أفلا يتدبرون القرآن ولو كان من عند غير الله لوجدوا فيه اختلافا كثيرا
"Do they not give the Qurʾān tadabbur? Had it been from other than God, they would have found in it much inconsistency."
The root د-ب-ر was treated in detail at Muḥammad 47/24. I rely on that treatment and do not repeat it here. A summary of the records made there:
"Root: د-ب-ر. And the concrete sense of the root carries the whole weight of the word: the back, the back of a thing.… تَدَبُّر (tadabbur): to get behind a thing, to think of its end."
"تَدَبَّرَ — the tafaʿʿul form… That is, tadabbur is not something that happens at a glance. The pattern of the word says that the work takes time and requires labour."
"The result: tadabbur is to advance step by step towards the back of a text, its end, the place it arrives at. And this is different from 'reading'."
"And Ṣād 38/29 is striking: there tadabbur is given as the ground of the Book's being sent down — li-yaddabbarū. The text, that is, ties its own reason for existing to this verb."
Now the three verses must be set side by side, because the same verb comes in three different patterns:
| Place | Wording | Pattern | What it does |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ṣād 38/29 | Li-yaddabbarū āyātih | Causal — a ground | The reason for its being sent down |
| Muḥammad 47/24 | Afa-lā yatadabbarūna'l-Qurʾān | A question | The diagnosis that it is not being done |
| al-Nisāʾ 4/82 | Afa-lā yatadabbarūna'l-Qurʾān | A question + a proof | A measure is added to the question |
And it must be recorded that the first half of the sentence in al-Nisāʾ and in Muḥammad is word for word identical: afa-lā yatadabbarūna'l-Qurʾān. What changes is the second half of the sentence.
| Sūra | Second half |
|---|---|
| Muḥammad 47/24 | Am ʿalā qulūbin aqfāluhā — or are there locks upon the hearts |
| al-Nisāʾ 4/82 | Wa law kāna min ʿindi ghayri'llāhi la-wajadū fīhi'khtilāfan kathīrā — a measure is given |
I record this as my own reading, and its ground is the wording of the two verses: in Sūrat Muḥammad the question asks where the obstacle is; in al-Nisāʾ the question says what is to be looked for.
The root خ-ل-ف: to come after a thing, to take its place. Khalaf — the one who comes after; ikhtilāf (Form VIII) — to go one after another, to fail to agree with one another.
And the measure the verse gives must be recorded: the sentence does not say ikhtilāfan but ikhtilāfan kathīrā — "much inconsistency".
This is a qualification that must be read carefully, and I give it as an observation about word order: the verse says not that no apparent tension whatever will be found, but that no numerous and irremovable inconsistency will be found. The presence of the adjective shows that the measure is not absolute but quantitative.
And how this measure is to be worked is tied to the verse's own verb: tadabbur. That is, as the verse gives the measure, so it gives in the same sentence the method by which the measure is to be applied.
This verse stands not in the middle of a debate about a text but in the middle of a discussion about news and trust: in the eighty-first verse words contrived by night were named; in the eighty-third the spreading of news will be named.
I record this as my own reading, and its ground is the order of the verses: read together, the three verses show a common subject among them — looking behind what is said. In the eighty-first verse there is something else behind the word; in the eighty-second it is asked that one get behind the text; in the eighty-third the verification of news is commanded.