وَإِنَّ هَٰذِهِۦٓ أُمَّتُكُمْ أُمَّةً وَٰحِدَةً وَأَنَا۠ رَبُّكُمْ فَٱتَّقُونِ
"This community of yours is one single community, and I am your Lord. So guard yourselves against Me."
Three readings are transmitted for the particle at the head of the sentence, and the difference bears on the meaning:
| Reading | Parsing | The sense of the sentence |
|---|---|---|
| wa inna (with kasra, with shadda) | It begins a new sentence | "And truly this community of yours is one single community" |
| wa anna (with fatḥa, with shadda) | It attaches to an element in the preceding sentence | "…and (know) this: your community is one single community" |
| wa in (without shadda, the lightened form) | Emphasis | The sense is close to the first |
All three readings are transmitted; I do not impose a preference. It produces no radical change in the ruling.
The concrete sense of the root: to turn towards, to aim at; and origin, mother. Amma — he turned towards; imām — the one who goes in front, the one turned towards; umm — mother; umma — a community gathered towards a common direction.
And the parsing of the word here must be recorded: ummatan wāḥidatan is in the accusative — the lexicographers count it a circumstantial accusative. The sentence, that is, is closer to "your community — as one single community — is your community" than to "your community is one community". I pass the explanation on as it is transmitted.
This sentence occurs once more in the Qurʾān, almost word for word: al-Anbiyāʾ 21/92. The only difference between the two verses is in the last word:
| Place | Sentence | Last word |
|---|---|---|
| al-Anbiyāʾ 21/92 | inna hādhihī ummatukum ummatan wāḥidatan wa ana rabbukum | fa'ʿbudūn — "so serve Me" |
| al-Muʾminūn 23/52 | wa inna hādhihī ummatukum ummatan wāḥidatan wa ana rabbukum | fa'ttaqūn — "so guard yourselves against Me" |
This verse was treated at al-Anbiyāʾ 21/92-93; I rely on that treatment. And the following verse of the two sūras overlaps as well — al-Anbiyāʾ 21/93: wa taqaṭṭaʿū amrahum baynahum kullun ilaynā rājiʿūn; al-Muʾminūn 23/53: fa-taqaṭṭaʿū amrahum baynahum zuburā. In both sūras, that is, the sentence of unity is followed by the same sentence of breaking apart. This is an overlap that can be verified from the wording of the two texts.
And the choice of word here has a ground within the sūra, which must be recorded: the question a-fa-lā tattaqūn has occurred twice in this sūra, from the mouths of two messengers (23, 32). The fifty-second verse brings the same root in the imperative. The sūra, that is, repeats the messengers' question as its own verdict.
The fifty-second verse reports unity; the fifty-third reports the breaking apart. The passage between them is the very question treated at al-Baqara 2/213 and al-Shūrā 42/13-14.
The cause of the division, that is, is not given as ignorance. The text says it plainly: min baʿdi mā jāʾathumu'l-bayyināt — after the clear proofs had come. The cause is given not as a lack of knowledge but as a disposition held against one another.
At al-Shūrā 42/14 the same ruling was repeated in almost the same words: wa mā tafarraqū illā min baʿdi mā jāʾahumu'l-ʿilmu baghyan baynahum.
| Place | Unity | What comes | Outcome |
|---|---|---|---|
| al-Baqara 2/213 | kāna'l-nāsu ummatan wāḥida | Prophets and a book | ikhtalafa fīhi — baghyan baynahum |
| al-Shūrā 42/13-14 | aqīmū'l-dīna wa lā tatafarraqū fīh | al-ʿIlm | mā tafarraqū illā min baʿdi… |
| al-Muʾminūn 23/52-53 | ummatukum ummatan wāḥida | The messengers (51) | fa-taqaṭṭaʿū amrahum baynahum |
In all three the order is the same: unity → knowledge → division. This is an overlap that can be verified from the three texts.
And the difference in al-Muʾminūn must be recorded: al-Baqara and al-Shūrā name the cause of the division (baghy — envious rivalry). al-Muʾminūn gives no cause; in its place it describes the form of the division: zuburan and kullu ḥizbin bimā ladayhim fariḥūn. One tells why, that is, the other how.