"No straying/foolishness in me": twin denials
لَيْسَ بِى ضَلَٰلَةٌ وَلَٰكِنِّى رَسُولٌ مِّن رَّبِّ ٱلْعَٰلَمِينَ
laysa bī ḍalālatun wa-lākinnī rasūlun min rabbi l-ʿālamīn — there is no straying in me; rather, I am a messenger from the Lord of all realms
Two verses in the same surah pair an identical denial-and-affirmation frame with a single differing noun: the speaker rejects the charge his people's chiefs have just made against him, in the very terms they used, and answers it with his messenger status.
The two verses are identical in Arabic except for the fifth word. In (7:61) the speaker says laysa bī ḍalālatun, "there is no straying in me"; in (7:67) he says laysa bī safāhatun, "there is no foolishness in me". Both continue with the same wa-lākinnī rasūlun min rabbi l-ʿālamīn, "rather, I am a messenger from the Lord of all realms". The context verses show that each denial picks up the accusation just levelled at the speaker. Before (7:61), the chiefs from his people say in (7:60), "we surely see you to be in evident straying" (fī ḍalālin mubīn), and the reply uses the same root ض ل ل. Before (7:67), the chiefs, those who covered [the truth], say in (7:66), "we surely see you in foolishness" (fī safāhatin), and the reply uses the same root س ف ه. In both cases the reply inverts the accusation: what the chiefs claim to see in him, he declares absent from himself, and what he affirms instead is not a rebuttal of the charge's content but a statement of role — messenger from the Lord of all realms. The word data shows both nouns are indefinite nominatives, so the grammatical frame is fully parallel; only the lexical content of the denied noun changes. The follow-up verses also differ slightly: (7:62) has "I am sincerely devoted for your benefit, and I know, from Allah, what you do not know", while (7:68) has "I am for you a sincere, trustworthy one" — a variation in how the messenger describes his sincerity toward them after each denial.
Where it occurs
- 7:61 Denies the charge of straying (ض ل ل) that the chiefs made in (7:60) and affirms messenger status instead.
- 7:67 Denies the charge of foolishness (س ف ه) that the chiefs made in (7:66) and affirms messenger status instead.
All Qur'anic expressions