al-Shuʿarāʾ 26:227

Illā'lladhīna āmanū wa ʿamilu'ṣ-ṣāliḥāti wa dhakaru'llāha kathīran wa'ntaṣarū min baʿdi mā ẓulimū; wa sa-yaʿlamu'lladhīna ẓalamū ayya munqalabin yanqalibūn

"Except those who believe and do righteous deeds and remember God much and defend themselves after being wronged. Those who do wrong will soon know to what place of return they will return."

The last verse of the sūra, and the most easily overlooked verse of the sūra.

The three-verse description (224-226) is limited by this verse. And the limitation determines how the description is to be understood.

I record this plainly, and it is the main ruling of this section:

The verse does not take poetry as its subject. It takes an attitude as its subject.

I give its grounds in order, and all of them are from the text:

The first ground — the exception itself. If what were criticised were the art of poetry or being a poet, the exception would have come in the form "except those who give up composing poetry". It does not. The exception names four attributes, and none of the four has to do with poetry: faith, righteous deeds, much remembrance, defending oneself after being wronged. The distinction, that is, is built not on a trade or an art but on an attitude.

The second ground — the measure of verse 226. The attitude criticised is named: yaqūlūna mā lā yafʿalūn — not doing what one says. This is not a fault belonging to poetry; it can be found in every kind of speech. And at al-Ṣaff 61/2-3 the same fault is forbidden to the believers — and there is no poetry there.

The third ground — the word order of verse 224. As was recorded above, the predicate of the sentence is not an attribute about the poets but a piece of information about their followers. Yattabiʿuhumu'l-ghāwūn.

The fourth ground — the verb of verse 225. Yahīmūn — directionlessness. Directionlessness is a fault not in the form of the speech but in what the speech is bound to.

On these four grounds I record the following distinction, and I draw the limit of the verse plainly as well:

And no general ruling about poetry or art is issued in this commentary. The verse issues no ruling; it describes an attribute and plainly leaves outside it those who do not bear that attribute. This accords exactly with the principle recorded in Method: a judgement is not built wholesale upon a group; it is the attributes the verse describes, and whoever bears that attribute is included in it.

The first three are a triad that occurs often in the Qurʾān. The fourth is peculiar to this construction and deserves separate treatment.

وَذَكَرُوا۟ ٱللَّهَ كَثِيرًا — "they remembered God much."

And the setting of this attribute here must be recorded. I give it as my own reading: the fault described in the two hundred and twenty-fifth verse was directionlessness (fī kulli wādin yahīmūn). The counterpart of that is exactly remembrance: binding speech to a place. The word kathīran (much) also announces continuance. The third condition of the exception, that is, stands as the counterpart of the fault in the second verse. That this link is intended is not stated in the text.

The root ن-ص-ر was analysed in the ninety-third verse, and it was recorded that Form VIII (intaṣara) adds reflexivity: to defend oneself, to take one's own right.

The same form, the same root, two different sides. This is an overlap that can be verified from the text, and it binds the two ends of the sūra.

And two notes must be recorded, and both are in the sentence itself:

One — the defence comes afterwards. Min baʿdi mā ẓulimū — "after being wronged". The sentence, that is, describes not striking first but answering.

Two — the verb is passive: ẓulimū — "they were wronged". Who did the wrong is not said; the subject is the side to whom the wrong was done.

And this field was treated in al-Shūrā and I rely on that treatment. There the same root occurs: wa'lladhīna idhā aṣābahumu'l-baghyu hum yantaṣirūn (al-Shūrā 42/39), and immediately after a limit is set: wa jazāʾu sayyiʾatin sayyiʾatun mithluhā (42/40) — that the requital be equal to the like of it. I rely on the note there and do not repeat it here.

What is to be recorded is this: al-Shuʿarāʾ 26/227 counts defence as an attribute; al-Shūrā 42/40 gives its measure.

And a note on the time of this verse's revelation: as was stated in the introductory section of the sūra, some sources transmit that the final verses are Medinan, and this very expression is given as the ground. I adopt no firm preference.

And the sūra returns to where it began.

In the third verse the messenger had been told "you are almost destroying yourself because they will not believe". In the two hundred and twenty-seventh verse it is said to whom the outcome belongs: wa sa-yaʿlamu… — "they will soon know".

سَ (sīn) — the near future. And in the sixth verse of the sūra the same particle did the same work: fa-sa-yaʾtīhim anbāʾu mā kānū bihi yastahziʾūn.

The two verses announce the same thing with the same particle: the outcome is deferred but not distant. This is an overlap that can be verified from the text.

The root was analysed in al-Inshiqāq, and this verse was already cited there; I rely on that treatment. The note there: ق-ل-ب — to turn over; inqalaba means both "to return" and "to arrive at one's end", and the Qurʾān uses this verse in the second sense.

What is to be added here is the repetition within the sūra. The root occurs three times in the sūra, and all three were tabulated (in the section on 26/214-220). Here is the third and last occurrence.

And the word order itself must be recorded: there is a cognate accusative, qualified by an interrogative.

Ayya munqalabin yanqalibūn

The sentence, that is, does not say "where will they go"; it says "with what returning will they return". And munqalab in Arabic can be both a place of return (a noun of place) and a returning (a verbal noun). Both readings are transmitted.

And the word order of the sentence leaves a threat open: what the place of return is is not said. It is only said that "they will know".

I record this as my own reading, and its ground is its link with the fourth verse of the sūra: the sūra had begun "if We willed We would send down a sign from heaven", and it did not send it down. At the end too it does not state the content of the threat. The sūra closes, that is, where it opened: information is not given, the coming of the information is announced.

The four verses from the two hundred and twenty-fourth to the two hundred and twenty-seventh set up a measure for how a field of speech is to be assessed, and the measure does not look to the kind of art.

The measure consists of three questions, and all three can be drawn from the text:

And these three questions look today to a field far beyond poetry: every kind of production of speech — writing, speaking, the platform, the performance, every kind of public expression. The verse describes not a craft but a responsibility.

And the exception establishes the justice of the measure: one who does the same work does not fall under the same judgement if he does not bear the same attributes. This is the method the sūra applies from beginning to end — seven peoples were recounted not by their names but by what they did; and in the eight seals it was not "all" but "most" that was said.