إِنَّ ٱلَّذِينَ ٱتَّقَوْا۟ إِذَا مَسَّهُمْ طَٰٓئِفٌ مِّنَ ٱلشَّيْطَٰنِ تَذَكَّرُوا۟ فَإِذَا هُم مُّبْصِرُونَ
Inna'lladhīna'ttaqaw idhā massahum ṭāʾifun mina'sh-shayṭāni tadhakkarū fa-idhā hum mubṣirūn · Wa ikhwānuhum yamuddūnahum fi'l-ghayyi thumma lā yuqṣirūn · Wa idhā lam taʾtihim bi-āyatin qālū law la'jtabaytahā, qul innamā attabiʿu mā yūḥā ilayya min rabbī, hādhā baṣāʾiru min rabbikum wa hudan wa raḥmatun li-qawmin yuʾminūn
"When a visitation from Satan touches those who guard themselves, they at once take thought and remember, and then they see. · But their brothers draw them on into error, and never leave off. · And when you do not bring them a sign, they say, 'Why have you not gathered one up yourself?' Say: 'I follow only what is revealed to me from my Lord. This is clear insight from your Lord, and guidance and mercy for a people who believe.'"
| Reading | Text | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ṭāʾif | One who circles — who goes round a person watching for an opening |
| 2 | Ṭayf | A passing appearance — what shows itself in sleep or waking |
Both readings are transmitted; I do not impose a preference. Both accord with the main picture of the word: something not lasting, but passing by or circling about.
And the measure of the picture is worth recording, and I give it as an observation: in the two hundredth verse there was nazgh (a prod) — a short, sharp contact. Between the hundred and ninety-ninth and the two hundred and first verses the same fact is given in two different pictures: one a prodding, the other a circling about.
A point of word order must be recorded: the idhā of suddenness (idhā al-fujāʾiyya) is used. That is, the seeing comes not at the end of a process but immediately after the remembering.
| Verse | Expression | State |
|---|---|---|
| 64 | Kānū qawman ʿamīn | Blindness |
| 179 | Aʿyunun lā yubṣirūna bihā | The eye is there, the seeing is not |
| 195 | A-lahum aʿyunun yubṣirūna bihā | Is the eye there? |
| 198 | Yanẓurūna ilayka wa hum lā yubṣirūn | There is looking, there is no seeing |
| 201 | Fa-idhā hum mubṣirūn | There is seeing |
I record this as my own reading and it is not binding; its ground is the root shared by the five verses (ب-ص-ر): after describing the state of not seeing four times, the sūra says once how seeing comes. And the way given is tadhakkur (taking thought and remembering), not a proof.
And in the two hundred and third verse the word baṣāʾir comes — from the same root: hādhā baṣāʾiru min rabbikum. That is, the root occurs a sixth time at the closing of the sūra, and this time as the name of the Book.
The root ب-ص-ر: to see; and from this baṣīra — to see the inner face of a thing. Baṣāʾir is the plural of baṣīra.
The root ج-ب-ي: to gather a thing together, to pick out and collect. Jabā'l-māʾa — he gathered the water in a pool.
And what the objection is must be recorded: the other side assumes that a sign is something that can be gathered up.
And the answer removes exactly that assumption: innamā attabiʿu mā yūḥā ilayya min rabbī — "I follow only what is revealed to me".
I record this as an observation about word order, and its ground is the opposition of the two verbs: in the objection ijtabā (to gather and select), in the answer ittabaʿa (to follow). One states choosing, the other following.