إِلَّا مَنِ ارْتَضَىٰ مِن رَّسُولٍ فَإِنَّهُ يَسْلُكُ مِن بَيْنِ يَدَيْهِ وَمِنْ خَلْفِهِ رَصَدًا
"Except a messenger with whom He is well pleased; and then He stations watchers before him and behind him."
Root ر-ض-و: to be pleased, to be content, to approve and accept. This root was taken up in the sections on al-Bayyina and al-Ghāshiya; the reciprocity of riḍā was dwelt on there.
اِرْتَضَىٰ is in the iftiʿāl form and conveys here choosing and approving: not at random but by preference.
The second condition limits the first as well: not every messenger, but the messenger with whom He is pleased. And the subject of the verb is God — the one who chooses is not the messenger himself.
This opens the door of knowledge of the unseen and narrows it at the same moment. The door exists but its lock is on the outside: no one can enter by his own decision.
In verse 1 the Prophet said "it was revealed to me" — he had received a report of an event he could not see. In that section this was recorded: "The Prophet does not know the unseen; he knows what is notified to him of the unseen."
Verse 27 is the general expression of that sentence. The sūra opens with an instance and closes with the rule:
| 72/1 | 72/26-27 | |
|---|---|---|
| What | An event: the jinn's listening was notified | A rule: the unseen is opened only to a chosen messenger |
| Mood | Passive: ūḥiya — "it was revealed" | Active: lā yuẓhiru — "He does not give access" |
| Emphasis | The manner of the knowledge's coming | The owner of the knowledge |
The verb returns from verse 17. There it was yaslukhu ʿadhāban ṣaʿadā — "He drives him into a mounting punishment". Here it is yasluku … raṣadā — "He stations watchers".
The same verb, in two separate works. The root's sense (to pass a thing into a place, to insert) is the same in both; what changes is what is inserted where: in the one a person into punishment, in the other a guard onto a road.
Who is the agent? The pronoun refers to God (it is transmitted that in some commentaries it is referred to the messenger, but the context indicates God: the subject of the verb irtaḍā is He too).
This pair is a widespread pattern in the Qurʾān and conveys encompassment: all the directions of a thing. The wholeness we mean in English by "front and back".
| View | The pronoun | Sense |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | To the messenger | Watchers are set before and behind the messenger; the messenger is protected. |
| 2 | To the revelation / to the unseen notified | Watchers are set before and behind what is notified; the message is protected. |
This is the most elegant internal link of the sūra and was pointed to at verse 9; here it is completed.
The word is from the root ر-ص-د and was taken up at verse 9: to watch, to wait in ambush; mirṣād (a place of watching, al-Fajr 89/14), marṣad (al-Tawba 9/5).
| 72/9 | 72/27 | |
|---|---|---|
| The sentence | yajid lahu shihāban raṣadā | yasluku … raṣadā |
| Against whom | The one trying to steal knowledge | The one trying to spoil the revelation |
| Its function | To block — to close the entrance | To protect — to secure the carriage |
| Its position | At the gate of the heaven | Before and behind the messenger |
This completes the sūra's argument on the matter of knowledge. The question asked throughout the sūra was: where does this word come from? And the addressee's supposition was: from the jinn, from where the soothsayers get theirs.
1. That channel is closed (8-9). And it is those who used the channel who say so. 2. This channel, however, is guarded (27). With watchers before it and behind it.
That is, the revelation comes by a road that is both closed to illicit entry and guarded while it is carried. The Qurʾān sets up this claim plainly elsewhere too: "The satans did not bring it down… They are kept far from hearing" (al-Shuʿarāʾ 26/210-212); "It is not the word of an accursed satan" (al-Takwīr 81/25).