al-Tawba 9:69-70

Ka'lladhīna min qablikum kānū ashadda minkum quwwatan wa akthara amwālan wa awlādan fa'stamtaʿū bi-khalāqihim fa'stamtaʿtum bi-khalāqikum kama'stamtaʿa'lladhīna min qablikum bi-khalāqihim wa khuḍtum ka'lladhī khāḍū; ulāʾika ḥabiṭat aʿmāluhum fi'l-dunyā wa'l-ākhira; wa ulāʾika humu'l-khāsirūn · A-lam yaʾtihim nabaʾu'lladhīna min qablihim qawmi Nūḥin wa ʿĀdin wa Thamūda wa qawmi Ibrāhīma wa aṣḥābi Madyana wa'l-muʾtafikāt

"Like those before you: they were stronger than you in power, and greater in wealth and children; and they took their enjoyment of their portion. You too have taken your enjoyment of your portion — as those before you took their enjoyment of their portion. And you plunged in, as they plunged in. Their works have come to nothing in this world and the next; it is they who are the losers. · Has the news of those before them not come to them: the people of Noah (Nūḥ), ʿĀd, Thamūd, the people of Abraham (Ibrāhīm), the people of Madyan, and the overturned towns…"

This verse is one of the most densely repetitive sentences in the Qurʾān. The same pattern occurs three times:

`` fa'stamtaʿū bi-khalāqihim fa'stamtaʿtum bi-khalāqikum kama'stamtaʿa …bi-khalāqihim wa khuḍtum ka'lladhī khāḍū ``

I record this as my own reading, and its ground is this repetition: the sentence itself does what it relates — repetition. The same verb, the same object, different subjects. The sentence "you did the same thing", that is, is built by repeating the same words.

The sense of the root: to shape to measure, to create; and khalāq — a portion set apart, a share.

This sense of the word comes from the root's idea of "measuring": a share cut and measured out for a person.

I record this as an observation about the language: the verse names what is taken from this world as "your portion" — and the verb is istamtaʿa (he enjoyed, he took benefit). The verse, that is, does not forbid taking benefit; it censures the counting of it as the whole.

The sense of the root: to turn a thing over on its face, to overturn it. Ifk — a lie that turns the truth upside down. The root was treated in al-Nūr (ifk) and in al-Dhāriyāt at 51/9.

Muʾtafikāt — settlements overturned, turned upside down.

I record this as an observation about the language: the same root names both a lie and the overturning of a place. And the fate of these towns was treated in al-Rūm and in the other sūras of narrative; here they are mentioned only by name.

And the six communities enumerated must be recorded: the people of Noah, ʿĀd, Thamūd, the people of Abraham, the people of Madyan, and the muʾtafikāt. This list is repeated in several places in the Qurʾān; their stories were treated in this series in al-Shuʿarāʾ and Hūd.