"They will say, 'Allah' — so say"
فَسَيَقُولُونَ ٱللَّهُ فَقُلْ
fa-sayaqūlūna llāhu fa-qul — They will say, "Allah." So say,
A recurring dialogic frame in which the addressees are made to concede that Allah is the provider, owner, or creator, and that conceded answer is then immediately turned back on them through a follow-up command to the speaker. The variable slot after "So say" exposes the inconsistency between what the audience professes and what they do.
The frame has two fixed parts: a predicted concession ("They will say, 'Allah'") and a command to respond ("So say"). In (10:31) the concession is earned by a chain of questions — who provides, who possesses hearing and sight, who brings out the living from the dead, who manages the affair — and the response is the reproach "Will you then not shield yourselves?" In (23:85), (23:87) and (23:89) the same concession "To Allah" is followed in turn by "Will you then not take heed?", "So will you not be mindful (in wary awareness)?", and "So how are you being bewitched?" — three escalating follow-ups to one admitted answer. In (29:63), (31:25) and (39:38) the frame is embedded in a conditional ("if you were to ask them... they would surely say, 'Allah'") and the follow-up varies in kind: praise ("All praise belongs to Allah" / "Praise belongs to Allah"), a diagnosis ("most of them do not use reason" / "do not know"), or a challenge to the objects of their devotion ("So have you considered what you call upon apart from Allah?"). The frame thus does rhetorical work: it stages the audience as witnesses against themselves. Their own answer is treated as established common ground, and the follow-up slot is where the gap between that answer and their actual allegiance is named — as failure of taqwā, of remembrance, of reason or knowledge, as bewitchment, or as allegiance to protectors and called-upon beings apart from Him. The fillers fall into two sets: interrogative reproaches directed at the audience's conduct, and declarative praise; in (29:63) and (31:25) a diagnosis follows outside the 'Say' slot, appended after the commanded praise.
Where it occurs
- 10:31 The concession "Allah" follows a series of questions about provision, hearing and sight, life and death, and management of the affair; the follow-up is "Will you then not shield yourselves?"
- 13:16 A compressed variant: the speaker is told to supply both the question ("Who is the Lord of the heavens and the earth?"), the answer ("Allah"), and the follow-up challenge about protectors taken apart from Him.
- 23:85 The concession "To Allah" is met with "Will you then not take heed?"
- 23:87 The same concession is met with "So will you not be mindful (in wary awareness)?"
- 23:89 The same concession is met with the sharpest filler: "So how are you being bewitched?"
- 29:63 The concession concerns water sent down and the earth given life; the follow-up is praise, "All praise belongs to Allah," plus the verdict that most of them do not use reason.
- 31:25 The concession concerns creation of the heavens and the earth; the follow-up is "Praise belongs to Allah" plus the verdict that most of them do not know.
- 39:38 The concession concerns creation; the follow-up challenges whether what they call upon apart from Allah can remove His harm or withhold His mercy.
All Qur'anic expressions