فَمَنْ أَظْلَمُ مِمَّنِ ٱفْتَرَىٰ عَلَى ٱللَّهِ كَذِبًا أَوْ كَذَّبَ بِـَٔايَٰتِهِۦٓ أُو۟لَٰٓئِكَ يَنَالُهُمْ نَصِيبُهُم مِّنَ ٱلْكِتَٰبِ حَتَّىٰٓ إِذَا جَآءَتْهُمْ رُسُلُنَا يَتَوَفَّوْنَهُمْ قَالُوٓا۟ أَيْنَ مَا كُنتُمْ تَدْعُونَ مِن دُونِ ٱللَّهِ قَالُوا۟ ضَلُّوا۟ عَنَّا وَشَهِدُوا۟ عَلَىٰٓ أَنفُسِهِمْ أَنَّهُمْ كَانُوا۟ كَٰفِرِينَ
Fa-man aẓlamu mimmani'ftarā ʿala'llāhi kadhiban aw kadhdhaba bi-āyātih, ulāʾika yanāluhum naṣībuhum mina'l-kitāb, ḥattā idhā jāʾathum rusulunā yatawaffawnahum qālū ayna mā kuntum tadʿūna min dūni'llāh, qālū ḍallū ʿannā wa shahidū ʿalā anfusihim annahum kānū kāfirīn
"Who is more wrongdoing than one who invents a lie against God or calls His signs lies? Their share of the Book reaches them. Then, when Our messengers come to take their souls, they say, 'Where are those you used to call upon beside God?' They say, 'They have gone astray from us,' and they bear witness against themselves that they were deniers."
This pattern occurs in close to fifteen places in the Qurʾān and was treated in the index (al-Kahf 18/57, al-Sajda 32/22, al-Zumar 39/32). I rely on those treatments.
| Verb | What | Direction |
|---|---|---|
| Iftarā ʿala'llāhi kadhiban | To invent a lie against God | Addition — to say what is not |
| Kadhdhaba bi-āyātih | To call His signs lies | Subtraction — to reject what is |
I record this as an observation: the two acts run in opposite directions — one adds, the other subtracts. And the last item of the thirty-third verse (an taqūlū ʿala'llāhi mā lā taʿlamūn) corresponds to the first act. That is, there are four verses between the list and this verse, and the same act is named twice.
| Reading | What kitāb is | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | The preserved tablet / what is decreed | "The share written for them reaches them" — lifespan, provision, term |
| 2 | The Book sent down | "The share announced for them in the Book reaches them" — the recompense promised |
A point of word order: yanāluhum naṣībuhum — the verb is nāla (ن-ي-ل), "to reach". And the same root will return in the forty-ninth verse: lā yanāluhumu'llāhu bi-raḥma. Two occurrences: one the reaching of a share, the other the not reaching of mercy.
Rusul here are not messengers (prophets) but those charged with taking the soul — this is understood from the context and from the verb (yatawaffawnahum). The same usage is present at al-Anʿām 6/61 too (tawaffathu rusulunā).
The root و-ف-ي: to be complete, to render in full. Tawaffā is "to take a thing in full" — hence "to take the soul". The root was treated at 39/42 in al-Zumar (Allāhu yatawaffa'l-anfus); I rely on that treatment.
The construction of the sentence must be recorded: shahidū ʿalā anfusihim — "they bore witness against themselves".
And the same structure will return in the hundred and seventy-second verse — but there the direction differs:
| Verse | Sentence | When | For what |
|---|---|---|---|
| 7/37 | Wa shahidū ʿalā anfusihim annahum kānū kāfirīn | At the moment of death | Against themselves |
| 7/172 | Wa ashhadahum ʿalā anfusihim a-lastu bi-rabbikum | At the beginning | An acknowledgement |
There are a hundred and thirty-five verses between the two, and both use the structure shahida ʿalā nafsih.
I record this as my own reading and it is not binding; its ground is the shared word order of the two verses: the sūra makes man a witness about himself twice — once at the beginning (172), once at the end (37). And the two testimonies face one another: the first an acknowledgement, the second a confession. This will be completed at 172-174.