إِنَّ ٱلَّذِينَ تَدْعُونَ مِن دُونِ ٱللَّهِ عِبَادٌ أَمْثَالُكُمْ فَٱدْعُوهُمْ فَلْيَسْتَجِيبُوا۟ لَكُمْ إِن كُنتُمْ صَٰدِقِينَ
Inna'lladhīna tadʿūna min dūni'llāhi ʿibādun amthālukum, fa'dʿūhum fa'l-yastajībū lakum in kuntum ṣādiqīn · A-lahum arjulun yamshūna bihā, am lahum aydin yabṭishūna bihā, am lahum aʿyunun yubṣirūna bihā, am lahum ādhānun yasmaʿūna bihā, quli'dʿū shurakāʾakum thumma kīdūni fa-lā tunẓirūn
"Those you call upon beside God are servants like yourselves. Call upon them, then, and let them answer you — if you are truthful! · Have they feet with which to walk? Or hands with which to grasp? Or eyes with which to see? Or ears with which to hear? Say: 'Call your partners, then devise against me and give me no respite.'"
The hundred and ninety-fifth verse counts four organs, and the structure of the enumeration must be compared directly with the hundred and seventy-ninth verse. This is a weave that can be verified within the sūra, and one of the most striking overlaps to be recorded:
| 7/179 — of man | 7/195 — of those called upon | |
|---|---|---|
| Construction | Lahum … lā yafqahūna bihā — the organ is there, it does not work | A-lahum … yamshūna bihā — the question whether the organ is there |
| Heart | Qulūbun lā yafqahūna bihā | (absent) |
| Eye | Aʿyunun lā yubṣirūna bihā | Aʿyunun yubṣirūna bihā |
| Ear | Ādhānun lā yasmaʿūna bihā | Ādhānun yasmaʿūna bihā |
| Foot | (absent) | Arjulun yamshūna bihā |
| Hand | (absent) | Aydin yabṭishūna bihā |
One — the two verses share the same two words: aʿyun and ādhān; and the same verbs: yubṣirūna bihā, yasmaʿūna bihā.
I record this as my own reading and it is not binding; its ground is the words shared by the two verses: the sūra applies the same measure to both sides. First to the one who calls: "you have the organs, you do not use them." Then to the one called upon: "do you have organs?" And the measure is one: not what a thing is, but what it can do.
And this measure had already been used in the sūra — at the hundred and forty-eighth verse, of the calf: a-lam yaraw annahū lā yukallimuhum wa lā yahdīhim sabīlā. That is, the sūra builds the same measure in three separate places (148, 179, 195). This is a countable datum.
A point of word order must be recorded: the sentence does not deny the existence of those called upon; it states their standing. ʿIbādun amthālukum — "servants like yourselves".
I record this as an observation about word order, and its ground is the word: what is objected to is not their existence but the work attributed to their standing. And this lies on the same line as the sentence asmāʾin sammaytumūhā in the seventy-first verse: the matter is one of naming.
The root ب-ط-ش: to seize a thing with force, to hold it violently. The choice of the word is worth recording: for "to hold" not a plain verb but a verb stating force has been chosen.
It was recorded at 11/55 in Hūd, and I rely on that treatment: this pattern occurs in other places in the Qurʾān too — thumma kīdūni fa-lā tunẓirūn (al-Aʿrāf 7/195); fa-ajmiʿū amrakum wa shurakāʾakum (Yūnus 10/71). These belong to the same family.
The root ن-ظ-ر here means "to grant respite", and it had occurred in the fifteenth verse of the sūra: innaka mina'l-munẓarīn.
The same root in two different places: in the fifteenth verse respite is granted to Iblīs; in the hundred and ninety-fifth the messenger asks for none. This is a repetition that can be verified within the sūra, and I record it as an observation.
And from the hundred and ninety-sixth verse to the hundred and ninety-eighth the enumeration is completed:
| Verse | What is stated |
|---|---|
| 196 | Inna waliyyiya'llāhu'lladhī nazzala'l-kitāba wa huwa yatawalla'ṣ-ṣāliḥīn — who the guardian is |
| 197 | Wa'lladhīna tadʿūna min dūnihī lā yastaṭīʿūna naṣrakum wa lā anfusahum yanṣurūn — they cannot even help themselves |
| 198 | Wa in tadʿūhum ila'l-hudā lā yasmaʿū, wa tarāhum yanẓurūna ilayka wa hum lā yubṣirūn — they look but do not see |
And the last sentence in the hundred and ninety-eighth verse must be recorded: wa tarāhum yanẓurūna ilayka wa hum lā yubṣirūn.
This is the coming together in one sentence of the two roots undone at the hundred and forty-third verse (ن-ظ-ر and ب-ص-ر): there is looking, there is no seeing.
I record this as an observation, and its ground is the difference between the two roots: the verse shows within a single sentence that looking and seeing are not the same thing.