وَلَنُذِيقَنَّهُم مِّنَ ٱلْعَذَابِ ٱلْأَدْنَىٰ دُونَ ٱلْعَذَابِ ٱلْأَكْبَرِ لَعَلَّهُمْ يَرْجِعُونَ · وَمَنْ أَظْلَمُ مِمَّن ذُكِّرَ بِـَٔايَٰتِ رَبِّهِۦ ثُمَّ أَعْرَضَ عَنْهَآ إِنَّا مِنَ ٱلْمُجْرِمِينَ مُنتَقِمُونَ
Wa la-nudhīqannahum mina'l-ʿadhābi'l-adnā dūna'l-ʿadhābi'l-akbari laʿallahum yarjiʿūn · Wa man aẓlamu mimman dhukkira bi-āyāti rabbihī thumma aʿraḍa ʿanhā, innā mina'l-mujrimīna muntaqimūn
"We shall surely make them taste of the nearer punishment, short of that greatest punishment, that they may perhaps turn back. And who does greater wrong than one who is reminded by the verses of his Lord and then turns away from them? From the guilty We are takers of retribution."
أَدْنَى — root: د-ن-و (some lexicographers connect it with أ-د-ن-و as well): to be near. Both senses of the word are live: "nearest" and "lowest, least". The root has been treated in many places in the series — in al-Najm 53/9 (aw adnā) and, on the occasion of al-dunyā (the life that is nearest), in many sections. I do not repeat it here.
| Word | The opposite expected | What comes | |
|---|---|---|---|
| The first punishment | al-Adnā — nearest / lowest | al-Abʿad (farthest) | — |
| The second punishment | — | — | al-Akbar — greatest |
That is, opposite "near" is set not "far" but "great". I record this as an observation about the word order: the two punishments are named not both by distance; the one is named by distance and the other by measure. The choice of words implies that the two are not two degrees of one kind.
There is a disagreement in the classical works of exegesis over what "the nearer punishment" is, and it must not be concealed:
| View | What al-ʿadhābu'l-adnā is |
|---|---|
| 1 | The hardships that befall in this world — famine, sickness, loss |
| 2 | Particular historical events — the calamities that befell that people |
| 3 | The state of the grave — the stage before the great punishment |
All three views are transmitted in the sources. I do not impose a preference, and I set up no equation with a particular historical event.
What the verse says in its wording can be recorded, and that much I record: there is an order between the two punishments (dūna — before it, short of it), and the purpose of the first is stated: laʿallahum yarjiʿūn — that they may perhaps turn back.
This purpose is worth recording, and I give it as my own reading: the verse says that the smaller one is not an end but a call. And the same verb (رجع) occurs for the third time in the sūra:
| Verse | Expression | Who |
|---|---|---|
| 11 | Thumma ilā rabbikum turjaʿūn | Passive — you are returned |
| 12 | Fa'rjiʿnā | Request — send us back |
| 21 | Laʿallahum yarjiʿūn | Hope — that they may perhaps turn back |
The same root in three separate patterns: a statement, a request, a hope. This is a repetition that can be verified within the sūra. And the sequence is worth recording: the return is named first as an unavoidable event (11), then as a request refused (12), and finally as a door still open (21). The door is opened after the scene has been recounted.
And the verb must be recorded: dhukkira — passive, Form II: "he was reminded". The same verb was passive in the fifteenth verse too: alladhīna idhā dhukkirū bihā kharrū sujjadan.
| Verse | The same verb | What happens next |
|---|---|---|
| 15 | Idhā dhukkirū bihā | Kharrū sujjadan — they fell down prostrate |
| 22 | Man dhukkira bi-āyāti rabbih | Thumma aʿraḍa ʿanhā — he turned away |
The same entrance, two separate exits. I record this as my own reading, and its ground is that the verb stands in the same pattern in both places: the reminding is done to both sides — what separates them is not the reminding but what comes after. And the ruling of the eighteenth verse (lā yastawūn) takes concrete shape between these two verses.
The particle thumma must be recorded separately: ثُمَّ أَعْرَضَ — "then he turned away". In Arabic thumma states an interval. That is, the turning away is recounted not as a reaction given at once to the reminding but as a stance taken after time has come in between. The same work of this particle (the distance between a word and a stance) was treated in al-Aḥqāf 46/13 and in Fuṣṣilat 41/30 — there in the positive direction, here in the negative.
مُنتَقِمُونَ — root ن-ق-م: to find a thing ugly and reject it; and from this to repay it. This is the core the lexicographers record: retribution is first a not approving. The same root was treated in al-Burūj 85/8 (wa mā naqamū minhum illā an yuʾminū — "they found nothing in them ugly except that they believed"). I rely on that treatment.
And the picture recorded there is reversed here: in al-Burūj the subject of the verb naqama was those who did wrong; here the same root is ascribed to the side that gives the response.