فَلَعَلَّكَ تَارِكٌۢ بَعْضَ مَا يُوحَىٰٓ إِلَيْكَ وَضَآئِقٌۢ بِهِۦ صَدْرُكَ أَن يَقُولُوا۟ لَوْلَآ أُنزِلَ عَلَيْهِ كَنزٌ أَوْ جَآءَ مَعَهُۥ مَلَكٌ إِنَّمَآ أَنتَ نَذِيرٌ وَٱللَّهُ عَلَىٰ كُلِّ شَىْءٍ وَكِيلٌ
fa-laʿallaka tārikun baʿḍa mā yūḥā ilayka wa ḍāʾiqun bihī ṣadruka an yaqūlū law lā unzila ʿalayhi kanzun aw jāʾa maʿahū malak, innamā anta nadhīr, wa'llāhu ʿalā kulli shayʾin wakīl
"Perhaps you will leave aside part of what is revealed to you, and your breast will be straitened by it, because they say, 'Why has no treasure been sent down to him, or no angel come with him?' You are only a warner; and God is the One who takes charge of everything."
The particle laʿalla occurs in a few places in the Qurʾān in a sentence directed at the messenger, and these have been treated across this series: al-Shuʿarāʾ 26/3 (laʿallaka bākhiʿun nafsak) and al-Kahf 18/6 (fa-laʿallaka bākhiʿun nafsaka ʿalā āthārihim asafā). I rely on that treatment.
| Place | What follows laʿallaka |
|---|---|
| al-Shuʿarāʾ 26/3 | bākhiʿun nafsak — grieving to the point of destroying oneself |
| al-Kahf 18/6 | bākhiʿun nafsak … asafā — the same, with "in sorrow" added |
| Hūd 11/12 | tārikun baʿḍa mā yūḥā ilayk — leaving aside part of what is revealed |
I record this as my own reading, and its ground is what the three verses report: grieving is an inner state; leaving part of it aside is a decision about delivery. Hūd names the step beyond the same strain.
A note, per the method (Method): the sentence is built in a mood of possibility and is not a report that it occurred. It is widely reported in the classical sources that this verse is read not as a failure that took place but as the forestalling of a possible strain. The same limit is kept in this commentary.
The root ض-ي-ق: narrowness. The root was treated at al-Shuʿarāʾ 26/13 (wa yaḍīqu ṣadrī) in Moses' objection, and I rely on that treatment.
| Place | Who | When |
|---|---|---|
| al-Shuʿarāʾ 26/13 | Moses | As the task is given — before it has begun |
| Hūd 11/12 | Muhammad | While the task is under way — after the objections have come |
And the form of the word must be recorded: not ḍāʾiq but ḍāʾiqun bihī ṣadruk. What is straitened, that is, is not you but your breast; and what straitens it is bihī — not the revelation itself but the carrying of it. This is an observation about the word order.
And its link with the fifth verse was tabulated above: the breast of the one addressed is bent, the breast of the messenger is straitened.
These two demands were treated together at al-Furqān 25/7-8 (law lā unzila ilayhi malakun fa-yakūna maʿahū nadhīrā · aw yulqā ilayhi kanzun). I rely on that treatment.
And the kind of demand must be recorded: both look at the messenger's standing, not at what he says. The same family was treated at al-Shuʿarāʾ 26/111 (a-nuʾminu laka wa'ttabaʿaka'l-ardhalūn) and at al-Zukhruf 43/31 (rajulin mina'l-qaryatayni ʿaẓīm).
This limit has been tabulated in many places across this series (al-Qaṣaṣ 28/56, Fāṭir 35/8, Luqmān 31/23, al-Zumar 39/41, al-Aḥqāf 46/35, al-Raʿd 13/7). I do not repeat it here.
The root و-ك-ل: to commit a matter to another, to leave it in trust. Wakīl — the one who takes the matter on.
And this word will return in the imperative in the last verse of the sūra: wa tawakkal ʿalayh (123). This is an overlap that can be verified from the text, and it will be tabulated in the closing section.