Short emphatic assertions
Short, emphatic Quranic verses featuring rhetorical denials, corrections, and warnings about the reality of the afterlife.
- 45
- verses
- 45
- Meccan
- 0
- 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 40 verses nearest its centre
Closest to the group’s centre first. 5 more verses belong to this group.
ثُمَّ كَلَّا سَوْفَ تَعْلَمُونَ
Then no! You are going to know.
كَلَّا سَوْفَ تَعْلَمُونَ
No! You are going to know.
ثُمَّ كَلَّا سَيَعْلَمُونَ
Then, no! They are going to know.
بَلْ نَحْنُ مَحْرُومُونَ
Rather, we have been deprived."
بَلْ نَحْنُ مَحْرُومُونَ
Rather, we have been deprived."
وَمَا لَا تُبْصِرُونَ
And what you do not see
كَلَّا لَا وَزَرَ
No! There is no refuge.
أَمْ لَكُمْ سُلْطَٰنٌ مُّبِينٌ
Or do you have a clear authority?
يَعْلَمُونَ مَا تَفْعَلُونَ
They know whatever you do.
كَلَّا بَلْ تُحِبُّونَ ٱلْعَاجِلَةَ
No! But you love the immediate
لَيْسَ لِوَقْعَتِهَا كَاذِبَةٌ
There is, at its occurrence, no denial.
وَإِنَّهُمْ لَنَا لَغَآئِظُونَ
And indeed, they are enraging us,
كَلَّا وَٱلْقَمَرِ
No! By the moon
كَلَّا لَوْ تَعْلَمُونَ عِلْمَ ٱلْيَقِينِ
No! If you only knew with knowledge of certainty...
أُو۟لَٰٓئِكَ هُمُ ٱلْوَٰرِثُونَ
Those are the inheritors
وَمَا نَحْنُ بِمُعَذَّبِينَ
And we are not to be punished."
وَلَا صَدِيقٍ حَمِيمٍ
And not a devoted friend.
إِنَّهُمْ كَانُوا۟ لَا يَرْجُونَ حِسَابًا
Indeed, they were not expecting an account
وَكَأْسًا دِهَاقًا
And a full cup.
لَّقَدْ جِئْتُمْ شَيْـًٔا إِدًّا
You have done an atrocious thing.
وَأَنَّهُمْ يَقُولُونَ مَا لَا يَفْعَلُونَ
And that they say what they do not do? -
حَتَّىٰ زُرْتُمُ ٱلْمَقَابِرَ
Until you visit the graveyards.
وَكُلُّ شَىْءٍ فَعَلُوهُ فِى ٱلزُّبُرِ
And everything they did is in written records.
وَمَا عَلَيْنَآ إِلَّا ٱلْبَلَٰغُ ٱلْمُبِينُ
And we are not responsible except for clear notification."
وَلَا يَسْتَثْنُونَ
Without making exception.
أَلَّا تَتَّبِعَنِ أَفَعَصَيْتَ أَمْرِى
From following me? Then have you disobeyed my order?"
كَلَّا سَيَعْلَمُونَ
No! They are going to know.
أَوْ مِسْكِينًا ذَا مَتْرَبَةٍ
Or a needy person in misery
ثُمَّ إِنِّى دَعَوْتُهُمْ جِهَارًا
Then I invited them publicly.
كِرَامٍۭ بَرَرَةٍ
Noble and dutiful.
كَلَّآ إِذَا بَلَغَتِ ٱلتَّرَاقِىَ
No! When the soul has reached the collar bones
أَفَرَءَيْتَ إِن مَّتَّعْنَٰهُمْ سِنِينَ
Then have you considered if We gave them enjoyment for years
لَّسْتَ عَلَيْهِم بِمُصَيْطِرٍ
You are not over them a controller.
وَإِذَا ٱلصُّحُفُ نُشِرَتْ
And when the pages are made public
ٱلْحَآقَّةُ
The Inevitable Reality -
لَّا بَارِدٍ وَلَا كَرِيمٍ
Neither cool nor beneficial.
فَشَٰرِبُونَ عَلَيْهِ مِنَ ٱلْحَمِيمِ
And drinking on top of it from scalding water
وَلَقَدْ نَعْلَمُ أَنَّكَ يَضِيقُ صَدْرُكَ بِمَا يَقُولُونَ
And We already know that your breast is constrained by what they say.
وَلَمْ أَدْرِ مَا حِسَابِيَهْ
And had not known what is my account.
خِتَٰمُهُۥ مِسْكٌ وَفِى ذَٰلِكَ فَلْيَتَنَافَسِ ٱلْمُتَنَٰفِسُونَ
The last of it is musk. So for this let the competitors compete.
Where it falls
These verses across the book in reading order. Most of them sit in Ash-Shu'araa.
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.