هَٰذَا بَلَٰغٌ لِّلنَّاسِ وَلِيُنذَرُوا۟ بِهِۦ وَلِيَعْلَمُوٓا۟ أَنَّمَا هُوَ إِلَٰهٌ وَٰحِدٌ وَلِيَذَّكَّرَ أُو۟لُوا۟ ٱلْأَلْبَٰبِ
Hādhā balāghun li'n-nāsi wa li-yundharū bihi wa li-yaʿlamū annamā huwa ilāhun wāḥid · Wa li-yadhdhakkara ulu'l-albāb
"This is a conveying to people; that they may be warned by it, and may know that He is one God, and that those who possess understanding may take heed."
The word was treated at al-Aḥqāf 46/35 and what was recorded there holds here too; I rely on that treatment:
"A sentence of a single word: balāgh — 'it is a conveying'. The word passes a verdict about the sūra itself: the work of this text is to convey… To compel, to take on the outcome, or to call to account is not the work the text gives itself."
The difference belonging here is this, and it must be recorded: in al-Aḥqāf the word came by itself. Here an addressee is specified: balāghun li'n-nās — "a conveying to people."
| Place | Expression | Note |
|---|---|---|
| al-Aḥqāf 46/35 | Balāgh | No addressee specified |
| Ibrāhīm 14/52 | Balāghun li'n-nās | The addressee: all people |
And this overlaps with the first verse of the sūra: there too it was said li-tukhrija'n-nāsa. The sūra opens with the word "people" and closes with the same word. This is a frame that can be verified.
| Order | Ground | For whom | Verb |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Li-yundharū bihi | Everyone | To be warned — passive |
| 2 | Li-yaʿlamū annamā huwa ilāhun wāḥid | Everyone | To know |
| 3 | Li-yadhdhakkara ulu'l-albāb | Ulu'l-albāb | To think and remember |
I record this as my own reading, and its ground is the change of agent in the third item: the agent of the first two grounds is general (hum — people), the agent of the third narrows. That is, the work of the text does not reach everyone in the same degree; warning and knowledge belong to all, thinking to those who bear a certain attribute.
ٱلْأَلْبَٰب — the plural of lubb. The root ل-ب-ب: the kernel of a thing, its inside. The edible part inside the shell of an almond or a walnut is called lubb. The word was treated at al-Zumar 39/21 and at Ṣād 38/29. I rely on that treatment.
The picture in the word is worth recording: the intellect is named not by the name of a faculty but as the kernel inside the shell. That is, ulu'l-albāb are not "the intelligent" but "those who have a kernel".