شَهِدَ ٱللَّهُ أَنَّهُۥ لَآ إِلَٰهَ إِلَّا هُوَ وَٱلْمَلَٰٓئِكَةُ وَأُو۟لُوا۟ ٱلْعِلْمِ قَآئِمًۢا بِٱلْقِسْطِ
Shahida'llāhu annahū lā ilāha illā huwa wa'l-malāʾikatu wa ūlu'l-ʿilmi qāʾiman bi'l-qisṭ, lā ilāha illā huwa'l-ʿazīzu'l-ḥakīm
"God has borne witness that there is no god but He — and so have the angels and those who possess knowledge, upholding justice. There is no god but He; al-ʿAzīz, al-Ḥakīm."
And the third place is worth recording: the verse sets those who possess knowledge immediately after the angels. This is a fact verifiable from the text, and the classical commentaries have dwelt on it a great deal.
I record this as my own reading, and it is not binding: in the seventh verse came rāsikhūna fi'l-ʿilm; here ūlu'l-ʿilm. Two constructions in the same sūra, eleven verses apart. And both give knowledge not as a position but as a stance: the first is not thrown, the second bears witness.
The word is in the accusative and is a circumstantial qualifier (ḥāl). But whose circumstance it is, is disputed:
| Reading | Whose circumstance qāʾiman is | Sense |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | God's | "Upholding justice" — it is He who bears witness, and He stands upholding justice |
| 2 | All three witnesses' | All three bear witness while upholding justice |
| 3 | The witnessing itself's | The witnessing is a witnessing borne upon justice |
قِسْط — root ق-س-ط. The root has a curious feature, and it was recorded in the series at 55/9 in al-Raḥmān: in Form I (qasaṭa) the root means to act unjustly, in Form IV (aqsaṭa) to act justly. That is, the same root turns to its opposite when the form changes. Qisṭ — justice, the giving of a right in full.