يَٰبَنِىٓ ءَادَمَ إِمَّا يَأْتِيَنَّكُمْ رُسُلٌ مِّنكُمْ يَقُصُّونَ عَلَيْكُمْ ءَايَٰتِى فَمَنِ ٱتَّقَىٰ وَأَصْلَحَ فَلَا خَوْفٌ عَلَيْهِمْ وَلَا هُمْ يَحْزَنُونَ · وَٱلَّذِينَ كَذَّبُوا۟ بِـَٔايَٰتِنَا وَٱسْتَكْبَرُوا۟ عَنْهَآ أُو۟لَٰٓئِكَ أَصْحَٰبُ ٱلنَّارِ هُمْ فِيهَا خَٰلِدُونَ
Yā banī Ādama immā yaʾtiyannakum rusulun minkum yaquṣṣūna ʿalaykum āyātī, fa-mani'ttaqā wa aṣlaḥa fa-lā khawfun ʿalayhim wa lā hum yaḥzanūn · Wa'lladhīna kadhdhabū bi-āyātinā wa'stakbarū ʿanhā ulāʾika aṣḥābu'n-nāri hum fīhā khālidūn
"O children of Adam! If messengers come to you from among yourselves, recounting My signs to you — whoever guards himself and sets himself right, no fear shall be upon them and they shall not grieve. · But those who called Our signs lies and were too great for them, those are the people of the Fire; they will remain in it."
A point of word order must be recorded: immā is in fact in (the conditional) + mā (redundant), and the verb has taken the emphatic nūn (yaʾtiyanna).
In Arabic, adding mā to the conditional in and giving the verb the emphatic nūn is a construction implying that the condition will certainly come to pass.
And the same pattern occurred at al-Baqara 2/38: fa-immā yaʾtiyannakum minnī hudā. It was treated at 2/38 in al-Baqara; I rely on that treatment. The ring closing back to al-Fātiḥa was recorded there.
| Place | What comes | For whom |
|---|---|---|
| al-Baqara 2/38 | Hudā — guidance | Adam and his offspring |
| al-Aʿrāf 7/35 | Rusulun minkum — messengers from among yourselves | The children of Adam |
Al-Baqara says "if guidance comes", al-Aʿrāf "if messengers come". The same pattern, two different agents. I record this as an observation, and the table can be verified from the two texts.
And the qualification minkum must be recorded: the messengers will be "from among you". The same emphasis will be repeated twice in the sequence of prophets in this sūra: ʿalā rajulin minkum (63, Noah) and ʿalā rajulin minkum (69, Hūd). The same note in three places.
What belongs here is this: the same pattern occurs twice in this sūra, and the second is in the section on the people of al-Aʿrāf.
| Verse | Sentence | For whom |
|---|---|---|
| 7/35 | Fa-lā khawfun ʿalayhim wa lā hum yaḥzanūn | Those who guard themselves and set themselves right |
| 7/49 | Lā khawfun ʿalaykum wa lā antum taḥzanūn | Those told to enter the Garden |
The first is in the third person, the second in the second person — that is, at 49 the word is said directly to the addressee. This is an overlap that can be verified within the sūra, and it will be taken up again at 46-49.
The protasis of the conditional clause is two verbs: ittaqā (he guarded himself) and aṣlaḥa (he set right).
The root ص-ل-ح: the going away of a defect, becoming useful and fit. The verb here is of Form IV (aṣlaḥa) and is transitive; its object is not stated.
I record this as an observation: the verse does not say "he set himself right" or "he set his affair right"; it leaves the object open. And the same root occurs seven times in this sūra, the four most striking being these:
| Verse | Expression | Who |
|---|---|---|
| 7/56 | Wa lā tufsidū fi'l-arḍi baʿda iṣlāḥihā | A command |
| 7/85 | Wa lā tufsidū fi'l-arḍi baʿda iṣlāḥihā | Shuʿayb |
| 7/142 | Ukhlufnī fī qawmī wa aṣliḥ | Moses → Aaron (Hārūn) |
| 7/170 | Innā lā nuḍīʿu ajra'l-muṣliḥīn | Those who hold fast to the Book |
This block is one of the most detailed dialogues of the gathering in the Qurʾān, and it contains five separate turns of speech:
| Turn | Who → whom | Verse |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | The angels → those who are dying | 37 |
| 2 | Those who came later ↔ those who came first | 38-39 |
| 3 | The people of the Garden → the people of the Fire, then a crier | 44-45 |
| 4 | The people of al-Aʿrāf → both sides at once | 46-49 |
| 5 | The people of the Fire → the people of the Garden | 50-51 |