al-Aʿlā 87:6

Sanuqriʾuka fa-lā tansā "We shall make you recite, and you will not forget."

The sūra changes direction here. The first five verses were introducing the Lord; now it turns to the addressee.

Root: ق ر أ. This root was treated in detail in the section on Sūrat al-ʿAlaq. What was recorded there:

There are two basic senses in the root: to gather, to bring together (the original sense) and to recite, to give voice to. The second is counted a special case of the first: to recite is to bring letters and words together in the mouth. The name "Qurʾān" is from this root as well.

Pattern: the ifʿāl form (أَقْرَأَ). Causative: to make someone recite, to bring it about that someone recites. English has no single verb for this; "to make someone recite" is its exact equivalent.

This is the most direct link that can be established between the two sūras, and it is worth dwelling on.

Sūrat al-ʿAlaq — the first text according to the order of revelation — opened with a command: ٱقْرَأْ (recite). And in the section on al-ʿAlaq this was recorded: when the command was given there was no text present to be recited; its object was not stated; according to the report the addressee's answer was "I am not one who recites".

al-Aʿlā 6 uses a verb from the same root — but it changes three things:

The command, that is, turns into a promise. In al-ʿAlaq something was asked of the human being; in al-Aʿlā it is announced that the work will be done.

In the section on al-ʿAlaq this was recorded as a second reading: "The command is the opening of a capacity… the answer is this: if you cannot recite, there is one who makes you recite." al-Aʿlā 6 is the explicit expression of that answer. The causative form (iqrāʾ) says exactly this: the work of reciting does not belong to you; you are made to recite.

In establishing this link I make no claim about the order of revelation. That the two texts use the same root, the one as a command and the other as a promise, stands in the text; it is I who establish the relation between them.

The grammatical question of the verse is here.

فَلَا تَنسَىٰ can be read in two ways:

1. Negation (a negative statement): "you will not forget." On this reading the sentence is a promise; lā is the particle of negation and the verb is in the indicative. This is the majority's reading.

2. Prohibition: "do not forget." On this reading lā is the particle of prohibition and the verb ought to be in the jussive.

The ruling grammar gives: Had it been a prohibition the alif at the end of the verb would have dropped — it would have been fa-lā tansa. In the verse the alif stands. This is the most concrete piece of evidence supporting the first reading.

The answer of those who defend the prohibition reading is this: the alif has been preserved for the sake of the verse-ending (in grammar this is called ishbāʿ). Since all the verses of the sūra end in -ā, had the alif dropped the weave of the sound would have been spoilt.

This answer is technically possible. But the principle recorded in the section on Sūrat al-Ḍuḥā holds here too: the verse-ending ground is the soundest ground in point of language, but it does not suffice by itself to establish a reading. To show that the preservation of the alif is necessary for the prohibition is a separate task.

The difference in meaning is great:

• On the negation reading the verse is a guarantee: the preservation of the text is God's undertaking.
• On the prohibition reading the verse lays on a responsibility: not forgetting is the addressee's business.

The majority are on the first reading, and the flow of the sūra supports it too: that "save what God wills" is said in the following verse shows that not forgetting is a given state — because an exception can only be made from something that has been given.

What is this promise about? The closest parallel is in Sūrat al-Qiyāma, and it explains the subject directly:

"Do not move your tongue with it to hasten it. Its gathering and its recitation are Ours. So when We recite it, follow its recitation" (al-Qiyāma 75/16-18).

These three verses are like an explanation of al-Aʿlā 6. The same anxiety (missing it, forgetting it), the same answer (the gathering and the reciting are Ours), the same family of roots (qurʾānahu, fa-ttabiʿ qurʾānahu).

If the scene recorded in the section on al-ʿAlaq is recalled — a man who is given the command to recite and says "I am not one who recites" — it becomes clear what kind of anxiety this promise answers. A long text to be held in memory is being given to a person who does not know writing. In this situation the fear of forgetting is a technical and a real fear.

The verse answers that fear, and the form of the answer is striking: it does not say "try not to forget"; it says "you will not forget".