al-Aʿrāf 7:19

Wa yā Ādamu'skun anta wa zawjuka'l-jannata fa-kulā min ḥaythu shiʾtumā wa lā taqrabā hādhihi'sh-shajarata fa-takūnā mina'ẓ-ẓālimīn

"And, O Adam, dwell you and your wife in the Garden; eat from wherever you wish; but do not go near this tree, or you will be among the wrongdoers."

A point of word order must be recorded: the verse begins with a wāw. Wa yā Ādam — that is, this address is built as the continuation of the preceding speech.

I record this as an observation: what is said to Iblīs and what is said to Adam are given as a single sequence of speech. In al-Baqara the two scenes were built separately (2/34 and 2/35); al-Aʿrāf joins them with a wāw.

This pattern was treated at 2/35 in al-Baqara, and it was recorded there: the prohibition is placed not on the act but on the distance that leads to the act; from this the principle of "closing the means" has been derived, and the parallel of al-Isrāʾ 17/32 (wa lā taqrabu'z-zinā) was given. I rely on that treatment and do not repeat it here.

And it was recorded at 2/187 in al-Baqara that the same pattern returns in the form tilka ḥudūdu'llāhi fa-lā taqrabūhā. I rely on that treatment as well.

The difference that belongs here is this, and the table can be verified from the text:

Al-Baqara and al-Aʿrāf are word for word identical at this point. Ṭāhā, however, builds the prohibition not upon the tree but upon Iblīs, and names the outcome shaqāwa (hardship) — this was treated in Ṭāhā as the backbone of that sūra.

And the expression fa-takūnā mina'ẓ-ẓālimīn must be recorded: the outcome is given as belonging to a group — exactly like lam yakun mina's-sājidīn in the eleventh verse. The group language of al-Aʿrāf is at work here too.

And this expression overlaps with the confession in the twenty-third verse: rabbanā ẓalamnā anfusanā. The root used in the warning (ظ-ل-م) is used in the confession too. That is, the confession is made with the word of the warning. This is an overlap that can be verified from the text.

A point of word order: the permission comes as min ḥaythu shiʾtumā ("from wherever you wish"), the prohibition as hādhihi'sh-shajarata ("this tree") — the one open-ended, the other bounded by a demonstrative.

In al-Baqara 2/35 the permission was raghadan ḥaythu shiʾtumā ("in plenty, from wherever you wish"). Al-Aʿrāf does not give the word raghadan. This is a countable difference.

I record this as an observation: both texts give the permission before the prohibition, and the permission is wider than the prohibition. The prohibition is one tree; the permission is all the rest.