إِنَّمَا كَانَ قَوْلَ ٱلْمُؤْمِنِينَ إِذَا دُعُوٓا۟ إِلَى ٱللَّهِ وَرَسُولِهِۦ لِيَحْكُمَ بَيْنَهُمْ أَن يَقُولُوا۟ سَمِعْنَا وَأَطَعْنَا وَأُو۟لَٰٓئِكَ هُمُ ٱلْمُفْلِحُونَ · وَمَن يُطِعِ ٱللَّهَ وَرَسُولَهُۥ وَيَخْشَ ٱللَّهَ وَيَتَّقْهِ فَأُو۟لَٰٓئِكَ هُمُ ٱلْفَآئِزُونَ
Innamā kāna qawla'l-muʾminīna idhā duʿū ila'llāhi wa rasūlihī li-yaḥkuma baynahum an yaqūlū samiʿnā wa aṭaʿnā, wa ulāʾika humu'l-mufliḥūn · Wa man yuṭiʿi'llāha wa rasūlahū wa yakhsha'llāha wa yattaqhi fa-ulāʾika humu'l-fāʾizūn
"When they are called to God and His Messenger, that he may judge between them, the word of the believers is only to say: 'We hear and we obey.' It is they who prosper. And whoever obeys God and His Messenger, and fears God and guards himself against Him — it is they who are the winners."
إِنَّمَا is in Arabic a particle of ḥaṣr (restriction). The word was analysed at al-Ḥujurāt, 49/10 and 49/15; the note there: the particle confines the ruling to a single thing.
And this expression is named in the Qurʾān together with its opposite: samiʿnā wa ʿaṣaynā — "we hear and we disobey" (al-Baqara 2/93; al-Nisāʾ 4/46). The same first word, two opposite second words.
| Verse | What is said | What follows |
|---|---|---|
| 47 | āmannā bi'llāhi wa bi'l-rasūli wa aṭaʿnā | thumma yatawallā — then he turns away |
| 51 | samiʿnā wa aṭaʿnā | ulāʾika humu'l-mufliḥūn |
The same word (aṭaʿnā) occurs in both verses. And the difference lies not in the word but in what comes after it.
فَلَحَ — root ف-ل-ح: analysed at the verse-ending of the thirty-first verse. To split the soil, to till; and from there, to attain what one seeks.
فَازَ — root ف-و-ز: to be delivered, to win, to reach what one wants. Fawz — gain, deliverance. Mafāza — a place of deliverance; and a desert (a usage of tafāʾul the lexicographers record).
| Word | Root | Its picture |
|---|---|---|
| مُفْلِح | ف-ل-ح — to split | What splits the soil and comes out — at the end of a process |
| فَائِز | ف-و-ز — to win | One who is delivered, who arrives — the outcome |
Two verses one after the other, ending with two different words. I record this as an observation about the words.
And in the second verse three verbs are enumerated: yuṭiʿ (obedience), yakhsha (fear), yattaqi (guarding oneself) — and all three from different roots.
خَشِيَ — root خ-ش-ي: the sense the lexicographers record: a fear grounded on knowledge — the fear that arises from knowing the greatness of what is feared.
ٱتَّقَىٰ — root و-ق-ي: to guard oneself, to keep oneself from a thing. The root was taken up in al-Ḥujurāt as the backbone of that sūra.
The difference between the two words is worth noting: the one conveys a feeling, the other a behaviour.