قَدْ مَكَرَ ٱلَّذِينَ مِن قَبْلِهِمْ فَأَتَى ٱللَّهُ بُنْيَٰنَهُم مِّنَ ٱلْقَوَاعِدِ فَخَرَّ عَلَيْهِمُ ٱلسَّقْفُ مِن فَوْقِهِمْ وَأَتَىٰهُمُ ٱلْعَذَابُ مِنْ حَيْثُ لَا يَشْعُرُونَ · ثُمَّ يَوْمَ ٱلْقِيَٰمَةِ يُخْزِيهِمْ وَيَقُولُ أَيْنَ شُرَكَآءِىَ ٱلَّذِينَ كُنتُمْ تُشَٰٓقُّونَ فِيهِمْ
Qad makara'lladhīna min qablihim fa-ata'llāhu bunyānahum mina'l-qawāʿidi fa-kharra ʿalayhimu'l-saqfu min fawqihim wa atāhumu'l-ʿadhābu min ḥaythu lā yashʿurūn · Thumma yawma'l-qiyāmati yukhzīhim wa yaqūlu ayna shurakāʾiya'lladhīna kuntum tushāqqūna fīhim
"Those before them plotted too; God came at their building from the foundations, and the roof fell in upon them from above, and the punishment came at them from where they did not perceive it. · Then on the Day of Resurrection He will disgrace them and say: 'Where are My associates, over whom you took the opposing side?'"
| Verb | Direction | Expression |
|---|---|---|
| Fa-atā … mina'l-qawāʿid | From below | From the foundations |
| Fa-kharra ʿalayhimu'l-saqfu min fawqihim | From above | The roof upon their heads |
| Wa atāhumu'l-ʿadhābu min ḥaythu lā yashʿurūn | From where it was not reckoned | Left unnamed |
I record this as an observation about the word order: unlike the first two, the third direction is not a place. The verse leaves one direction unclosed — and that direction is the one the plot could not take into account.
بُنْيَٰن and قَوَاعِد — bunyān, root ب-ن-ي: a building. Qawāʿid, the plural of qāʿida, root ق-ع-د: that which sits, that which is set down; a foundation. That the word comes from the verb "to sit" is worth recording: the foundation is where the building sits upon the ground.
مَكَرَ — root م-ك-ر: the core the lexicographers give is to work at something in secret and by indirect means. The root was treated in detail at al-Naml, 27/50-51 (wa makarū makran wa makarnā makran); I rely on that treatment.
The verb is Form III from the root ش-ق-ق: mushāqqa — to stand on opposite sides of one another, to set up an opposing front.
The picture in the root must be recorded, and it was analysed in al-Inshiqāq: shiqq — one of the two pieces into which a thing is split. So mushāqqa means "to stand in the other half".
And it must be recorded that this is the root's second occurrence in the sūra: bi-shiqqi'l-anfus (the splitting of the selves) occurred in the seventh verse. Both occurrences carry the picture of splitting; the one in the body, the other in the ranks. This is a repetition verifiable within the sūra.