al-Nisāʾ 4:75-76

Wa mā lakum lā tuqātilūna fī sabīli'llāhi wa'l-mustaḍʿafīna mina'l-rijāli wa'l-nisāʾi wa'l-wildāni'lladhīna yaqūlūna rabbanā akhrijnā min hādhihi'l-qaryati'l-ẓālimi ahluhā wa'jʿal lanā min ladunka waliyyan wa'jʿal lanā min ladunka naṣīrā

"What is the matter with you that you do not fight in the way of God, and for the men, women and children who have been made weak, who say: 'Our Lord! Bring us out of this town whose people are oppressors; give us from Yourself one to take charge of us, and give us from Yourself a helper.'"

The root ض-ع-ف, Form X (istifʿāl): to reckon someone weak and to make him weak.

What the pattern carries must be recorded, and this was treated in detail at al-Qaṣaṣ 28/4-5. The record made there was this:

"يَسْتَضْعِفُ — root ض-ع-ف, Form X: to reckon someone weak and to make him weak. The pattern matters: weakness is not something that happens of itself but something that is done."

And one further observation was recorded there:

"The verse describes what Pharaoh did with three verbs, and the first of them is dividing… That is, oppression does not begin with direct force; it begins by breaking the community into pieces — and only in a divided community can one section be set apart and made mustaḍʿaf."

I rely on both records and do not repeat them.

The second ground is al-Anfāl 8/26. What was recorded there:

"مُّسْتَضْعَفُون — Form X: those who are seen as weak and made weak… And in al-Anfāl the same fear is named in the past tense: as a state now over."

Setting the three verses side by side gives the word's three positions in the Qurʾān:

The three verses use the same pattern, and the three stand in three different tenses. This is a weave across three sūras that can be verified.

Having said al-mustaḍʿafīn, the verse counts three items: mina'l-rijāli wa'l-nisāʾi wa'l-wildān.

And the enumeration itself produces a record: the word is not left standing alone, it is opened up.

I record this as my own reading, and its ground is the line established in the sūra's introductory section: the sūra names the one without protection not as an abstract category but as enumerated items — like the nine addresses in the thirty-sixth verse.

And the word al-wildān must be recorded: from the root و-ل-د, children. The sūra will use this word once more at the hundred and twenty-seventh verse: wa'l-mustaḍʿafīna mina'l-wildān.

The construction means literally "the town whose people are oppressors".

And the word order must be recorded: the description is attached not to the town but to its people. The sentence does not say al-qaryati'l-ẓālima (the oppressive town); it says al-ẓālimi ahluhā.

I record this as an observation about word order: the wrong is ascribed not to a place but to the acts of the people in that place.

And this accords with the method's rule about attributes: the ruling is tied not to a place or to a whole community but to an act.

The prayer asks for two things, and both had occurred earlier in the sūra: in the forty-fifth verse, wa kafā bi'llāhi waliyyan wa kafā bi'llāhi naṣīrā.

The same two words, thirty verses apart: one a statement, the other a request. This is a repetition that can be verified within the sūra, and I record it as my own reading: the text first states the sufficiency; then it relates the voice that asks for that sufficiency.