وَلَوْ يُعَجِّلُ ٱللَّهُ لِلنَّاسِ ٱلشَّرَّ ٱسْتِعْجَالَهُم بِٱلْخَيْرِ لَقُضِىَ إِلَيْهِمْ أَجَلُهُمْ
Wa law yuʿajjilu'llāhu li'n-nāsi'sh-sharra'stiʿjālahum bi'l-khayri la-quḍiya ilayhim ajaluhum, fa-nadharu'lladhīna lā yarjūna liqāʾanā fī ṭughyānihim yaʿmahūn
"If God were to hasten evil to people as they seek to hasten what is good, their term would long since have been finished for them. But We leave those who do not look for the meeting with Us to wander blindly in their transgression."
| Part | What it is |
|---|---|
| Yuʿajjilu … ash-sharr | God's hastening of evil — what does not happen |
| Istiʿjālahum bi'l-khayr | Man's seeking to hasten what is good — what does happen |
| La-quḍiya ilayhim ajaluhum | The result — the term would be over |
Istiʿjālahum is a cognate accusative (mafʿūl muṭlaq): "as they seek to hasten". The measure, that is, is man's own haste.
I record this as my own reading, and its ground is this cognate accusative: the verse does not merely name man's haste as a fault — it takes that haste as a scale and says "if the answer had come at the same speed". And the result is the ending of the term.
At Fāṭir 35/45 (wa law yuʾākhidhu'llāhu'n-nāsa bimā kasabū mā taraka ʿalā ẓahrihā min dābba): the scope was all living things, and it was recorded there — "the verse is saying that man's reckoning concerns other living creatures as well."
At al-Kahf 18/58 (law yuʾākhidhuhum bimā kasabū la-ʿajjala lahumu'l-ʿadhāb): there lahum mawʿid — an appointed time — was stated.
| Place | Condition | Result | What is put in its place |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fāṭir 35/45 | Law yuʾākhidhu … bimā kasabū | Mā taraka min dābba — not a creature would be left | Yuʾakhkhiruhum ilā ajalin musammā |
| al-Kahf 18/58 | Law yuʾākhidhuhum bimā kasabū | La-ʿajjala lahumu'l-ʿadhāb | Lahum mawʿid — a time |
| Yūnus 10/11 | Law yuʿajjilu … ash-sharra istiʿjālahum bi'l-khayr | La-quḍiya ilayhim ajaluhum | Fa-nadharu … fī ṭughyānihim |
And what Yūnus adds must be recorded: in the other two verses the condition was the deeds earned (bimā kasabū); here the condition is the speed of man's own asking for haste. The measure, that is, is taken not from outside but from the conduct of the one addressed.
And at al-Raʿd 13/6 the seeking to hasten the punishment (wa yastaʿjilūnaka bi's-sayyiʾati qabla'l-ḥasana) was treated; the same demand had occurred at Sabaʾ 34/29 and al-ʿAnkabūt 29/53 as well. Yūnus is the most fully built form of the answer given to that demand.
فِى طُغْيَٰنِهِمْ يَعْمَهُونَ — the construct was tabulated in the section on al-Muʾminūn 23, and its regular occurrences in the Qurʾān were counted there (al-Baqara 2/15, al-Anʿām 6/110, al-Aʿrāf 7/186, Yūnus 10/11). I rely on that treatment.
The root ع-م-ه: to walk without seeing, to flounder, to wander about without finding one's direction. The lexicographers compare this with ʿamā (blindness): ʿamā is transmitted as the blindness of the eye, ʿamah as the blindness of the mind. I relate this distinction as it is transmitted.