Āl ʿImrān 3:160-164

In yanṣurkumu'llāhu fa-lā ghāliba lakum, wa in yakhdhulkum fa-man dha'lladhī yanṣurukum min baʿdih, wa ʿala'llāhi fa'l-yatawakkali'l-muʾminūn · Wa mā kāna li-nabiyyin an yaghulla, wa man yaghlul yaʾti bimā ghalla yawma'l-qiyāma, thumma tuwaffā kullu nafsin mā kasabat wa hum lā yuẓlamūn · … · La-qad manna'llāhu ʿala'l-muʾminīna idh baʿatha fīhim rasūlan min anfusihim yatlū ʿalayhim āyātihī wa yuzakkīhim wa yuʿallimuhumu'l-kitāba wa'l-ḥikmata wa in kānū min qablu la-fī ḍalālin mubīn

"If God helps you, none can overcome you; and if He leaves you without help, who is there that could help you after Him? Let the believers rely on God alone. · It is not for a prophet to defraud regarding the spoils. Whoever defrauds will come with what he took on the day of resurrection… · God has favoured the believers by sending among them a messenger from among themselves: he recites His signs to them, purifies them, and teaches them the Book and wisdom. Before that they were in manifest straying."

And the kind of the two consequences differs: the first is a ruling, the second a question.

I record this as an observation about the word order: the answer to the second branch is not written. The question leaves the gap for the reader to fill — and this is the same method as a-fa-lā taʿqilūn at verse 65.

The root خ-ذ-ل: to withhold help, to leave alone. And khidhlān is not enmity; it is the withdrawal of support.

And the pattern is familiar: mā kāna li-… — it occurred at verse 79 as mā kāna li-basharin.

Two occurrences, the same pattern. This is a repetition verifiable within the sūra.

The root غ-ل-ل: to slip a thing in secretly, to hide it. Ghulūl — in particular the taking of something from the spoils in secret. And from the same root ghull — the collar put round the neck; and ghill — the rancour hidden within. The shared core of the root: a thing's coming in between, its getting inside.

And a difference in the reciting of the word is transmitted — the verb is read both in the active (yaghulla) and in the passive (yughalla); on this the sense becomes either "that he should defraud" or "that he should be defrauded". Both readings are transmitted; I impose no preference and give no reciter's name.

And four verbs are counted, and their order must be recorded:

And the purifying comes before the teaching.

I record this as an observation about the word order: the same four verbs occur at 2/129 in al-Baqara, in Abraham's prayer, and at 2/151. And there the order differs: at 2/129 yuzakkīhim is put last, here it stands second. The difference between the two arrangements is a fact verifiable from the text; I draw no ruling from it.

مِّنْ أَنفُسِهِمْ — "from among themselves". And this note is to be read together with verse 144: there it is said that the messenger is mortal, here that he is one of them. The two notes look in the same direction.