. Both accord with the context of the sūra.

Moses's answer is in three parts, and the three do different work:

And the qualification of the third part must be recorded: li'l-muttaqīn — "those who guard themselves". It does not say "yours".

I record this as an observation about word order, and its ground is the word itself: the promise is tied not to a community but to an attribute. And this is the in-text counterpart of the principle recorded in the section on the structure of the sūra: what is described is an attribute.

And the same qualification is built once more, and even more plainly, in the hundred and twenty-ninth verse: wa yastakhlifakum fi'l-arḍi fa-yanẓura kayfa taʿmalūn — "and then see how you act".

I record this as my own reading and it is not binding; its ground is the second half of the sentence: the promise is not a promise of unconditional supremacy. Succession is announced, and immediately after it a sentence of observation is placed. That is, deliverance is given not as the end of the test but as the beginning of a new one.

And the later verses of the sūra confirm this: at 138 the demand for a calf, at 148 the calf, at 163 the Sabbath, at 169 the condition of those who took over the Book. The sūra goes on telling what came after the deliverance.