وَمَآ أَرْسَلْنَا قَبْلَكَ مِنَ ٱلْمُرْسَلِينَ إِلَّآ إِنَّهُمْ لَيَأْكُلُونَ ٱلطَّعَامَ وَيَمْشُونَ فِى ٱلْأَسْوَاقِ وَجَعَلْنَا بَعْضَكُمْ لِبَعْضٍ فِتْنَةً أَتَصْبِرُونَ
"All the messengers We sent before you likewise ate food and walked about in the markets. We have made you a trial for one another: will you endure?"
The verse repeats the words of the objection in the seventh verse exactly: yaʾkulūna'ṭ-ṭaʿāma wa yamshūna fi'l-aswāq.
| Verse | Who says it | The expression |
|---|---|---|
| 7 | Those who object | Yaʾkulu'ṭ-ṭaʿāma wa yamshī fi'l-aswāq |
| 20 | The text | La-yaʾkulūna'ṭ-ṭaʿāma wa yamshūna fi'l-aswāq |
The same expression, once as a defect and once as a rule. This is a repetition that can be verified within the sūra.
I record this as my own reading: the answer does not reject the objection's description — it confirms it and generalises it. That is, what is said is not "it is not so" but "it has always been so". The thing objected to is set down not as an exception but as the rule.
وَجَعَلْنَا بَعْضَكُمْ لِبَعْضٍ فِتْنَةً أَتَصْبِرُونَ — "We have made you a trial for one another."
The root ف-ت-ن was treated in detail at al-ʿAnkabūt 29/2-10 (the testing of gold in fire), and it was recorded there that the trial comes at the hands of people (jaʿala fitnata'n-nāsi ka-ʿadhābi'llāh). I rely on that treatment.
The addition here must be recorded: the trial is mutual — baʿḍakum li-baʿḍ. That is, one is both the one who tests and the one tested. And the question is tied to a single verb: a-taṣbirūn.