al-Naml 27:59

quli'l-ḥamdu li'llāhi wa salāmun ʿalā ʿibādihi'lladhīna'ṣṭafā, āllāhu khayrun ammā yushrikūn

"Say: Praise be to God, and peace be upon His servants whom He has chosen. Is God better, or what they associate with Him?"

This verse shares a phrase exactly with the last verse of the sūra:

The same command, the same sentence, in two different places in the sūra. This is a repetition that can be verified within the sūra.

I record this as my own reading, and its ground is the position of the two verses: once the narratives are done the sūra enters the block of proof with a command to praise, and closes with the same command. Praise is thus both the door of the block and its seal.

The root ص-ف-و: purity, freedom from admixture. From Form VIII, iṣṭifāʾ: to pick out and take the purest part of a thing. The root was treated in Ṣād and in al-Zumar. I do not repeat it here.

The picture the lexicographers give is worth recording: ṣafwa is the part of a thing that has been separated from its sediment and strained clear. The act of choosing is thus described as a sifting.

And to whom the peace is given is left indefinite: ʿibādihi'lladhīna'ṣṭafā — "His servants whom He has chosen." No name is given.

I record this as an observation: five prophets were named in the preceding block (Moses, David, Solomon, Ṣāliḥ, Lot). The sentence gathers them all into a single construct and names none of them.

And the block opens with a question. The form of the question must be recorded: it is a question of preference.

Khayrun — an elative: "better." The question is thus framed as a comparison that presumes both sides to have some worth.

The classical commentaries dwell on how this pattern is to be understood:

The three explanations are close to one another; I do not impose a preference.

And I record an observation about the word order: the question is not answered in the five verses that follow — its answer is given by the enumeration of five separate facts. The answer is thus not a sentence but a list.