al-Shūrā 42:10

Wa ma'khtalaftum fīhi min shayʾin fa-ḥukmuhu ila'llāh; dhālikumu'llāhu rabbī ʿalayhi tawakkaltu wa ilayhi unīb

"Whatever it is you differ about, its judgement belongs to God. That is God, my Lord; on Him I have relied, and to Him I turn."

The root خ-ل-ف: to remain behind, to take someone's place, to come after him. Khalīfa, khilāf, ikhtilāf and mukhālafa are from the same root. Form VIII (ikhtilāf) conveys reciprocity: being behind one another, standing behind one another in different places.

Here I record an observation about the arrangement, and I give it as my own reading:

The sūra uses two different words and attaches two different verdicts to them.

The difference is visible in the senses of the words themselves:

• Ikhtilāf — standing in different places from one another. A difference of view.
• Tafarruq — breaking away from one another, dispersing. The severing of the bond.

The sūra, that is, accepts difference of view as a fact and points out where it is referred; the severing it forbids. The three-verse distance between the tenth verse and the thirteenth carries this distinction.

I stress this again: it is an inference, not a transmitted report. Its ground is the lexical senses of the two roots and the sūra's two different verdicts.

حُكْم — root ح-ك-م: as recorded in al-Aḥqāf, the concrete sense of the root is to restrain and hold in place; ḥakama (a horse's bridle) is from the same root. A ḥukm is a decision that sets a matter in its place and keeps it from scattering.

The arrangement of the sentence must be recorded: the preposition ilā is used — "towards God", "referred to God". Not ʿinda (with) or li (for). The judgement, that is, is carried somewhere.

This is the manner in which the dispute is closed, and it will be repeated in the fifteenth verse: Allāhu yajmaʿu baynanā wa ilayhi'l-maṣīr. In both verses the same structure: the matter is sent to an authority.

In the middle of the sentence the speaker changes, and this is an iltifāt (a shift in the direction of address).

• The first half: ma'khtalaftum — "you". A community addressed.
• The second half: rabbī… tawakkaltu… unību — "I". The Prophet speaking.

The sentence, that is, begins with a rule and ends with an avowal. The rule is for everyone; the avowal is one person's.

I record this as my own reading: the sentence first sets down what it says as a rule and then shows it on itself. The one who says "the judgement belongs to God" says immediately afterwards "and He is the one I too rely on". The rule includes the one who sets it.

The root was treated in Qāf (in connection with munīb and awwāb). Its summary: ināba is returning again and again to a place; nawba (a turn, a thing done by turns) is from the same root. In the root there is not a single return but a regular coming back.

And the verb is imperfect: unīb — "I turn", ongoing. The verb beside it is perfect: tawakkaltu — "I have relied", done and settled.

This is a point of word order and it fits the senses of the words: reliance is a decision, and it is made; ināba is a habit, and it goes on.

The root will come once more in the thirteenth verse: wa yahdī ilayhi man yunīb — "and He guides to Himself whoever turns to Him." What the Prophet says of himself in the tenth verse, that is, is set down in the thirteenth as the condition of guidance.