فَمَا يُكَذِّبُكَ بَعْدُ بِٱلدِّينِ
The most disputed sentence of the sūra. Both the meaning of the word and the direction of the address are matters of disagreement, and the two are bound to one another.
The fāʾ at the head announces a consequence of the preceding verses. The sentence, that is, sits on top of an argument that has been built: the stature in creation was set out, the fall was set out, those who are saved were enumerated — so then.
The word comes with a ḍamma and without tanwīn (baʿdu). This marks a special situation in Arabic: baʿda normally requires a construct ("after such and such"). When the second member drops away and its sense is known in the mind, the word is fixed upon the ḍamma (mabnī ʿalā'l-ḍamm).
The verse, that is, does not say "after what" — but it has no need to say it, because what comes "after" is the thing that has just been set out: the proof in his own creation.
This small point of grammar carries the whole weight of the verse. The sentence comes to mean: with all this in plain view, still.
| Reading | The meaning of the sentence | Ground |
|---|---|---|
| Interrogative (istifhām) | "After this, what makes you deny the dīn?" | The movement of the sūra is a movement of calling to account; a question opening with fāʾ is widespread in the Qurʾān (the pattern of al-Infiṭār 82/6) |
| Negation (nafy) | "After this, nothing can give you the lie about the dīn." | The widespread use of mā as a particle of negation; agreement with the tone of certainty at the sūra's close |
The majority adopt the first reading and its ground is strong: the verse has presented a proof and taken its conclusion; if the conclusion comes in the form of a question, the one addressed is obliged to answer. The Qurʾān uses this technique often.
| View | How the sentence is read | Ground | Weakness |
|---|---|---|---|
| The addressee: man (in general) | "O man! After all this, what drives you to deny the reckoning?" | The subject of the sūra has been al-insān from the beginning; the verse returns to the same subject. "What has deceived you about your Lord?" in al-Infiṭār 82/6 is in the same pattern | In the preceding verses man was always in the third person; here there is a shift to the second person |
| The addressee: the Prophet | "After this, who can give you the lie about the dīn?" | In the Qurʾān the singular address "you" is mostly to the Prophet | Since the subject of the verb yukadhdhibuka is mā (what), the sense "who" is forced; mā is used of what has no intellect |
| The addressee: the one who denies | "You there, denier! After all these proofs, what still makes you deny?" | Agreement with the harsh close of the sūra | There is no indication in the text that such an addressee has been designated |
My assessment — it is not binding: the first reading is the most consistent. For three reasons: (a) the subject of the sūra has been man from the beginning; (b) mā is the interrogative particle used for beings without intellect, so what is being asked is not "who" but "what" — that is, what makes him deny is not a person but a cause; (c) in the Qurʾān the passage from the third person to the second (iltifāt — a shift in the direction of address) is a widespread manner, and it is used at closings of exactly this kind: a general description is made, and then the reader is seized by the collar.
Iltifāt performs a function here: the sentence takes the reader out of the audience and seats him in the dock. Up to the fifth verse the talk was about "man"; in the seventh verse the talk is now about "you".
Root: ك-ذ-ب. Kidhb, a lie. The tafʿīl pattern (kadhdhaba) here means not "to tell a lie" but "to count a thing false, to give the lie to it" — that is, to say of a report, "this is a lie".
The distinction matters: kadhaba is to tell a lie, kadhdhaba is to make another out a liar. The Qurʾān mostly relates denial with the second verb, because the matter is not a want of knowledge but the stance taken towards a report that has come.
It is transmitted in the sources that this verb is also read يُكْذِبُكَ (yukdhibuka, the ifʿāl pattern); on that reading the sense becomes "finds you a liar / makes you out a liar". This reading is not widespread and I issue no firm ruling; I confine myself to recording it.
Root: د-ي-ن. The analysis of this word was done in detail in Sūrat al-Māʿūn; the three main branches of the root (debt / dayn, judgement and requital, the way that is followed) and why the "day of reckoning" reading is the stronger in the context of that sūra were treated there.
The same conclusion holds here, and its ground is even plainer in this sūra: the next verse closes directly with the words for judgement and judge. Dīn and ḥākim lie in the same field of meaning — one the day of judgement, the other the one who gives the judgement. The two verses interpret one another.
So the sentence comes to this: with all this in plain view, what drives you to deny that you will meet a requital?
And this is exactly the proof the sūra has been building from the start: it is not reasonable that a being made with this much care should be left without a reckoning. The question in Sūrat al-Infiṭār carries the same logic. The order in creation is presented as the proof of the reckoning.