وَإِن نَّشَأْ نُغْرِقْهُمْ فَلَا صَرِيخَ لَهُمْ وَلَا هُمْ يُنقَذُونَ · إِلَّا رَحْمَةً مِّنَّا وَمَتَٰعًا إِلَىٰ حِينٍ
Wa in nashaʾ nughriqhum fa-lā ṣarīkha lahum wa lā hum yunqadhūn · Illā raḥmatan minnā wa matāʿan ilā ḥīn
"If We willed, We would drown them; then they would have no one to answer their cry, nor would they be rescued — except as a mercy from Us and an enjoyment for a time."
A point of word order, and it determines the whole work of the block: across three verses the ship was recounted as a favour. The forty-third verse puts that same ship inside a conditional clause: wa in nashaʾ nughriqhum.
I record this as my own reading, and its ground is the conditional particle: in Arabic in is for a condition that is possible but not certain. The sentence is not a threat but a statement of dependence: to stand upon the water is a permission renewed at every moment.
And the pattern of the word here (faʿīl) is open to two senses at once; the lexicographers record both:
| Sense | Who the ṣarīkh is |
|---|---|
| 1 | The one who cries out — the one calling for help |
| 2 | The one who runs to the cry — the one who comes to the rescue, the helper |
The context requires the second sense: fa-lā ṣarīkha lahum — "there is no ṣarīkh for them", that is, there is no one who runs to their aid. The lexicographers prefer the second sense in this construction; I record it.
And the doubleness of the word is worth recording in itself: the same word announces both the one who calls and the one who comes. The lexicographers attribute this to the word's being built on a sound: the one who shouts and the one who answers the shout are the two ends of one event.
The root ن-ق-ذ occurs for the second time in the sūra. In the twenty-third verse the man who came running had said: wa lā yunqidhūn — "[those gods] cannot rescue me." Here: wa lā hum yunqadhūn — "they are not rescued."
| Verse | Expression | Who / from whom |
|---|---|---|
| 23 | wa lā yunqidhūn | The gods taken up cannot rescue — active |
| 43 | wa lā hum yunqadhūn | Those who drown are not rescued — passive |
Both can be verified. And the difference of pattern must be recorded: the first is active (they cannot rescue), the second passive (they are not rescued). My own reading: in the first sentence the one who cannot rescue is named; in the second the one who might rescue is not named at all. In the story a candidate had been eliminated; in the evidential section there is not even a candidate.
غ-ر-ق — the root: to sink into water, to drown. Ighrāq — to sink something. The word occurs often in the Qurʾān in the stories of Noah and Pharaoh.
Word order: illā here is counted an istithnāʾ munqaṭiʿ; that is, what is excepted is not of the same kind as that from which it is excepted. Ṣarīkh and inqādh are one kind, raḥma another. The lexicographers record that in this case illā comes to mean "but, only" — the same structure was treated in al-Wāqiʿa at 56/25-26; I rely on that treatment.
My own reading: the verse does not deny the rescue, it changes its source. It says there is no help and then names the help.
م-ت-ع — the root: to take enjoyment of a thing, to benefit from it; and a thing's stretching out and lasting. Matāʿ — the thing enjoyed; household goods, provisions. The word is used often in the Qurʾān of the life of this world — it occurred in Ghāfir (al-Muʾmin) at 40/39 in the form innamā hādhihi'l-ḥayātu'd-dunyā matāʿ and was treated there. I rely on that treatment.
And that the block ends with this word is worth recording: block IV counted three signs — earth, sky, ship — and closed all of them with a time-limited qualification. My own reading: the evidential section counts the favours and at the end says that all of them are bound to a term. And the next block begins exactly from here: in the forty-fifth verse it will be said "guard against what is before you and what is behind you" — that is, be aware of the term.