al-Furqān 25:34-42

"Those who will be gathered to Hell upon their faces… To each We gave examples, and each We shattered utterly."

The block names several peoples briefly: the people of Noah (Nūḥ) (37), ʿĀd, Thamūd, the Companions of al-Rass, and qurūnan bayna dhālika kathīrā (38).

There is no certain knowledge about the Companions of al-Rass — the same note was entered at Qāf 50/12. I rely on that treatment, and I transmit no report.

وَكُلًّا ضَرَبْنَا لَهُ ٱلْأَمْثَٰلَ — "to each We gave examples."

I record this as an observation: into the middle of the list of destructions is set what was done before the destruction. And the same principle was treated at Fāṭir 35/24 (wa in min ummatin illā khalā fīhā nadhīr) and at al-Qaṣaṣ 28/59 (wa mā kāna rabbuka muhlika'l-qurā ḥattā yabʿatha fī ummihā rasūlā). Three sūras lay down the same condition.

تَبَّرْنَا تَتْبِيرًا — root ت-ب-ر: to break into small pieces, to reduce to fragments. Tibr — unworked, scattered particles of gold.

"They have surely come upon the town that was rained upon with an evil rain. Did they not see it?"

The location of the proof is worth recording: the ruin lies on the road.

The same proof was treated at al-Aḥqāf 46/27 (mā ḥawlakum mina'l-qurā) and at Ghāfir (al-Muʾmin) 40/21, 40/82. The difference here: the verse says they came upon it — that is, they passed beside it.

I record this as my own reading: the proof does not even require searching; it is the act of seeing itself that is asked about. A-fa-lam yakūnū yarawnahā.

The sentence of mockery must be recorded: a-hādha'lladhī baʿatha'llāhu rasūlā — "Is this the one God has sent as a messenger?"

And the demonstrative pronoun (hādhā) is used. The objection in the seventh verse of the sūra had also begun with the same pronoun: mā li-hādha'r-rasūl. Both sentences of mockery are built on the same pointing. This is a repetition that can be verified within the sūra.

إِن كَادَ لَيُضِلُّنَا عَنْ ءَالِهَتِنَا لَوْلَآ أَن صَبَرْنَا عَلَيْهَا (42) — "had we not held fast to them, he would almost have turned us away from our gods."

I record this as an observation: in the sentence the word ṣabr occurs in the sense of holding out, and in the mouth of the opposing side. And in the twentieth verse of the sūra the same root was a question directed at those addressed: a-taṣbirūn. The same word, on two sides and at two different jobs.