al-Insān 76:23

Innā naḥnu nazzalnā ʿalayka'l-Qurʾāna tanzīlā "It is We who have sent down the Qurʾān upon you piece by piece."

Here the sūra changes direction. Seventeen verses of description end and the turn is made back to the addressee.

The sentence builds one of the densest accumulations of emphasis in Arabic:

1. إِنَّا — inna + nā: a particle of emphasis. 2. نَحْنُ — a separate pronoun. Grammatically it is unnecessary; the verb already carries the subject. The grammarians call it ḍamīr al-faṣl or the pronoun of corroboration: it states specification — "we, and no other". 3. تَنزِيلًا — an absolute object.

The threefold emphasis shows that the sentence is answering an objection. The objection is not in the text but is known from other places in the Qurʾān: the claims about the source of the text.

Root: ن-ز-ل. Treated in the discussion of al-Baqara 2/23. The finding there was this: in Arabic there are two patterns from the same root and the Qurʾān uses both — anzala and nazzala; the second states that the act was done piecemeal, by repetition. That the Qurʾān came down spread over twenty-three years is recorded in the pattern of the word.

What is peculiar to this passage is the addition of the absolute object: nazzalnā … tanzīlā. The verbal noun too is of the same pattern (tafʿīl). That is, the "sending down piece by piece" is itself stressed once more.

The place of the verse is strange at first sight. For twenty-two verses the garden and the abrār have been recounted; now suddenly the source of the revelation is spoken of.

The link appears in the next three verses. The twenty-fourth verse will give a command: be patient, do not obey. The twenty-fifth and twenty-sixth will give two more commands: remember, prostrate.

The establishing of the source before the command is the logic of the sūra. The bindingness of a command depends on who gives it. The twenty-third verse puts in place the ground on which the four commands rest.

And there is one more link: the abrār were people who paid their vows (7) — those who carry out what binds them. Now a bond is given to the addressee.