al-Mursalāt 77:15

Waylun yawmaʾidhin li'l-mukadhdhibīn "Woe on that day to the deniers!"

The refrain of the sūra. It will be repeated ten times. Here, at its first occurrence, I shall take up the words; the repetition itself I shall treat under a separate heading.

The analysis of this word was made in the sections on al-Māʿūn, al-Humaza and al-Muṭaffifīn. I do not repeat it; what is to be taken from there:

Root: و-ي-ل. An Arabic word conveying destruction, punishment, severe pain. Rendering it in English as "alas" comes out weak, because wayl conveys not pity but a verdict. Its opposite is ṭūbā. The word does not frame a sentence; it declares a judgement. Waylun is the subject and is indefinite; the reason an indefinite noun is allowed to begin the sentence is that the sentence carries the sense of a prayer or an imprecation. The indefiniteness, meanwhile, is for magnification (tafkhīm): "such a woe as cannot be described." And the widespread saying that wayl is a valley in Hell was treated with caution, because the soundness of the report on which it rests is disputed.

The observation recorded in the section on al-Māʿūn is useful here too:

"If you see wayl at the head of a verse, what stands before you is most often either denial or the diminishing of another's right."

In this sūra it is the first: denial. And the sūra repeats it ten times.

The ordinary word order of the sentence would be waylun li'l-mukadhdhibīna yawmaʾidhin. In the verse يَوْمَئِذٍ has been drawn ahead of the predicate.

Exactly this distinction was treated in the section on al-Muṭaffifīn, and that finding holds here too:

And there it was recorded: "a fronted element gains emphasis. That is, the emphasis lies not on 'woe to them' but on 'on that day'."

This is especially important for al-Mursalāt. For the whole matter of the sūra is a day, and the name of that day was given two verses earlier. The central word of the refrain is not wayl but yawmaʾidhin. What is recalled at every repetition is the day itself.

This sentence occurs in one other place in the Qurʾān outside this sūra: al-Muṭaffifīn 83/10.

In the section on al-Muṭaffifīn this shared wording was recorded and the following qualification set down:

"That the same sentence occurs once in al-Muṭaffifīn establishes a shared wording between the two sūras. I record this as an observation; I do not claim a deliberate reference between the two sūras."

I repeat the same qualification here. But one detail is worth adding: the function of the sentence differs in the two sūras.

• In al-Muṭaffifīn the sentence occurs once and is a link in a chain: those who give short measure → those who do not expect resurrection → the record in sijjīn → woe to the deniers → and the deniers are also aggressors and sinners. The sentence advances the chain.
• In al-Mursalāt the sentence occurs ten times and advances no chain. Each time it returns to the same place.

That is, the same sentence is in one sūra a step, in the other a stop.

The analysis of the verb was made in the sections on al-Māʿūn and al-Muṭaffifīn:

Kadhdhaba (the tafʿīl form) is "to call another's true word a lie"; it differs from kadhaba (to lie). And takdhīb is not a silent refusal but an active stance and a taking of a position.

What is to be added here is that the word has been chosen for this sūra.

The sūra does not name its addressee kāfirūn. Nor does it say mushrikūn. Nor ẓālimūn. It says mukadhdhibīn — and it repeats it ten times.

This choice is meaningful, because:

One. Takdhīb is a verb of speech. To deny is to take a position against a claim; it is not a silent indifference. The addressee of the sūra is one who has heard the report and rejected it.

Two. The verb is transitive and has an object. What are they denying? The sūra will say so in verse 29: "Go towards what you used to deny." That is, the object is the promise in the answer to the oath.

Three. The tafʿīl form in Arabic often conveys repetition and continuity. Denial is not a word said once but a stance maintained. There is a correspondence between the refrain's being repeated continually and the noun's conveying continuity; I record this as my own reading.

Four, and most important: the word is an attribute, not an identity. The principle recorded in the section on al-Humaza works here too:

The sūra does not target a person, it targets an attribute. Whoever bears that attribute is the one the verse speaks of; whoever does not, it does not. Identity, affiliation, class and period make no difference.

In al-Mursalāt this is even plainer, since the sūra names no people, no person and no community. The addressee of the judgement repeated ten times is described from beginning to end as those who do a certain act.