يُنَزِّلُ ٱلْمَلَٰٓئِكَةَ بِٱلرُّوحِ مِنْ أَمْرِهِۦ عَلَىٰ مَن يَشَآءُ مِنْ عِبَادِهِۦٓ أَنْ أَنذِرُوٓا۟ أَنَّهُۥ لَآ إِلَٰهَ إِلَّآ أَنَا۠ فَٱتَّقُونِ
Yunazzilu'l-malāʾikata bi'l-rūḥi min amrihī ʿalā man yashāʾu min ʿibādih, an andhirū annahū lā ilāha illā anā fa-ttaqūn
"He sends down the angels with the rūḥ of His command upon whom He wills of His servants: 'Warn: there is no god but I; so guard yourselves against Me.'"
The tense of the verb shows it: atā (perfect) → yunazzilu (imperfect). And yunazzilu is Form II — the lexicographers record that here this form conveys repetition and gradualness (piece by piece, many times over).
I record this as an observation about the word order: the event whose certainty is announced is named once and in the perfect; the descent of the warning, as a verb still in progress. The mood of the sentences thus separates the character of the two events.
| View | What rūḥ is here | Ground |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Revelation | That at al-Shūrā 42/52 the Qurʾān is called rūḥan min amrinā; the same qualification as min amrih here |
| 2 | Gabriel | That the phrases rūḥ al-qudus and al-rūḥ al-amīn are used of the angel |
| 3 | Prophethood | The sense of the word as that which gives life; the reviving of dead hearts |
The first reading has the strongest internal ground, and I record this as an observation: the qualification min amrihī in the verse coincides word for word with the expression at al-Shūrā 42/52. In al-Shūrā it was tabulated that the root و-ح-ي is the densest root of that sūra and that the channels of revelation are enumerated at 42/51-52; I rely on that treatment. Even so I do not impose a preference: all three views are transmitted, and two of them do not exclude one another — revelation is what the angel carries.
عَلَىٰ مَن يَشَآءُ مِنْ عِبَادِهِ — and the one chosen is called a servant. Messengership is thus given as a task that arises from within servanthood, not as a station that takes a man outside it. This line will be drawn once more, and openly, in the forty-third verse of the sūra.
The imperative comes in the plural: andhirū — "warn". Yet the one upon whom the revelation descends is singular (man yashāʾu).
The lexicographers explain this in two ways: either it is addressed to the angels, or it is because the word man is singular in form and plural in sense. Both explanations are transmitted.
And the content of the warning is a single sentence: annahū lā ilāha illā anā. Worth recording: the warning is delivered not with a threat but with a statement. The threat comes only at the end of the sentence, and as a command: fa-ttaqūn.
And the change of person is striking; I record it as an observation about the word order: the sentence begins in the third person (yunazzilu … min amrihī … ʿibādihī), then shifts into the first (illā anā … fa-ttaqūni). In the middle of a report, the speaker Himself steps in. In Arabic this shift is called iltifāt (a shift in the direction of address), and the lexicographers record that it does the work of gathering attention.