أَلَيْسَ ٱللَّهُ بِأَحْكَمِ ٱلْحَٰكِمِينَ
In Arabic a negative question is a strong affirmation. The same structure was seen in Sūrat al-Fīl in the pattern a-lam tara: "is it not?" = "of course it is so, and you know it."
This pattern places the one addressed in a position: he is not obliged to answer, because the answer is already inside the sentence. To refuse, he would have to refuse not the question but what is plain.
Bi-aḥkami — the particle bāʾ here is not a particle that adds meaning; it is a "redundant" (zāʾid) particle that comes to reinforce the predicate of a negative sentence. In Arabic this bāʾ, which comes at the head of the predicate of laysa, increases the certainty of the negation.
It cannot be carried over into English, but it is heard: the sentence is not in the tone of "is it not?" but of "is it not indeed?".
Root: ح-ك-م. The concrete sense of the root has to be dwelt on, because the English word "judgement" has lost it.
The original sense of the root is to hinder, to hold back, to rein in. The clearest proof of this is in one of its derivatives: حَكَمَة (ḥakama) — the bit put in a horse's mouth, the piece of iron that turns the animal's head. To bit a horse is to keep it from going where it wants.
- ḥukm — to bind a matter, to bring it to a decision; to prevent arbitrariness
- ḥikma — the knowledge that holds a man back from error; doing a thing in its proper place
- iḥkām — making firm, leaving no gap
- muḥkam — firm, not to be shifted
- ḥākim — both a judge and "one who possesses wisdom"
To give judgement, then, is in the root of Arabic a work of drawing a boundary. The judge is the one who prevents the parties from doing what they want.
This gives the last sentence of the sūra a further meaning. The sūra spoke of a fall; the fall is the consequence of boundlessness. And the last verse announces who it is that sets the boundary.
The structure: elative (aḥkam) + a plural active participle from the same root (al-ḥākimīn). "The most judging of those who judge."
The first — quantity: the one who judges most, whose judgement stands above everyone's. The court above all courts, that is.
When the second sense of the root is added: the one who judges most soundly, in whose judgement there is no gap. Aḥkam is not "the one who gives the harshest punishment" but "the one who decides most aptly, most rightly, most soundly". The sense of iḥkām (making firm) in the root requires this.
This distinction is not unimportant. The verse can be read like a sentence of threat — "it is He who will settle the account." But the word itself points not to threat but to aptness. What is said is this: the judgement to be given will be without defect; neither too much nor too little.
"And Noah (Nūḥ) called upon his Lord: My Lord! My son is of my family, and Your promise is true, and You are the most judicious of judges" (Hūd 11/45).
This occurrence is valuable for fixing the tone of the expression. Noah says these words not as a threat but as a taking of refuge: at a point where he cannot decide about his son's outcome, he applies to the one who decides most aptly. Aḥkam al-ḥākimīn, that is, is an attribute one appeals to, not one that is feared.
In the fourth verse the sūra says أَحْسَنِ تَقْوِيمٍ (the finest stature), in the eighth أَحْكَمِ ٱلْحَٰكِمِينَ (the most judicious). Both are elative constructs, and they stand at the two ends of the sūra.
The link between them exists at the level of the root as well. Taqwīm is to straighten a thing, to bring it into a state where it stands upright. Ḥukm is to make a thing firm, to leave no gap in it. Both are acts of setting up an order; the one on the side of creation, the other on the side of the reckoning.
The sūra is saying, then: the one who set up the order and the one who settles the account are the same. This is the answer to the sūra's question in the seventh verse. The reply to "What makes you deny the dīn?" is that the one who gave the stature will give the judgement as well. It is unthinkable that one who arranged a thing with this much care should take no interest in the outcome of the arrangement.
It is transmitted that when this verse is recited there is a practice of saying "balā wa anā ʿalā dhālika mina'l-shāhidīn" (yes, and I am among those who bear witness to that). This report is found in some sources, but there is dispute over its soundness; presenting it as a certain sunna calls for caution. A similar practice is transmitted for the close of Sūrat al-Qiyāma as well.
This much I can say: since the verse is itself a question, it is natural that it should expect an answer, and the reciter's answering it inwardly accords with the structure of the text. But to relate this with a firm ruling, as "one says such and such", goes beyond the knowledge in our hands.