al-Muddaththir 74:52-53

Bal yurīdu kullu'mriʾin minhum an yuʾtā ṣuḥufan munashshara / Kallā bal lā yakhāfūna'l-ākhira

"Indeed, every one of them wants to be given unrolled scrolls. No! Indeed, they do not fear the hereafter."

بَلْ is in Arabic a particle of iḍrāb: leaving what has been said and passing on to something truer.

And the verse uses this particle twice, and makes two separate corrections:

1. Bal yurīdu… — it had been said "they are turning away"; the real matter is this: they want a book of their own. 2. Kallā bal lā yakhāfūn — no, that is not the real matter either: they do not fear the hereafter.

That is, the verse deepens the ground twice:

And this structure is the same as the picture the sūra set up in verses 18-25: there too the ground put forward ("this is sorcery") and the real cause (the scowling, the turning of the back, the growing proud) were shown separately.

The sūra makes this move twice: it lifts away the ground put forward and shows what lies beneath it.

I record this coincidence as an observation; it stands as the most consistent method of the sūra.

The form of the demand needs dwelling on.

The verse does not say "they want a book". It says "every one of them" (kullu'mriʾin minhum).

That is, the demand is this: a separate book for each, particular to the person.

And this demand is recorded in other places in the Qurʾān as well:

• "Or until you send down upon us a book that we can read…" (al-Isrāʾ 17/93).
• "…we will not believe you until we see God plainly" (al-Baqara 2/55).
• "Indeed, we shall never believe until we are given the like of what was given to those before" (a pattern close to al-Anʿām 6/124: lan nuʾmina ḥattā nuʾtā mithla mā ūtiya rusulullāh).

The common structure: not a lack of information, but the putting forward of a condition about the manner of verification.

And the verse, in the third layer, counts this demand void: kallā.

That is, the demand is not a real demand. Had it been met the result would not have changed — because the problem is not a lack of information.

This is another form of the finding the sūra has been setting up from the beginning: the ground is produced not before but afterwards.

صُحُف — from the ص-ح-ف root, the plural of صَحِيفَة (ṣaḥīfa): a leaf written upon, a page.

مُّنَشَّرَة — from the ن-ش-ر root, the passive participle of the tafʿīl form: thoroughly unrolled, spread open (the opening of what was rolled up).

In al-Takwīr this root and this construction were treated: وَإِذَا ٱلصُّحُفُ نُشِرَتْ (al-Takwīr 81/10) — "when the scrolls are unrolled".

And a link was set up there with ʿAbasa: "the ن-ش-ر root (inshiraḥ / nushirat)."

And there is a contrast here that needs recording:

That is, the scrolls will be unrolled in any case. What is demanded is that that unrolling should be done before its time and for the individual person.

I record this comparison as my own reading. That the two verses use the same root is beyond dispute; the contrast set up is an interpretation.

And the tafʿīl form is important: it conveys intensification. That is, not "unrolled" but "thoroughly unrolled, spread wide open" scrolls. The demand is not for a text to be interpreted; it is for a document closed to dispute.

In al-Takwīr the kitāban yalqāhu manshūrā of al-Isrāʾ 17/13 was also recorded — there too the book is given as "unrolled". But what is given there is a person's own record of deeds; what is demanded here is a document of revelation.

And the sūra states the one thing that lies beneath all the grounds.

"They do not fear the hereafter."

And what this sentence does is this: it sets all the objections aside and shows the source of the objections.

The accusation of sorcery, the accusation of a human word, the demand for a book of one's own — all set aside. The one thing underneath: that the reckoning is not taken seriously.

And note: it does not say "they do not believe", it says "they do not fear".

The difference is important, and it is recorded in the classical commentaries as well: believing is a cognitive state, fearing an affective one. It is possible to say that one believes a thing and not to act accordingly.

That is, the measure is sought not in the declaration but in the behaviour.

And this is the same method as the one recorded in al-Humaza: "The verse looks not at what a person says but at what his behaviour assumes."

I set up this link, and I state that it agrees with the frame set up by al-Māʿūn as well.