► 11-12 ◄

Verses 11-12

وَإِذَا قِيلَ لَهُمْ لاَ تُفْسِدُواْ فِي اْلاَرْضِ قَالُواْ إِنَّمَا نَحْنُ مُصْلِحُونَ ❊ اَلاَ إِنَّهُمْ هُمُ الْمُفْسِدُونَ وَلٰكِن لاَّ يَشْعُرُونَ

When it is said to them: ‘Do not spread corruption on the earth,’ they answer: ‘We are but improving things!’ ∗ Oh, verily, it is they, they who are who are spreading corruption, but they perceive it not. (Wa idhā qīla la-hum lā tufsidū fi’l-arḍ qālū innamā naḥnu muṣliḥūn. • A’ lā innahum hum al-mufsidūna wa lākin lā yash‘urūn.)

Consider the positioning of these verses in regard to the preceding ones

Allah the Most High mentions the first of the crimes arising from their dissembling: their wronging themselves and transgressing His rights (ḥuqūq Allāh), together with the successive consequences mentioned above, and then He follows this with the second of their crimes: their trampling the rights of His servants and their spreading corruption, and its results.

[The phrase] “When it is said (idhā qīla)” is linked by virtue of the story to “say (yaqūlu)” in “Of the people there are some who say: (Wa min al-nās man yaqūlu),”(2:8) and by reason of its meaning to “Fain would they deceive (Yukhādi‘ūna);”(2:9) so too, by virtue of itself it is linked to “they are false to themselves (yakdhibūn).”(2:10)

The change from a categorical to a conditional clause is an indication and concealed sign of the clause implicit between them. It is as though it is saying: “Theirs is a grievous penalty for what they give the lie to; for when they lie they cause dissension, and when they cause dissension they cause corruption; and if they are admonished they do not accept it, and if they are told: don’t spread corruption... and so on.”

The positioning of the verses’ phrases, both explicit and implicit

It is exactly the same as the order and linkages in the example that I shall now give you: