لِّيَجْزِىَ ٱلَّذِينَ ءَامَنُوا۟ وَعَمِلُوا۟ ٱلصَّٰلِحَٰتِ أُو۟لَٰٓئِكَ لَهُم مَّغْفِرَةٌ وَرِزْقٌ كَرِيمٌ · وَٱلَّذِينَ سَعَوْ فِىٓ ءَايَٰتِنَا مُعَٰجِزِينَ أُو۟لَٰٓئِكَ لَهُمْ عَذَابٌ مِّن رِّجْزٍ أَلِيمٌ
Li-yajziya'lladhīna āmanū wa ʿamilu'ṣ-ṣāliḥāt, ulāʾika lahum maghfiratun wa rizqun karīm · Wa'lladhīna saʿaw fī āyātinā muʿājizīna ulāʾika lahum ʿadhābun min rijzin alīm
"That He may reward those who believed and did righteous deeds. For them there is forgiveness and a generous provision. And for those who run about to make Our signs of no effect, there is a painful punishment of the worst kind."
The fourth verse begins with a lām al-taʿlīl (the lām of cause): li-yajziya — "in order to reward". That is, the Hour whose coming was announced in the previous verse is tied to a purpose.
I record this as an observation about the word order: the objection said "it will not come"; the answer said first that it will come (3), then says why it will come (4). That is, the sentence is not content to refute the claim; it also gives the reason for the event.
And in that reason the reward is named first, the punishment second. This ordering holds throughout the sūra: the fourth verse for the believers, the fifth for the other side.
س-ع-ي — the concrete sense of the root is to walk fast, to bustle about, to exert oneself for a task. The word is neutral; the Qurʾān uses it both in praise and in blame. What settles its direction here is the circumstantial word that follows it.
مُعَٰجِزِين — root ع-ج-ز: to be unable, to be powerless. Muʿājiz — the active participle of Form III. This form conveys reciprocity and striving: "one who tries to render powerless, who strives to outrun and get past".
| Reading | Sense |
|---|---|
| 1 | Those who try to render powerless — who want to make the signs ineffective |
| 2 | Those who suppose they will escape — who think they cannot be caught |
I do not impose a preference. What is worth recording is that the word states not an act but an aim: the verse does not say that they made the signs ineffective — it says they ran about so that it should be so.
| Verse | Expression | What it is answered with |
|---|---|---|
| 5 | Wa'lladhīna saʿaw fī āyātinā muʿājizīn | ʿAdhābun min rijzin alīm |
| 38 | Wa'lladhīna yasʿawna fī āyātinā muʿājizīn | Fi'l-ʿadhābi muḥḍarūn |
The only difference is the tense of the verb: the fifth has the perfect (saʿaw), the thirty-eighth the imperfect (yasʿawna). I record this as my own reading, and its support is where the two verses stand: the fifth verse comes inside a list of rulings, the thirty-eighth inside a description of an ongoing behaviour. The perfect states the ruling, the imperfect describes the state.
رِجْز — root ر-ج-ز: shaking, disordered movement; and from there filth, punishment. The lexicographers connect the word with the trembling in a camel's hind legs (rajaz). The construction is striking: ʿadhābun min rijzin alīm — "a punishment out of the worst kind of punishment". That is, the punishment is further qualified from within its own class.