al-Ṭāriq 86:10

Fa-mā lahū min quwwatin wa lā nāṣir "On that day he will have neither a strength nor a helper."

The fāʾ at the head states the consequence of the preceding verse: when the hidden things are probed, nothing is left in the person's hand.

Lahū — "his". The last singular person named in the sūra is man (verse 5). The majority attach the pronoun there. That is, the verse is speaking of the man whose hidden things are probed.

مِن here is a particle that adds nothing to the meaning — in the language of grammar, zāʾida, redundant. Its function is to make the negation all-encompassing.

The difference is this: mā lahū quwwatun = "he has no strength". Mā lahū min quwwatin = "he has not any strength at all". The redundant min spreads the negation over every single possibility (in grammar this is called istighrāq).

One of the best-known examples of this particle in the Qurʾān stands within the same frame: "He has, apart from God, neither a friend nor a helper" (al-Baqara 2/107 and similar expressions).

The verse rejects two things separately, and the two are different directions:

• قُوَّة (quwwa) — the person's own strength. What comes from inside. The possibility of defending himself, of resisting, of escaping.
• نَاصِر (nāṣir) — support that comes from outside. One who helps, who stands behind him.

There are two ways for a man to get out of a difficulty: either by his own strength, or by someone's help. The verse closes both doors separately. This is another example of the method we saw in Sūrat al-Ikhlāṣ: when rejecting something, to enumerate every way out.

Root: ن-ص-ر. This root was treated in the section on Sūrat al-Naṣr. Briefly: to help someone against his enemy, to support him, to bring him victory.

A lexical note that belongs here: in Arabic the same root is used of rain as well. Naṣara'l-ghaythu'l-arḍa — the rain helped the soil; arḍun manṣūra — soil that has received rain. The lexicons record this use.

And what is striking is this: the next section of the sūra will set up exactly this image — water coming down from the sky, soil splitting open. That is, the person of whom it is said in verse 10 that he has "no nāṣir" will meet, in verses 11-12, the description of the nuṣra that comes to the soil. The soil receives help; on that day man does not.

I do not present this as a claim of word-play. The rain sense of the root is recorded in the lexicons, and the order of the verses stands in the text; it is I who set up the relation between them, and it is not binding.

For "helper" the Qurʾān generally uses the word نَصِير (naṣīr): "God is enough for you; what an excellent protector, what an excellent helper" (al-Anfāl 8/40 and the like).

Here nāṣir has been chosen. The two words are from the same root but on different patterns: naṣīr is a ṣifa mushabbaha and states permanence, nāṣir is an active participle and states the act.

The difference is fine: naṣīr is "someone who is a helper", nāṣir "someone who helps". The second brings the act forward. The verse says that on that day the act of helping will not take place.

There is also the verse-ending: the sound pattern of the first ten verses of the sūra is of the form -ir/-iẓ/-ib. Had it said naṣīr the sound would have fitted, but the pattern would have changed; nāṣir holds both the sound and the pattern. In cases of this kind the reason drawn from the verse-ending must be stated first, because otherwise we should be inventing an explanation based on meaning — this principle was recorded in the section on Sūrat al-Ḍuḥā.

Ten verses are complete, and what has been said is this:

You are being watched (4). Look at where you came from (5-7). The one who brought you from there brings you back as well (8). On that day what is inside you will be probed (9). And on that day you will have neither strength of your own nor anyone's support (10).

Now the sūra stops and swears again. The second round begins.