Āl ʿImrān 3:199-200

Wa inna min ahli'l-kitābi la-man yuʾminu bi'llāhi wa mā unzila ilaykum wa mā unzila ilayhim khāshiʿīna li'llāhi lā yashtarūna bi-āyāti'llāhi thamanan qalīlā, ulāʾika lahum ajruhum ʿinda rabbihim, inna'llāha sarīʿu'l-ḥisāb · Yā ayyuha'lladhīna āmanu'ṣbirū wa ṣābirū wa rābiṭū wa'ttaqu'llāha laʿallakum tufliḥūn

"Among the People of the Book there are those who believe in God, and in what has been sent down to you and in what has been sent down to them; humbling themselves before God, they do not sell the signs of God for a small price. Theirs is their reward with their Lord. God is swift in reckoning. · You who believe! Be steadfast, vie in steadfastness, hold fast together, and guard yourselves before God, that you may prosper."

And this verse is the sūra's last word about the People of the Book. And it is a favourable word.

And the particle min once again: wa inna min ahli'l-kitābi la-man yuʾmin. And this is the eighth occurrence in the sūra; it was recorded in the table above.

And the word order of the verse must be recorded, because in counting what is believed in a sequence is followed:

And the order must be recorded: "what has been sent down to you" comes first, "what has been sent down to them" after.

I record this as an observation about the word order: the sentence counts faith in their own books as well and does not negate it. And at 29/46 in al-ʿAnkabūt the same order is reversed (āmannā bi'lladhī unzila ilaynā wa unzila ilaykum — there "what has been sent down to us" comes first). In both verses the two revelations are named together; the order changes according to who is speaking. This is a fact verifiable within the series.

خَٰشِعِينَ لِلَّهِ — root خ-ش-ع: to be lowered, to bow, the sinking of the voice. The root was treated at 33/35 in al-Aḥzāb, and it was recorded there: the lexicographers give the earth as an instance of the root's concrete sense — khashaʿati'l-arḍ, the ground sank, it was lowered. I rely on that treatment.

لَا يَشْتَرُونَ بِـَٔايَٰتِ ٱللَّهِ ثَمَنًا قَلِيلًا — and the construction occurs in the sūra for the third time, and this time negated:

Three occurrences, and the third is the opposite of the first two. This is a repetition verifiable within the sūra.

I record this as my own reading, and it is not binding: the sūra uses the same verb three times, and in the last occurrence it names those who do not do the thing named in the first two. And the last occurrence is the sūra's last sentence about the People of the Book. That is, the sūra closes with the negative of the same word the line it opened with a severe statement.

أُو۟لَٰٓئِكَ لَهُمْ أَجْرُهُمْ عِندَ رَبِّهِمْ — ulāʾika lahum ajruhum ʿinda rabbihim: the reward is given without qualification. The same construction occurs at 2/62 and 2/112 in al-Baqara and was treated there. I rely on those treatments.

Iṣbirū wa ṣābirū wa rābiṭū wa'ttaqu'llāh

And the sūra closes with four commands. Three from the same field, the fourth from the beginning of the sūra.

And the word order of the first three commands must be recorded, and this is the most important fact of the verse.

One. The first two commands are from the same root and their forms differ.

Iṣbirū is Form I: a person's being steadfast on his own. Ṣābirū is Form III (mufāʿala), and in Arabic this form conveys reciprocity.

I record this as an observation about the words and rely on the lexicographers' account of the forms: the same root, in two forms, conveys two different pieces of work. The first is the work of one person, the second a mutual work.

And the lexicographers differ over with whom ṣābirū is mutual, and the disagreement is not to be concealed:

All three are transmitted; I do not impose a preference.

Two. The third command is from a new root: ر-ب-ط.

The root ر-ب-ط: to bind. Ribāṭ — a bond; and the place where a horse is tethered. Rabaṭa ʿalā qalbih — he bound his heart, he gave him firmness. And murābaṭa is used in the sense of being tethered in a place and waiting, standing guard.

And the lexicographers differ over the sense of the verb, and the disagreement is not to be concealed:

All four are transmitted; I do not impose a preference and I draw no legal ruling.

But one datum of the text can be recorded, and I record it: rābiṭū too is in Form III — that is, the form conveying reciprocity. That the second and third commands are in the same form is a fact of word order.

Three. And the order of the four commands sets up a structure. I give this as my own reading, and it is not binding:

The order goes from the singular to the plural, then upward. And the last command comes with a word that has run since the second verse of the sūra: taqwā.

The root ف-ل-ح. The lexicographers give the concrete sense of the root as to cleave: falaḥa'l-arḍa — he cleaved the ground, he ploughed it. And fallāḥ is a farmer.

And the word occurs twice in the sūra: at 130 and at 200.

Two occurrences, and both are built with the same two words: wa'ttaqu'llāha laʿallakum tufliḥūn. The same sentence, twice in a single sūra. This is a repetition verifiable within the sūra.

And at verse 104 the same root had occurred once more, as a noun: wa ulāʾika humu'l-mufliḥūn. Three occurrences, in a single sūra.

I record this as an observation and rely on the concrete sense of the root: the picture of the root is a cleaving — the opening of what is closed, the reaching of what is under the soil. And the sūra, after proceeding for two hundred verses as a text that opens what is closed, ends with this word. I give this as an observation about the word; I make no claim about reckonings or numbers.