قُلْ إِنَّمَا أَدْعُو رَبِّي وَلَا أُشْرِكُ بِهِ أَحَدًا
Innamā conveys in Arabic restriction: "only, solely". It assigns a ruling to one thing and cuts off what is outside it.
The sentence could have been framed without this particle: "I call upon my Lord." With the particle the sense becomes: "What I do is only this."
This is the direct answer to the scene in verse 19. A crowd has thronged, at the centre is a man. What is the man doing? He is only praying. Nothing else.
The verb returns from verse 18. There it was a command: fa-lā tadʿū — do not call (upon another along with God). Here it is a statement: adʿū Rabbī — I call upon my Lord.
The same verb, two verses apart: the one a prohibition, the other its application. The authority that gave the command records immediately after that the command is applied by the messenger.
Again the name Rabb, and again with the first person singular possessive: "my Lord". This construct will occur three times in the sūra: 20, 22 (min dūnihī), 25 (Rabbī).
The function of the possessive is this: the Prophet defines the relation between himself and God as a relation of servanthood — the same kind of relation as his addressees'. The person named "the servant of God" in verse 19 says the same thing here from his own mouth.
The sentence is very nearly an exact repetition of verse 2. The jinn had said: "wa lan nushrika bi-Rabbinā aḥadā" — "we shall never associate anyone with our Lord."
| 72/2 (the jinn) | 72/20 (the Prophet) | |
|---|---|---|
| Mood | lan nushrika — future, definitively negative | lā ushriku — general present, continuing |
| Sense | "We shall never associate" | "I do not associate" |
| Position | Newly believing; giving an undertaking | Already so; stating a state |
The language of one newly believing is the future — he is giving a promise. The language of the messenger is the general present — he is stating a condition. The difference is small but separates the two positions exactly.