وَٱتْلُ عَلَيْهِمْ نَبَأَ ٱبْنَىْ ءَادَمَ بِٱلْحَقِّ إِذْ قَرَّبَا قُرْبَانًا فَتُقُبِّلَ مِنْ أَحَدِهِمَا وَلَمْ يُتَقَبَّلْ مِنَ ٱلْءَاخَرِ قَالَ لَأَقْتُلَنَّكَ ۖ قَالَ إِنَّمَا يَتَقَبَّلُ ٱللَّهُ مِنَ ٱلْمُتَّقِينَ
Wa'tlu ʿalayhim nabaʾa'bnay Ādama bi'l-ḥaqq · Idh qarrabā qurbānan fa-tuqubbila min aḥadihimā wa lam yutaqabbal mina'l-ākhar · Qāla la-aqtulannak · Qāla innamā yataqabbalu'llāhu mina'l-muttaqīn
"Recite to them in truth the account of the two sons of Adam: when the two of them offered an offering, and it was accepted from one of them and not accepted from the other. He said: 'I shall certainly kill you.' The other said: God accepts only from those who are mindful of Him."
This narrative comes immediately after the preceding section (5/20-26), and there is a link between the two: there a community refused the command given to it; here one man refuses to accept an outcome that is not his to determine.
And the narrative ties into the sūra's theme of the contract: being accepted is tied neither to the quantity of what is offered nor to who the person is, but to an attribute. This is the measure the sūra has been working with from the beginning.
The qualification بِٱلْحَقّ — "in truth". The Qurʾān often enters this qualification when it recounts a narrative. What is recounted is announced as not an illustration but something that happened. No names are given — and none will be given in this commentary either, since the text gives none.
The root ق-ر-ب has been treated in many places in this collection (Qāf 50/16, al-Wāqiʿa, al-Muṭaffifīn): nearness.
The pattern كُرْبَان is on the measure فُعْلَان and gives the sense "a thing offered in order to draw near". That is, the word itself names not the animal slaughtered but the purpose of the slaughtering: a means of drawing near.
This differs from the word's present-day use. In Turkish "kurban" calls an animal to mind, whereas the word itself is an operation of closing a distance. And elsewhere the Qurʾān says so explicitly: "Neither their flesh nor their blood reaches God; what reaches Him is your mindfulness of Him" (al-Ḥajj 22/37) — treated in al-Ḥajj, and I rely on that treatment.
The root ق-ب-ل: to meet, to come face to face. Qibla — the direction one turns to; istiqbāl — reception, and the future; qabūl — meeting a thing and taking it.
The verb here is in Form V (taqabbala), and in Arabic this pattern conveys "taking a matter on willingly, with a glad heart". That is, taqabbul is not ordinary "taking" but receiving with pleasure.
And the verb is passive: tuqubbila — "it was accepted". The name of the one accepting is not mentioned, because the question is not who accepts but whether or not it was accepted.
A point of word order: fa-tuqubbila min aḥadihimā wa lam yutaqabbal mina'l-ākhar — which of the two brothers was which is not said. The account gives not the persons but the situation.
The pattern of the sentence matters: innamā — a particle of restriction. It was recorded at al-Baqara 2/173: innamā conveys that the list or the ruling is closed. I rely on that treatment.
The function of the sentence is not a defence but an explanation. The brother does not say "I am better than you"; he says where the measure lies. The answer is not made personal.
And the sentence is the first response given to the threat. The threat came from the furthest extreme, "I shall kill you"; the answer is a sentence of principle. The difference of register between the two sentences is the frame of the whole narrative.
تَقْوَىٰ — root و-ق-ي: to protect, to shield. It was treated at al-Baqara 2/2 and at al-Ḥujurāt 49/13; I rely on that treatment.