Āl ʿImrān 3:165-168 commentary

3/165-168

قُلْ هُوَ مِنْ عِندِ أَنفُسِكُمْ

A-wa-lammā aṣābatkum muṣībatun qad aṣabtum mithlayhā qultum annā hādhā, qul huwa min ʿindi anfusikum, inna'llāha ʿalā kulli shayʾin qadīr · Wa mā aṣābakum yawma'ltaqa'l-jamʿāni fa-bi-idhni'llāhi wa li-yaʿlama'l-muʾminīn · Wa li-yaʿlama'lladhīna nāfaqū… · Alladhīna qālū li-ikhwānihim wa qaʿadū law aṭāʿūnā mā qutilū, qul fa'draʾū ʿan anfusikumu'l-mawta in kuntum ṣādiqīn

"When an affliction touched you, though you had inflicted twice its like, you said: 'Where is this from?' Say: 'It is from yourselves.' God has power over all things. · What befell you on the day the two hosts met was by God's leave — that He might know the believers. · And that He might know those who played the hypocrite… · They are the ones who, sitting at home, said of their brothers: 'Had they obeyed us they would not have been killed.' Say: 'Then ward off death from yourselves, if you are truthful.'"

قُلْ هُوَ مِنْ عِندِ أَنفُسِكُمْ — the third note of the sūra

This sentence is the third of the three sentences recorded in the introduction to the sūra. And the table of the three was given there:

Verse	Sentence	To whom
7	Fa-ammā'lladhīna fī qulūbihim zayghun	To the reader
152	Fashiltum wa tanāzaʿtum wa ʿaṣaytum	To the community
165	Qul huwa min ʿindi anfusikum	Directly

And the third is the shortest and the plainest.

And the word order of the sentence must be recorded:

Element	Wording	Its work
The question	Annā hādhā — "where is this from?"	The cause is sought outside
The command	Qul	The answer is given
The answer	Huwa min ʿindi anfusikum	The cause is turned inward

And the construction min ʿindi must be recorded. It occurs several times in the sūra, and always conveys a source:

Verse	Construction	Source
37	Huwa min ʿindi'llāh	From God
78	Huwa min ʿindi'llāhi* wa mā huwa min ʿindi'llāh*	A claim and its refutation
126	Wa ma'n-naṣru illā min ʿindi'llāh	The source of the help
165	Huwa min ʿindi anfusikum	From yourselves

Four occurrences, the same construction. This is a repetition verifiable within the sūra.

I record this as my own reading, and its ground is the four occurrences of the construction: the sūra uses the same pattern both for the source of the help and for the source of the affliction. And the two are tied to different places: the help is from His presence, the cause of the affliction from yourselves.

165 and 166 together

And the two verses must be read together, because they say two different things about the same event:

Verse	Wording	What it says
165	Huwa min ʿindi anfusikum	The cause — the human share
166	Fa-bi-idhni'llāh	The leave — the event's coming to pass

And the two do not conflict. I record this as an observation about the word order, and its ground is the succession of the two verses: one verse ties the cause to the human being, the next ties the coming to pass of the event to leave. The two sentences answer two different questions: "why did it happen?" and "how did it happen?"

And the order must be recorded: the human share is stated first.

168 — the second occurrence of the saying

Law aṭāʿūnā mā qutilū — "had they obeyed us they would not have been killed".

And this saying is the second form of the saying in verse 156:

Verse	The saying	The condition
156	Law kānū ʿindanā* mā mātū wa mā qutilū*	*Place* — had they been with us
168	Law aṭāʿūnā* mā qutilū*	*Obedience* — had they followed us

Two occurrences, the same structure, two different conditions. This is a repetition verifiable within the sūra.

And the form of the answer must be recorded: qul fa'draʾū ʿan anfusikumu'l-mawta in kuntum ṣādiqīn — "then ward off death from yourselves, if you are truthful".

I record this as an observation about the word order: the answer is not a counter-claim; it is the applying of the claim's own logic to itself. If the place one is in or the decision one takes prevents death, the same must hold for the speakers. And the verb is in the imperative: idraʾū — "ward off".