إِنَّ ٱلَّذِينَ يَشْتَرُونَ بِعَهْدِ ٱللَّهِ وَأَيْمَٰنِهِمْ ثَمَنًا قَلِيلًا · وَإِنَّ مِنْهُمْ لَفَرِيقًا يَلْوُۥنَ أَلْسِنَتَهُم بِٱلْكِتَٰبِ
Inna'lladhīna yashtarūna bi-ʿahdi'llāhi wa aymānihim thamanan qalīlan ulāʾika lā khalāqa lahum fi'l-ākhirati wa lā yukallimuhumu'llāhu wa lā yanẓuru ilayhim yawma'l-qiyāmati wa lā yuzakkīhim wa lahum ʿadhābun alīm · Wa inna minhum la-farīqan yalwūna alsinatahum bi'l-kitābi li-taḥsabūhu mina'l-kitābi wa mā huwa mina'l-kitāb, wa yaqūlūna huwa min ʿindi'llāhi wa mā huwa min ʿindi'llāh, wa yaqūlūna ʿala'llāhi'l-kadhiba wa hum yaʿlamūn
"Those who sell the covenant of God and their oaths for a small price — they have no share in the hereafter; God will not speak to them or look at them on the day of resurrection, nor will He purify them; and theirs is a painful punishment. · A group of them twist their tongues with the Book so that you may think it is from the Book; yet it is not from the Book. 'It is from God', they say; yet it is not from God. And they speak a lie against God knowingly."
The root was analysed in al-Munāfiqūn and tabulated there together with the root ح-ر-ف. I rely on that treatment and do not repeat it here. The summary recorded there was this:
ل-و-ي and ح-ر-ف are two names for the same operation. One describes twisting, the other pulling from the edge. Neither breaks; both bend.
What is twisted is not the Book but the tongue. The verse does not say yalwūna'l-kitāb; it says yalwūna alsinatahum bi'l-kitāb — "they twist their tongues with the Book".
I record this as an observation about the word order, and it is the finest point in the verse: the text is not touched. What is altered is the reciting. The same letters are made to resemble something else by a different movement of the tongue.
And the verse itself says this plainly: li-taḥsabūhu mina'l-kitāb — "so that you may think it is from the Book". The verb is ḥasiba: to think, to suppose. What is aimed at is not a change in the text but a change in the impression in the hearer.
And the root ح-س-ب will come four more times in the sūra after this: lā taḥsabanna / lā yaḥsabanna (169, 178, 180, 188). This is a repetition verifiable within the sūra and was recorded in the table in the introduction.
I record this as my own reading, and its ground is the object of the verb: the sūra uses the verb "to suppose" both here and at the end. Here it is one person making another suppose wrongly; at the end it is a person supposing wrongly of himself. The same verb in two directions.
The seventy-seventh verse sets four negative sentences one after another, and the word order must be recorded:
| # | Sentence | What is removed |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Lā khalāqa lahum fi'l-ākhira | A share |
| 2 | Wa lā yukallimuhumu'llāh | Speech |
| 3 | Wa lā yanẓuru ilayhim | A look |
| 4 | Wa lā yuzakkīhim | Purification |
Four negations, and two of them (speech and a look) are words of relation. I record this as an observation: the sentence of punishment leaves the punishment to the last; it first says that the relation is cut off.
ثَمَنًا قَلِيلًا — "a small price". And the construction will come once more in the sūra, at verse 187 (wa'shtaraw bihī thamanan qalīlā) and at verse 199 in the negative (lā yashtarūna bi-āyāti'llāhi thamanan qalīlā). 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: the adjective itself carries a ruling. Thamanan qalīlā — the price is named "small". That is, while describing the operation as a transaction, the verse says in the same sentence that the transaction is at a loss.