أَوْلَىٰ لَكَ فَأَوْلَىٰ · ثُمَّ أَوْلَىٰ لَكَ فَأَوْلَىٰٓ
Up to the thirty-third verse the telling was in the third person: ṣaddaqa, ṣallā, kadhdhaba, tawallā, dhahaba. In the thirty-fourth it turns all at once to the second person singular: لَكَ — "to you".
This is the sūra's second iltifāt (the first was in verses 20-21, to the second person plural). And its effect is harsher here: the narrative turns in an instant into a confrontation. The man who was being spoken about is taken face to face.
And in the thirty-sixth verse the address will turn back to the third person (a-yaḥsabu'l-insān). That is, these two verses are a short, sharp parenthesis within the sūra.
| Verses | Address | Effect |
|---|---|---|
| 3-19, 36-40 | Third person (al-insān) | Diagnosis, from a distance |
| 20-21 | Second person plural (tuḥibbūna) | Turning to the one addressed |
| 34-35 | Second person singular (laka) | Direct confrontation |
| View | Root | Explanation |
|---|---|---|
| An elative from the root و-ل-ي | و-ل-ي | Awlā — "nearer", "more deserving". The sentence understood: "what is to befall you is nearer to you", or "this is more fitting for you" |
| A settled formula of threat | و-ل-ي | A threat pattern established in Arabic: awlā laka — "it nearly befell you!" or "it has come close to you!" |
| Related to وَيْل | و-ي-ل | Some lexicographers count the word as an imprecatory formula in the sense of wayl (woe) |
The first and second views rest on the same root and in practice come together: the expression is a threat formula saying that a bad outcome has drawn near to the person. The third view rests on nearness of sound and has been found weaker.
It is hard to render into English, because the formula has no one-to-one equivalent. Attempts: "Woe to you!", "It serves you right!", "It has come upon you!", "This is what you deserve!"
- Within the pair, فَ (fāʾ) — quick addition: "woe — and immediately again, woe".
- Between the pairs, ثُمَّ (thumma) — an interval: a pause, then again.
According to the lexicographers' explanation the thumma here states not time but degree: the second pair mounts on top of the first.
What is the function of the repetition? In rhetoric this is called takrīr, and it intensifies a threat. But there is a further side to the repetition here: there is no verb in the sentence. What will happen is not said, only that "it has drawn near".
That is, what is repeated four times is not the content of a threat but its nearness. And the withholding of the content — as was recorded in the section on al-Inshiqāq for the unanswered idhā, and in this sūra for the indefiniteness of fāqira — makes what is not described weigh heavier than what is.
Reports are transmitted that these verses were said about a particular person. No name is given in this commentary, because I do not possess enough knowledge to issue a ruling on the soundness of the report.
The measure of method does not require it in any case. As was recorded in the section on al-Balad: al-ʿibratu bi-ʿumūmi'l-lafẓ lā bi-khuṣūṣi's-sabab — the ruling goes by the generality of the wording, not by the particularity of the occasion.