الٓمٓ · أَحَسِبَ ٱلنَّاسُ أَن يُتْرَكُوٓا۟ أَن يَقُولُوٓا۟ ءَامَنَّا وَهُمْ لَا يُفْتَنُونَ · وَلَقَدْ فَتَنَّا ٱلَّذِينَ مِن قَبْلِهِمْ فَلَيَعْلَمَنَّ ٱللَّهُ ٱلَّذِينَ صَدَقُوا۟ وَلَيَعْلَمَنَّ ٱلْكَٰذِبِينَ
"Alif-lām-mīm. Did people suppose that they would simply be left alone for saying 'we have believed', and not be tested? We certainly tested those before them. God will surely know those who speak the truth, and He will surely know the liars."
The note on the disconnected letters has been set down in many places in this series; I do not repeat it here.
The second verse is built as a question, and the structure of the question must be recorded: a-ḥasiba'n-nāsu an yutrakū — "did they suppose they would be left alone?"
The root ت-ر-ك: to leave, to abandon to its own devices. What is asked about, then, is not the existence of the test — it is the expectation of being left without one.
And the same question was asked in different words at al-Baqara 2/214: am ḥasibtum an tadkhulu'l-jannata wa lammā yaʾtikum mathalu'lladhīna khalaw min qablikum — "did you suppose you would enter the Garden before there came upon you the like of what came upon those who passed before you?"
| Place | Verb | What was supposed |
|---|---|---|
| al-Baqara 2/214 | Ḥasibtum | Entering the Garden — without hardship |
| al-ʿAnkabūt 29/2 | Ḥasiba'n-nās | Being left alone — without being tested |
The same verb (ḥasiba — to suppose) answers to the same expectation in two sūras. This is an overlap that can be verified from the text.
The expression "God will surely know" has been discussed in the classical commentaries — since God's knowledge is already all-encompassing.
The main explanation transmitted is this: the ʿilm here is knowledge's coming out into the open, that is, the hidden becoming visible. The lexicographers explain this as ʿilm al-wuqūʿ, or "the realisation of what is known".
I transmit this as an explanation that is reported, and I add the following as my own reading: the work of the verse is not to make good a deficiency of knowledge — it is to make the testing of the claim necessary. Indeed the object of the sentence is not knowledge but two groups: those who speak the truth and the liars.