قُلْ يَٰٓأَيُّهَا ٱلنَّاسُ إِن كُنتُمْ فِى شَكٍّ مِّن دِينِى فَلَآ أَعْبُدُ ٱلَّذِينَ تَعْبُدُونَ مِن دُونِ ٱللَّهِ … وَإِن يَمْسَسْكَ ٱللَّهُ بِضُرٍّ فَلَا كَاشِفَ لَهُۥٓ إِلَّا هُوَ وَإِن يُرِدْكَ بِخَيْرٍ فَلَا رَآدَّ لِفَضْلِهِۦ
"Say: 'O people! If you are in doubt about my religion — I do not serve what you serve besides God. I serve only God, who will take your souls; and I have been commanded to be among the believers.' · 'Set your face towards the religion as a ḥanīf, and do not be among those who associate others with God.' · 'Do not call, besides God, upon what can neither benefit nor harm you. If you do, you will then indeed be among the wrongdoers.' · If God touches you with harm, there is none to lift it but He. If He wills good for you, there is none to turn back His bounty."
| Verse | Condition | To whom |
|---|---|---|
| 94 | Fa-in kunta fī shakkin mimmā anzalnā ilayk | The Prophet |
| 104 | In kuntum fī shakkin min dīnī | The people |
| Verse | Answer |
|---|---|
| 94 | Fa's'ali'lladhīna yaqraʾūna'l-kitāba min qablik — a direction to look outside |
| 104 | Fa-lā aʿbudu'lladhīna taʿbudūna min dūni'llāh — a statement of position |
I record this as my own reading: the second answer does not enter into argument. What is given in answer to the doubt is not a proof but a stance. And the same structure was recorded at al-Raʿd 13/30: "the answer is given by a statement of position, without entering into argument."
ٱلَّذِى يَتَوَفَّىٰكُمْ — and God is named in this sentence by one attribute: "who takes your souls".
I record this as an observation about the word order: of all the attributes that might have been chosen for the sentence, death is chosen. And the contrast with the things the addressee serves lies here: they can give neither benefit nor harm (106); this one takes the soul.
أَقِمْ وَجْهَكَ لِلدِّينِ حَنِيفًا (105) — ḥanīf, the root ح-ن-ف: to incline, to lean towards one direction; and in the Qurʾān it is used in the sense of turned to one direction alone, free of every kind of association. The root was treated at al-Rūm 30/30; I rely on that treatment.
And the expression aqim wajhaka — "set your face straight" — states a direction. In the eighty-seventh verse of the sūra wa'jʿalū buyūtakum qiblatan had occurred — there too a direction was at issue. I record this as an observation about the wording.
In the section on Fāṭir that verse was treated in detail and it was tabulated there: yaftaḥ / yumsik — the one who opens and the one who holds back; mumsik / mursil — the one who would hold back and the one who would release. And it was recorded there: "four words, two pairs, one sentence. And in both directions the same thing is said: there is no hand that can come between."
| Fāṭir 35/2 | Yūnus 10/107 | |
|---|---|---|
| First direction | Mā yaftaḥi'llāhu li'n-nāsi min raḥmatin fa-lā mumsika lahā | Wa in yamsaska'llāhu bi-ḍurrin fa-lā kāshifa lahū illā hū |
| Second direction | Wa mā yumsik fa-lā mursila lahū | Wa in yuridka bi-khayrin fa-lā rādda li-faḍlih |
| Structure | Two symmetrical conditions | Two symmetrical conditions |
| Difference | The opening and the holding back of mercy | The lifting of harm and the barring of good |
The same architecture of sentence, two distinct pairs of verbs. I record this as my own reading, and its ground is the shared structure of the two verses.
And what Yūnus adds must be recorded: here the two situations are harm and good — that is, two conditions the one addressed lives through. In Fāṭir the subject was mercy itself; in Yūnus what befalls the person.
And the root ك-ش-ف occurs for the third and last time in the sūra (12, 98, 107). And this occurrence is the rule of which the others are instances: in the twelfth verse one man's affliction was lifted, in the ninety-eighth a people's punishment; the hundred and seventh verse says who does the lifting.
I record this as my own reading, and its ground is the sequence of the three verses: the sūra first gives two instances and at the end lays down the rule.
رَآدَّ — root ر-د-د: to turn back. Rādd — the one who would turn it back. And it stands in the same position as mursil in Fāṭir 35/2: the one who would come between.
And the root ض-ر-ر occurs in five places in the sūra (12, 18, 49, 106, 107). I will give the table in the closing section.