Ṭāhā 20:133-135

Wa qālū law lā yaʾtīnā bi-āyatin min rabbih, awalam taʾtihim bayyinatu mā fi'ṣ-ṣuḥufi'l-ūlā · Wa law annā ahlaknāhum bi-ʿadhābin min qablihi la-qālū rabbanā law lā arsalta ilaynā rasūlan fa-nattabiʿa āyātika min qabli an nadhilla wa nakhzā · Qul kullun mutarabbiṣun fa-tarabbaṣū, fa-sa-taʿlamūna man aṣḥābu'ṣ-ṣirāṭi's-sawiyyi wa mani'htadā

"They said: 'If only he would bring us a sign from his Lord!' Has the clear proof of what is in the former scriptures not come to them? · Had We destroyed them with a punishment before this, they would have said: 'Our Lord! If only You had sent us a messenger, that we might have followed Your signs before we were brought low and disgraced.' · Say: 'Everyone is waiting; so wait. You will soon know who are the companions of the even path and who has found the guidance.'"

The objection is a demand for a sign; the answer is given with a sign already given.

Bayyinatu mā fi'ṣ-ṣuḥufi'l-ūlā — "the clear proof of what is in the former scriptures".

A point of word order must be recorded: the answer does not promise a new sign. And the expression al-ṣuḥufi'l-ūlā is worth recording — as tabulated in the discussion of 20/74-76, the al-ūlā here is from the root أ-و-ل: "former".

I record this as an observation: for ninety verses the sūra has told the story of an earlier prophet. The answer of the hundred and thirty-third verse may be attached to that telling itself — and indeed the ninety-ninth verse said why the story was told: kadhālika naquṣṣu ʿalayka min anbāʾi mā qad sabaq. I record this connection as my own reading; the verse does not state it openly.

The hundred and thirty-fourth verse sets up a hypothetical case and closes off an excuse in advance.

And the same principle was treated at al-Qaṣaṣ on 28/59 (wa mā kāna rabbuka muhlika'l-qurā ḥattā yabʿatha fī ummihā rasūlā) and was recorded at Fāṭir on 35/24 as well (wa in min ummatin illā khalā fīhā nadhīr). I rely on those treatments.

What Ṭāhā adds is that the excuse is framed in their own mouths: la-qālū rabbanā law lā arsalta ilaynā rasūlā — "they would have said: if only You had sent us a messenger, that we might have followed."

I record this as an observation: the verse transmits a sentence that was never spoken as though it had been spoken. And this can be compared with the actual words in the hundred and thirty-third verse of the same sūra:

Both sentences begin with law lā. I record this as my own reading, and its ground is that the two sentences are on the same pattern: the verse sets side by side, in the same sentence-pattern, the one who demands a sign of the messenger who came and the one who would have produced an excuse had no messenger come.

The root ر-ب-ص: to wait, to watch for the outcome of a thing. Form V, tarabbuṣ: to keep on waiting.

A point of word order must be recorded: kullun mutarabbiṣ — "everyone is waiting". That is, waiting is given as a state common to both sides. And the command follows accordingly: fa-tarabbaṣū — "so wait."

I record this as my own reading, and its ground is the word kull: the close is not a threat but the declaring of a shared position. Neither side has yet seen the outcome; the difference lies in what they are waiting for.

Al-ṣirāṭu's-sawiyy — root س-و-ي: evenness, levelness. And the word occurs here for the second time in the sūra: in the fifty-eighth verse Pharaoh's side had asked for makānan suwā (a place even for both parties).

The same root, one for the levelness of a ground, the other for that of a path. This is a distribution that can be verified within the sūra.

And the sūra's last word must be recorded: wa mani'htadā.

The root ه-د-ي — one of the hardest-working roots in the sūra, occurring in eight verses (10, 50, 79, 82, 122, 123, 128, 135).

And the sūra closes with the root with which it opened in the tenth verse, in the thing Moses sought in the desert:

I record this as my own reading, and its ground is that the two verses carry the same root: the sūra opens with a man in the night looking for someone to ask the road of and closes with the sentence "it will be known who has found the road." What was sought and what is measured are the same word.