وَٱللَّهُ فَضَّلَ بَعْضَكُمْ عَلَىٰ بَعْضٍ فِى ٱلرِّزْقِ فَمَا ٱلَّذِينَ فُضِّلُوا۟ بِرَآدِّى رِزْقِهِمْ عَلَىٰ مَا مَلَكَتْ أَيْمَٰنُهُمْ فَهُمْ فِيهِ سَوَآءٌ أَفَبِنِعْمَةِ ٱللَّهِ يَجْحَدُونَ
Wa'llāhu faḍḍala baʿḍakum ʿalā baʿḍin fi'l-rizq, fa-ma'lladhīna fuḍḍilū bi-rāddī rizqihim ʿalā mā malakat aymānuhum fa-hum fīhi sawāʾ, a-fa-bi-niʿmati'llāhi yajḥadūn
"God has favoured some of you over others in provision. Those who are favoured do not hand their provision over to those their right hands possess, so as to be their equals in it. Do they then knowingly deny God's favour?"
| Step | Expression | What it says |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Faḍḍala baʿḍakum ʿalā baʿḍin fi'l-rizq | The fact: provision is not distributed equally |
| 2 | Fa-ma'lladhīna fuḍḍilū bi-rāddī rizqihim… | The observation: the favoured man does not share his advantage and level himself with the others |
| 3 | A-fa-bi-niʿmati'llāhi yajḥadūn | The question |
| Reading | The work of the parable |
|---|---|
| 1 | The contradiction of associating partners: the man who accepts no partner in his own property accepts partners in God's dominion |
| 2 | The denial of the favour: the advantage given is not shared, and the giver is met with ingratitude besides |
The first reading has a ground outside the verse, and it must be recorded: at al-Rūm, 30/28, a parable of exactly the same logic occurs (hal lakum min mā malakat aymānukum min shurakāʾa fī mā razaqnākum fa-antum fīhi sawāʾ) and was treated there. The two verses use the same words: mā malakat aymānukum, fī mā razaqnākum, fa-antum fīhi sawāʾ. This is an overlap verifiable across the sūras.
| al-Rūm 30/28 | al-Naḥl 16/71 | |
|---|---|---|
| The kind of sentence | A question — hal lakum … min shurakāʾa | A statement — fa-mā … bi-rāddī |
| What is asked | Would you accept partners? | (no question is put; a fact is announced) |
| The closing | Ka-dhālika nufaṣṣilu'l-āyāti li-qawmin yaʿqilūn | A-fa-bi-niʿmati'llāhi yajḥadūn |
I record this as my own reading, its ground being the difference of the closings: al-Rūm ends the example with a call to reason; al-Naḥl ties the same example to an accounting of favour. The sūra draws a shared parable onto its own backbone.
The root was treated at al-Aḥqāf, 46/26, and the connection the lexicographers record was given there: arḍun juḥād — barren, arid ground. Denial is thus described not as ignorance but as a ground that does not give back what it has taken. I rely on that treatment.
And I record that the word falls very much in its place here: juḥūd is denial against knowledge. And the subject of the verse is the denial of the source of an advantage that is known. The eighty-third verse will say this outright: yaʿrifūna niʿmata'llāhi thumma yunkirūnahā — "they recognise it, then they deny it."