فَلَنَسْـَٔلَنَّ ٱلَّذِينَ أُرْسِلَ إِلَيْهِمْ وَلَنَسْـَٔلَنَّ ٱلْمُرْسَلِينَ · فَلَنَقُصَّنَّ عَلَيْهِم بِعِلْمٍ وَمَا كُنَّا غَآئِبِينَ
Fa-la-nasʾalanna'lladhīna ursila ilayhim wa la-nasʾalanna'l-mursalīn · Fa-la-naquṣṣanna ʿalayhim bi-ʿilmin wa mā kunnā ghāʾibīn
"We shall certainly question those to whom messengers were sent, and We shall certainly question the messengers. · We shall certainly recount to them with knowledge; for We were never absent."
The structure of the verse must be recorded: the same verb (la-nasʾalanna) is repeated twice, with two different objects.
| Who | Expression |
|---|---|
| The addressees | Alladhīna ursila ilayhim — those to whom it was sent |
| The messengers | Al-mursalīn — those who were sent |
I record this as an observation: that the questioning takes in the messengers as well stands beside the question put to Jesus (ʿĪsā) in the sūra al-Māʾida (5/116) and beside the line of al-Shuʿarāʾ that "your task is delivery". But here there is no accusation; the verb is only suʾāl, questioning.
And the twofold repetition of la-nasʾalanna is not the same as lining up two objects in a single sentence. It does not say "We shall question both these and those"; the verb is built afresh for each of them. This is an emphasis that can be read off the word order.
The construction of the sentence must be recorded: a negated nominal sentence. It does not say "We were present"; it says "We were not absent".
I record this as my own reading and it is not binding: the word ghayb is generally used in the Qurʾān for the region man cannot reach (al-Baqara 2/3, al-Jinn 72/26). Here the same root is used, negated, of God: man has a ghayb; He has none. And the expression fa-la-naquṣṣanna ʿalayhim bi-ʿilmin looks to the same place: the recounting is grounded not on witnessing but on knowledge.