"They tasted the heavy consequence of their affair"
ذَاقُوا۟ وَبَالَ أَمْرِهِمْ وَلَهُمْ عَذَابٌ أَلِيمٌ
dhāqū wabāla amrihim wa-lahum ʿadhābun alīm — they tasted the heavy consequence of their affair, and for them is a painful punishment
The identical clause appears in two different frames: in (59:15) it is embedded in a simile ("like those shortly before them"), while in (64:5) it is the content of the "report" whose arrival a rhetorical question presses on the hearers. The shared wording carries the same outcome into two distinct rhetorical setups.
The clause ذَاقُوا۟ وَبَالَ أَمْرِهِمْ وَلَهُمْ عَذَابٌ أَلِيمٌ is word-for-word identical in (59:15) and (64:5). What differs is everything around it. In (59:15) the clause is introduced by كَمَثَلِ, "like the example of", with قَرِيبًا, an indefinite accusative adjective; our translation renders مِن قَبْلِهِمْ قَرِيبًا as "shortly before them": the group described in (59:14) is likened to an earlier group, and the clause states what that earlier group experienced. The surrounding context reinforces the comparative frame: (59:14) describes that group's internal discord ("their hearts are scattered"), and (59:16) supplies a second simile with كَمَثَلِ again, this time to the shayṭān. In (64:5) the same clause is reached through a negative rhetorical question, أَلَمْ يَأْتِكُمْ نَبَؤُا۟ ٱلَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا۟ مِن قَبْلُ, "Has there not come to you the report of those who covered [the truth] before?" The perfect verb كَفَرُوا۟ identifies the group by its act, and the particle فَ on فَذَاقُوا۟ marks the tasting as a consequence: they covered the truth, so they tasted the consequence. Here the clause is not a simile but the content of a "report" addressed directly to the hearers (يَأْتِكُمْ, imperfect 2MP object), and (64:6) then explains it: their messengers came with clear proofs, they said "Shall a human being guide us?", and they covered and turned away. So the identical clause functions once as the terminus of a comparison and once as the terminus of a reported history pressed on the audience as something they already know.
Where it occurs
- 59:15 States the outcome for the earlier group to whom the faction of (59:14) is likened by كَمَثَلِ, with قَرِيبًا marking them as near in time.
- 64:5 States the outcome for those who covered the truth, as the consequence (فَذَاقُوا۟) announced in a rhetorical question about a report that has come to the hearers.
All Qur'anic expressions