قَالُوا۟ رَبَّنَا غَلَبَتْ عَلَيْنَا شِقْوَتُنَا وَكُنَّا قَوْمًا ضَآلِّينَ · رَبَّنَآ أَخْرِجْنَا مِنْهَا فَإِنْ عُدْنَا فَإِنَّا ظَٰلِمُونَ
qālū rabbanā ghalabat ʿalaynā shiqwatunā wa kunnā qawman ḍāllīn · rabbanā akhrijnā minhā fa-in ʿudnā fa-innā ẓālimūn
"They said: 'Our Lord, our wretchedness overcame us, and we were a people gone astray. Our Lord, bring us out of it. If we go back, then we are indeed wrongdoers.'"
The sentence is an excuse, and its build must be recorded: shiqwatunā is the subject, ʿalaynā — they are the object.
I record this as my own reading, its ground being this voice of the sentence: the excuse takes the responsibility off the person and gives it to a condition.
And the verse does not leave this to stand alone: immediately after comes wa kunnā qawman ḍāllīn — and this time the subject is they themselves.
| Sentence | Subject | What |
|---|---|---|
| ghalabat ʿalaynā shiqwatunā | Wretchedness | An excuse — something from outside |
| wa kunnā qawman ḍāllīn | We | An admission — their own condition |
Two sentences side by side, with different subjects. This is a fact that can be verified from the text, and I give it as an observation about the word order: in the same speech there is both an excuse and an admission.
The root ش-ق-و: hardship, distress, unhappiness. The word is the opposite of saʿāda (happiness). The root was treated at al-Aʿlā 87/11 (wa yatajannabuhā'l-ashqā) and at al-Layl 92/15 (lā yaṣlāhā illā'l-ashqā).
A variant reading must be recorded: the readings shiqwatunā and shaqāwatunā are transmitted. Two verbal-noun patterns from the same root; it does not change the meaning.
And the finding recorded in al-Layl holds here too: there too the word ashqā was set down not as a condition but as the outcome of deeds. I rely on that treatment. The assumption the excuse rests on — that wretchedness is a fate independent of the person — is thus not supported by the Qurʾān's own usage. I give this reading as my own reading.
| Verse | The request | Where | The answer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 99 | rabbi'rjiʿūn — send me back | At the moment of death | kallā (100) — refusal |
| 107 | rabbanā akhrijnā minhā — bring us out | Inside the Fire | ikhsaʾū fīhā (108) — refusal |
The same sūra, the same request, two different times. This is a repetition that can be verified within the sūra.
And the request at Fāṭir 35/37 uses exactly the same word as this second one: rabbanā akhrijnā naʿmal ṣāliḥan. A four-row table was built at the ninety-ninth verse; this verse is added to that table as a fifth row.
And its difference must be recorded: the request in Fāṭir offered a ground, saying naʿmal ṣāliḥan (that we may do righteous deeds). The request here offers no ground — in its place it gives an undertaking: fa-in ʿudnā fa-innā ẓālimūn.
The word order must be recorded: the sentence is a condition-and-answer structure and takes the form of an undertaking — "if we go back, we are wrongdoers."
I give this as my own reading, its ground being the mood of the sentence: the undertaking involves their own mouths naming their former condition as wrongdoing. There is a tension, that is, between the excuse (106) and the undertaking (107): one lifts the responsibility, the other accepts it.