Brief rhetorical questions
A collection of short, punchy verses posing rhetorical questions and brief statements that challenge human attitudes, disbelief, and accountability.
- 36
- verses
- 34
- Meccan
- 2
- Medinan
- 0.91
- cohesion
Cohesion is how alike these verses are to the group’s centre, from 0 to 1. This is on the loose side, so the group holds together less tightly than most.
What binds this group is form rather than subject: repeated phrasing, a shared opening, or a refrain. It is a real pattern in the text, but it is not a topic, and it is shown here as what it is.
The verses
Closest to the group’s centre first.
إِنَّ لَكُمْ فِيهِ لَمَا تَخَيَّرُونَ
That indeed for you is whatever you choose?
ٱلَّذِى هُمْ فِيهِ مُخْتَلِفُونَ
That over which they are in disagreement.
أُو۟لَٰٓئِكَ لَهُمْ رِزْقٌ مَّعْلُومٌ
Those will have a provision determined -
لِّسَعْيِهَا رَاضِيَةٌ
With their effort [they are] satisfied
جَزَآءًۢ بِمَا كَانُوا۟ يَعْمَلُونَ
As reward for what they used to do.
إِذْ هُمْ عَلَيْهَا قُعُودٌ
When they were sitting near it
أَفَبِهَٰذَا ٱلْحَدِيثِ أَنتُم مُّدْهِنُونَ
Then is it to this statement that you are indifferent
عَمَّ يَتَسَآءَلُونَ
About what are they asking one another?
أَفَمِنْ هَٰذَا ٱلْحَدِيثِ تَعْجَبُونَ
Then at this statement do you wonder?
أَيَحْسَبُ أَن لَّمْ يَرَهُۥٓ أَحَدٌ
Does he think that no one has seen him?
عَمَّا كَانُوا۟ يَعْمَلُونَ
About what they used to do.
فَوَسَطْنَ بِهِۦ جَمْعًا
Arriving thereby in the center collectively,
وَقَالَ ٱلْإِنسَٰنُ مَا لَهَا
And man says, "What is [wrong] with it?" -
يَفْقَهُوا۟ قَوْلِى
That they may understand my speech.
وَأَنتُمْ سَٰمِدُونَ
While you are proudly sporting?
أَن رَّءَاهُ ٱسْتَغْنَىٰٓ
Because he sees himself self-sufficient.
وَمَآ أَدْرَىٰكَ مَا ٱلْعَقَبَةُ
And what can make you know what is [breaking through] the difficult pass?
قَالُوا۟ وَأَقْبَلُوا۟ عَلَيْهِم مَّاذَا تَفْقِدُونَ
They said while approaching them, "What is it you are missing?"
ٱلَّذِىٓ أَنقَضَ ظَهْرَكَ
Which had weighed upon your back
فِيهَا كُتُبٌ قَيِّمَةٌ
Within which are correct writings.
تَظُنُّ أَن يُفْعَلَ بِهَا فَاقِرَةٌ
Expecting that there will be done to them [something] backbreaking.
قَالُوا۟ تِلْكَ إِذًا كَرَّةٌ خَاسِرَةٌ
They say, "That, then, would be a losing return."
وَدُّوا۟ لَوْ تُدْهِنُ فَيُدْهِنُونَ
They wish that you would soften [in your position], so they would soften [toward you].
وَأَنَّ سَعْيَهُۥ سَوْفَ يُرَىٰ
And that his effort is going to be seen -
عُذْرًا أَوْ نُذْرًا
As justification or warning,
فَٱلْمُورِيَٰتِ قَدْحًا
And the producers of sparks [when] striking
أَمْ يَقُولُونَ نَحْنُ جَمِيعٌ مُّنتَصِرٌ
Or do they say, "We are an assembly supporting [each other]"?
عَامِلَةٌ نَّاصِبَةٌ
Working [hard] and exhausted.
ٱلَّذِينَ هُمْ فِى خَوْضٍ يَلْعَبُونَ
Who are in [empty] discourse amusing themselves.
تَرْجِعُونَهَآ إِن كُنتُمْ صَٰدِقِينَ
Bring it back, if you should be truthful?
لَتَرْكَبُنَّ طَبَقًا عَن طَبَقٍ
[That] you will surely experience state after state.
لِأَىِّ يَوْمٍ أُجِّلَتْ
For what Day was it postponed?
نِّصْفَهُۥٓ أَوِ ٱنقُصْ مِنْهُ قَلِيلًا
Half of it - or subtract from it a little
قُلْ هُوَ نَبَؤٌا۟ عَظِيمٌ
Say, "It is great news
قَالَ هَلْ أَنتُم مُّطَّلِعُونَ
He will say, "Would you [care to] look?"
عَنِ ٱلْيَمِينِ وَعَنِ ٱلشِّمَالِ عِزِينَ
[To sit] on [your] right and [your] left in separate groups?
Where it falls
These verses across the book in reading order. Most of them sit in Al-Waaqia.
A histogram of where this topic’s verses fall across the book in reading order.
How it sounds
Measured against the whole book, so the difference is what matters.
how strongly mercy sounds
how strongly judgment sounds
how much it instructs rather than describes
how much it points beyond this life
how positive the verse feels
how charged the language is
The pale line in each bar is the whole book’s average for that channel.
Next to this
The groups sitting closest to this one in meaning.