قُل رَّبِّ إِمَّا تُرِيَنِّى مَا يُوعَدُونَ · رَبِّ فَلَا تَجْعَلْنِى فِى ٱلْقَوْمِ ٱلظَّٰلِمِينَ · وَإِنَّا عَلَىٰٓ أَن نُّرِيَكَ مَا نَعِدُهُمْ لَقَٰدِرُونَ
qul rabbi immā turiyannī mā yūʿadūn · rabbi fa-lā tajʿalnī fi'l-qawmi'l-ẓālimīn · wa innā ʿalā an nuriyaka mā naʿiduhum la-qādirūn
"Say: 'My Lord, if You should show me what they are promised — my Lord, then do not place me among the wrongdoing people.' We are certainly able to show you what We promise them."
The word order must be recorded, and this is the most striking place in the two verses: the prayer is conditional (immā turiyannī), and what is asked for is not that it should not be shown.
I record this as my own reading, its ground being the apodosis of the conditional clause: the answer is not fa-lā turinī (do not show me) — it is fa-lā tajʿalnī fi'l-qawmi'l-ẓālimīn (do not place me among them). The prayer asks, that is, not about the event but about the position at the moment of the event.
إِمَّا — its original is in (the conditional) + mā (redundant, reinforcing). And the doubled nūn at the end of the verb (turiyanna) is the heavy nūn of emphasis: the condition is reinforced once more. The condition, that is, is stressed twice — by the particle and by the ending of the verb.
And the word order must be recorded: the vocative rabbi occurs twice — once at the head of the conditional clause (93), once at the head of the apodosis (94).
The lexicographers explain this repetition as taḍarruʿ (the intensifying of the entreaty); I pass the explanation on as it is transmitted. And the repetition marks the verse boundary too: two separate verses are the two halves of a single sentence.
| Verse | Prayer | What is asked |
|---|---|---|
| 93-94 | rabbi fa-lā tajʿalnī fi'l-qawmi'l-ẓālimīn | Position — not to be among them |
| 97 | rabbi aʿūdhu bika min hamazāti'l-shayāṭīn | Protection — from promptings |
| 98 | wa aʿūdhu bika rabbi an yaḥḍurūn | Protection — from their being present |
| 118 | rabbi'ghfir wa'rḥam wa anta khayru'l-rāḥimīn | Forgiveness and mercy |
All four prayers begin with the vocative rabbi. And the last verse of the sūra is the last link of this chain. This is a series that can be verified from the text.