"You will come to know" before the punishment clause
فَسَوْفَ تَعْلَمُونَ مَن يَأْتِيهِ عَذَابٌ يُخْزِيهِ وَيَحِلُّ عَلَيْهِ عَذَابٌ مُّقِيمٌ
fa-sawfa taʿlamūna man yaʾtīhi ʿadhābun yukhzīhi wa-yaḥillu ʿalayhi ʿadhābun muqīm — So you will come to know who it is that a punishment will come to, disgracing him, and upon whom a lasting punishment will settle.
The clause about a disgracing punishment and a lasting punishment appears identically in (11:39) and (39:40); the only difference is that (11:39) opens with "So you will come to know" while (39:40) does not, because (39:39) has already spoken that sentence in its own right.
The two verses share, word for word, the clause man yaʾtīhi ʿadhābun yukhzīhi wa-yaḥillu ʿalayhi ʿadhābun muqīm — "who it is that a punishment will come to, disgracing him, and upon whom a lasting punishment will settle." The Arabic of this shared clause is identical in both places; the difference lies only in what precedes it. In (11:39) the clause is introduced by fa-sawfa taʿlamūna, "So you will come to know," a second-person plural imperfect verb marked for future, so that the announcement of the punishment is itself the content of what the addressees will learn. In (39:40) the clause stands without that introduction; the sentence fa-sawfa taʿlamūna, "Then you will come to know," has already been spoken in the preceding verse (39:39), where the speaker is told to say to his people, "act upon your standing; indeed, I am acting. Then you will come to know." The effect of the difference is structural: in (11:39) the warning and the knowledge-claim form one continuous sentence, following directly on the exchange of mockery in (11:38); in (39:39–40) the knowledge-claim is separated from its object, and the punishment clause is resumed as a standalone specification of what that knowledge will concern. In both settings the clause answers a dispute: in (11:38–39) it follows mockery of the ship's builder, and in (39:39–40) it follows a challenge to act, each verse leaving the parties unnamed beyond "my people" and "us."
Where it occurs
- 11:39 Completes the reply to mockers with a single sentence: "So you will come to know" plus the punishment clause, naming what the addressees will learn.
- 39:40 Specifies, without repeating the verb of knowing, the content of the "you will come to know" already stated in (39:39).
All Qur'anic expressions