إِنَّهُۥ يَعْلَمُ ٱلْجَهْرَ مِنَ ٱلْقَوْلِ وَيَعْلَمُ مَا تَكْتُمُونَ · وَإِنْ أَدْرِى لَعَلَّهُۥ فِتْنَةٌ لَّكُمْ وَمَتَٰعٌ إِلَىٰ حِينٍ
Innahu yaʿlamu'l-jahra mina'l-qawli wa yaʿlamu mā taktumūn · Wa in adrī laʿallahu fitnatun lakum wa matāʿun ilā ḥīn
"He knows what is spoken aloud and He knows what you conceal. · And I do not know: perhaps it is a testing for you, and an enjoyment for a while."
And the hundred and tenth verse says the same thing as the sūra's fourth. The comparison is wholly a datum of wording.
| 21/4 | 21/110 | |
|---|---|---|
| The sentence | rabbī yaʿlamu'l-qawla fi's-samāʾi wa'l-arḍ | innahu yaʿlamu'l-jahra mina'l-qawli wa yaʿlamu mā taktumūn |
| Its axis | Place — in heaven and on earth | Openness/concealment — what is said and what is hidden |
| Its context | wa asarru'n-najwā (3) — a hidden whisper | fa-in tawallaw (109) — a turning away |
Both verses use the same verb (yaʿlamu) and the same object (al-qawl). One gives the scope by place, the other by degree of openness.
I record this as my own reading, its ground being the words the two verses share: the sūra closes in the hundred and tenth verse the matter it opened in the third with a concealed whisper. And the two verses stand at the two ends of the sūra.
ٱلْجَهْر — root ج-ه-ر: to come out into the open, to raise the voice. Jahrī — aloud. And katm (ك-ت-م) is its opposite: to hide, to keep within.
And the note mina'l-qawl carries a point of grammar: al-jahr has not been left absolute but has been qualified by qawl. That is, the subject is not the loudness of the voice but what is made open of the speech.
| Verse | What the fitna is | For whom |
|---|---|---|
| 35 | Evil and good — what is lived through | Everyone |
| 111 | The delay — the promise's not coming | The addressees |
I record this as my own reading, its ground being the word the two verses share: the sūra brings the delay too within the scope of the testing. That is, the promise's not coming is named not as the absence of the promise but as a part of the testing.
| View | What hū is |
|---|---|
| 1 | The delay itself — the deferring of the punishment |
| 2 | The respite and the favours given to them |
| 3 | What was said in the preceding verse |
وَمَتَٰعٌ إِلَىٰ حِينٍ — matāʿ — root م-ت-ع: a thing enjoyed for a time. Ilā ḥīn — until an indefinite term.
And this phrase occurred at al-Ṣāffāt on 37/148, at the close of that series: fa-mattaʿnāhum ilā ḥīn. The same two words, in the last sections of two sūras. I give this as a note about wording.
And the work of the word here must be recorded: matāʿ conveys a favour, but ilā ḥīn sets an end to it. That is, in giving what it gives, the sentence also states its limit.