وَمَآ أَرْسَلْنَا فِى قَرْيَةٍ مِّن نَّبِىٍّ إِلَّآ أَخَذْنَآ أَهْلَهَا بِٱلْبَأْسَآءِ وَٱلضَّرَّآءِ لَعَلَّهُمْ يَضَّرَّعُونَ · ثُمَّ بَدَّلْنَا مَكَانَ ٱلسَّيِّئَةِ ٱلْحَسَنَةَ حَتَّىٰ عَفَوا۟ وَّقَالُوا۟ قَدْ مَسَّ ءَابَآءَنَا ٱلضَّرَّآءُ وَٱلسَّرَّآءُ فَأَخَذْنَٰهُم بَغْتَةً وَهُمْ لَا يَشْعُرُونَ
Wa mā arsalnā fī qaryatin min nabiyyin illā akhadhnā ahlahā bi'l-baʾsāʾi wa'ḍ-ḍarrāʾi laʿallahum yaḍḍarraʿūn · Thumma baddalnā makāna's-sayyiʾati'l-ḥasanata ḥattā ʿafaw wa qālū qad massa ābāʾana'ḍ-ḍarrāʾu wa's-sarrāʾu fa-akhadhnāhum baghtatan wa hum lā yashʿurūn
"Into whatever land We sent a prophet, We seized its people with hardship and affliction — that they might humble themselves. · Then We put good in the place of ill, until they grew many and said, 'Hardship and ease touched our forefathers too.' So We seized them suddenly, while they were unaware."
When the five stories are finished the sūra lays down a rule, and the form of the rule must be recorded: negation + exception (mā … illā).
This pattern is the strongest generalisation in Arabic: "We sent to no place without … coming about."
| Stage | What is done | What is expected | What happens |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 (94) | Baʾsāʾ and ḍarrāʾ — hardship | Laʿallahum yaḍḍarraʿūn — pleading | (the text does not state the outcome) |
| 2 (95) | Baddalnā makāna's-sayyiʾati'l-ḥasanata — ease | — | Ḥattā ʿafaw and a sentence: qad massa ābāʾana'ḍ-ḍarrāʾu wa's-sarrāʾu |
And the outcome of the second stage is a sentence, not a behaviour. I record this as my own reading and it is not binding; its ground is the verse itself: what nullifies the test turns out to be an explanation — "such things happen anyway, they happened to our forefathers too."
That is, the event is taken out of being a sign and turned into a natural occurrence. And this lies on the same line as the twenty-eighth verse of the sūra: there too the ground of the behaviour was tied to the forefathers (wajadnā ʿalayhā ābāʾanā).
عَفَوا۟ — the root ع-ف-و. One of the primary senses of the root is to become many, to increase (when hair grows long and thick it is said ʿafā'sh-shaʿr). The lexicographers dwell on the meaning of the word in this verse, and two explanations are transmitted:
| Reading | What ʿafaw means |
|---|---|
| 1 | They grew many — they increased in number and in goods |
| 2 | They became well off, at ease — their livelihood widened |
And this word will return in the last block of the sūra with another sense: khudhi'l-ʿafw (199). The same root, two different branches of meaning. This link will be treated at verse 199.
The root ش-ع-ر: to notice a fine thing, to sense it. The root is akin to shaʿr (hair); the lexicographers tie shuʿūr to the picture of "becoming aware of something as fine as a hair".
And the coming together of the two words is worth recording: baghtatan states the speed of the event, lā yashʿurūn the condition of the addressee. Together they overlap with the picture in the fourth verse of the sūra: fa-jāʾahā baʾsunā bayātan aw hum qāʾilūn — in the sleep of night or in the sleep of noon. The sūra says the same thing twice, with two different words.