فَإِذَا ٱسْتَوَيْتَ أَنتَ وَمَن مَّعَكَ عَلَى ٱلْفُلْكِ فَقُلِ ٱلْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ ٱلَّذِى نَجَّىٰنَا مِنَ ٱلْقَوْمِ ٱلظَّٰلِمِينَ · وَقُل رَّبِّ أَنزِلْنِى مُنزَلًا مُّبَارَكًا وَأَنتَ خَيْرُ ٱلْمُنزِلِينَ
fa-idhā'stawayta anta wa man maʿaka ʿalā'l-fulki fa-quli'l-ḥamdu li'llāhi'lladhī najjānā mina'l-qawmi'l-ẓālimīn · wa qul rabbi anzilnī munzalan mubārakan wa anta khayru'l-munzilīn
"When you and those with you are settled on the ship, say: 'Praise belongs to God, who delivered us from the wrongdoing people.' And say: 'My Lord, bring me down at a blessed landing; You are the best of those who bring down.'"
The word order must be recorded, and this is the most striking place in the two verses: one looks backward, the other forward.
| Verse | Prayer | Direction |
|---|---|---|
| 28 | al-ḥamdu li'llāhi'lladhī najjānā — perfect | What is left behind — the deliverance |
| 29 | rabbi anzilnī munzalan mubārakā — imperative | What lies ahead — the arrival |
I record this as my own reading, its ground being the tense of the two verbs: at the moment of boarding, something is said both about the place departed from and about the place still to be reached. And both prayers are commanded in the middle of the voyage, when nothing has yet ended.
And an entry on context: the second prayer is for the landing. The ship has not yet moved; but the prayer already speaks of coming down.
| Reading | Pattern | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| munzalan | From Form IV, a passive participle or a mīmī verbal noun | "The place of being brought down" or "the act of being brought down" |
| manzilan | From Form I, a noun of place | "A lodging, a place to alight" |
Both readings are transmitted; I do not impose a preference. On both, the prayer asks for the same thing: that the place reached be blessed.
مُّبَارَكًا — the root ب-ر-ك was cited at the fourteenth verse; it was worked out at al-Mulk 67/1. I do not repeat it here.
And the construction is worth recording: what is asked for is not a large, a spacious or a safe place — but a blessed one. The core of the root is lasting and increase. The prayer, that is, asks not for the quality of the place but for the continuance of what will happen there. I give this as my own reading.
وَأَنتَ خَيْرُ ٱلْمُنزِلِين — the second of the five superlative constructions in the sūra (14, 29, 72, 109, 118). And the word order must be recorded: the construction is inside the prayer, not a separate sentence. The one who asks, that is, names the source of what he asks for even as he asks.