al-Raʿd 13:5-7

"If you would wonder, then what is truly to be wondered at is this word of theirs: 'When we have become dust, shall we really be in a new creation?'… Those who disbelieve say: 'Should a miracle not have been sent down upon him from his Lord?' You are only a warner; and for every people there is a guide."

وَإِن تَعْجَبْ فَعَجَبٌ قَوْلُهُمْ — moving the place of the wonder.

The word ʿajab was treated at Qāf 50/2 (bal ʿajibū an jāʾahum mundhirun minhum), and it was recorded there: that the objection begins not with an argument but with astonishment, that is, that familiarity is made the measure. I rely on that treatment.

The difference here must be recorded: in Qāf it was the other side that was astonished; in al-Raʿd the astonishment is handed back to the one addressed — fa-ʿajabun qawluhum.

وَيَسْتَعْجِلُونَكَ بِٱلسَّيِّئَةِ قَبْلَ ٱلْحَسَنَةِ وَقَدْ خَلَتْ مِن قَبْلِهِمُ ٱلْمَثُلَٰتُ (6) — al-mathulāt: punishments that stand as a lesson.

I record this as an observation: the demand that the punishment be hastened was treated in several places in the index (Sabaʾ 34/29, al-ʿAnkabūt 29/53). What al-Raʿd adds: that this is a thing whose precedent is to be found in the past.

إِنَّمَآ أَنتَ مُنذِرٌ وَلِكُلِّ قَوْمٍ هَادٍ — "you are only a warner; and for every people there is a guide."

There is disagreement over the second half of the sentence:

Both readings are transmitted; I do not impose a preference. The principle that a warner has been sent was treated at Fāṭir 35/24 and al-Qaṣaṣ 28/59; the first reading sits on that line.