Seeing versus knowing: the twin of 30:37 and 39:52
أَوَلَمْ يَرَوْا۟ أَنَّ ٱللَّهَ يَبْسُطُ ٱلرِّزْقَ لِمَن يَشَآءُ وَيَقْدِرُ
a-wa-lam yaraw anna llāha yabsuṭu l-rizqa li-man yashāʾu wa-yaqdiru — Have they then not seen that Allah spreads out the provision for whom He wills and measures it (out)?
Two verses are identical except for the opening verb: 30:37 asks 'have they not seen' (yaraw) while 39:52 asks 'have they not known' (yaʿlamū), and each choice fits its surrounding context — exultation and despair around 30:37, earned consequences and despair around 39:52.
The two verses (30:37) and (39:52) share the same wording from anna llāha yabsuṭu to the end: Allah spreads out provision for whom He wills and measures it out, and in that are signs for a people who trust. The only difference is the second word. In (30:37) it is yaraw, an imperfect 3rd masculine plural jussive from the root r-ʾ-y, rendered 'have they then not seen'; in (39:52) it is yaʿlamū, the same form from the root ʿ-l-m, rendered 'have they not known'. The surrounding verses suggest what each verb does. (30:37) sits between (30:36), where people exult when made to taste a mercy and despair when a bad thing strikes them, and (30:38), which commands giving the relative, the needy and the son of the path their due. Against exultation and despair at visible plenty and loss, 'have they not seen' points to the observed alternation of provision itself as something to be looked at. In (39:52) the verse follows (39:51), where the bad outcomes of what people earned struck them and will strike the wrongdoers among them, and precedes (39:53), which tells servants not to despair of Allah's mercy. Here 'have they not known' frames the measuring of provision as something already available to be known, set against the same despair addressed in the next verse. In both, the rhetorical question with the negative lam and jussive form challenges the addressees over a fact the verse presents as accessible to them.
Where it occurs
- 30:37 Asks whether they have not seen Allah spreading out and measuring provision, placed between verses on exultation and despair (30:36) and on giving dues (30:38).
- 39:52 Asks whether they have not known the same spreading and measuring of provision, placed between verses on earned bad outcomes (39:51) and a command not to despair of Allah's mercy (39:53).
All Qur'anic expressions