طه · الآية 99

Commentary

The opening particle compares, and what it points at lies behind it, not ahead. So the sentence stands at the end of a long account and says of it: like this. It is not an opening; it is a seal that names what has just closed. And the verb is in the ongoing present, "We follow out," not the past. The account that has finished is spoken of by a verb that has not finished. The recounting is a standing condition, not an event that is over.

The root q-ṣ-ṣ is a cutting that keeps hold of what it cut and then lets it run on, piece after piece. From it comes qaṣṣa al-athar, to follow a track step by step, skipping nothing and leaving no gap between one footfall and the next. So recounting is an ordered tracking, and a qiṣṣa is a report followed out, not a report thrown down whole. And "to you" makes what is recounted fall upon the one addressed rather than lie spread before him. Whoever has something tracked out to him has been given it to carry.

Then read the particle before you read the noun it governs. It does not say "the tidings of what has gone ahead"; it says "of the tidings." What is given is a part, and the partiality is stated, not inferred. This lands exactly where it should: the sūra that has just told the longest single account it contains closes it with a letter that shrinks what was told to a portion of tidings. What it kept silent about is no flaw in the telling; it is what the little word "of" declares. And nabaʾ, from n-b-ʾ, is not said of every report. The root is a swelling that rises out of an interior and is then released in one sharp push, so that it stands out. A nabaʾ is a report with weight enough to jut out from ordinary speech.

"What has gone ahead" is left as a bare relative clause. No age is named, no people, no date. And sabaqa, from s-b-q, is a passing out from among things and then a decisive cutting that puts one in front. The one who precedes is the one who has opened a gap between himself and those behind. So a report about what has gone ahead is a report about what has moved in front, not merely about what has fallen behind.

The second clause begins afresh, with a particle of realization on a completed past. The first verb runs; the second is finished. And "from what is with Us" names the source-side and leaves out any channel: the giving is attributed to where it began, not to how it came. Then read the difference one letter makes. The first gift was "of the tidings"; the second is not "of a reminding." The report was portioned; the reminding was not. And a reminding, from dh-k-r, is a sharp piercing that takes hold of a meaning and then draws it out through time, a keeping that is brought back rather than a thought that passes. It is the same word to which this sūra tied the prayer: ﴿وَأَقِمِ الصَّلَاةَ لِذِكْرِي﴾. There it was commanded as a purpose; here it is reported as a thing received.

One letter measures the whole verse: a part of the tidings, and a reminding with no part-word before it. What is portioned is tracked; what is unportioned is carried entire.

Two Readings

The two readings do not conflict. The first identifies the reminding and joins the verse to what follows; the second reads the tense of the two verbs and the partitive where it stands and where it is left out. This book chooses the additional listening.