I have encompassed what you have not encompassed
أَحَطتُ بِمَا لَمْ تُحِطْ
aḥaṭtu bi-mā lam tuḥiṭ — I have encompassed what you have not encompassed
In (27:22) the verb root ح و ط appears twice in one verse, once as a first-person perfect and once as a second-person jussive after lam, setting the speaker's completed knowledge against the addressee's lack of it.
The expression sits in a report where a speaker, after remaining away not for long, addresses an addressee (27:22). The speaker opens with أَحَطتُ, a form IV perfect, first person singular: 'I have encompassed'. The object is introduced by بِمَا, 'with what', and the relative clause contains the second occurrence, لَمْ تُحِطْ, the same form IV verb as a second-person masculine singular jussive governed by the negative particle لَمْ, which places the negation in the past: 'what you have not encompassed'. The verse then completes the claim with جِئْتُكَ مِن سَبَإٍۢ بِنَبَإٍۢ يَقِينٍ, 'I have come to you from Saba' with a news of certainty', so the double verb frames the announcement that follows: the speaker states a knowledge the addressee lacks, and immediately supplies its content. Structurally, the two verbs are identical in root and form but differ in person, tense domain and polarity — first person perfect affirmative against second person jussive negated by لَمْ. The action does not pass from one party to the other in the way a reciprocal pair does; rather, one party's encompassing is asserted precisely where the other's is denied. The mirror here is a claim of exclusive knowledge: the same verb is used to grant it to the speaker and withhold it from the addressee within a single clause.
Where it occurs
- 27:22 The speaker's opening claim to the addressee: it asserts its own encompassing knowledge and negates the addressee's, before delivering the news from Saba'.
All Qur'anic expressions