The twin of "bad outcomes became evident to them"
وَبَدَا لَهُمْ سَيِّـَٔاتُ مَا كَسَبُوا۟ وَحَاقَ بِهِم مَّا كَانُوا۟ بِهِۦ يَسْتَهْزِءُونَ
wa-badā lahum sayyiʾātu mā kasabū wa-ḥāqa bihim mā kānū bihi yastahziʾūn — And the bad outcomes of what they earned became evident to them, and there encompassed them that which they had been mocking.
Two verses are identical except for the verb governing the deeds: "what they earned" (39:48) and "what they did" (45:33). Each context gives the single-word difference a distinct function, while the shared frame—deeds becoming visible and mockery recoiling—remains constant.
The two verses reproduce one another word for word through the second colon: "and there encompassed them that which they had been mocking" appears identically in (39:48) and (45:33). The difference is confined to the first colon: (39:48) reads "the bad outcomes of what they earned" (mā kasabū), while (45:33) reads "the bad outcomes of what they did" (mā ʿamilū). In the context of sura 39, the preceding verse (39:47) already speaks of those who did wrong (ẓalamū) facing "the evil of the punishment on the Day of Standing" and of "what they had not been reckoning" appearing to them from Allah. The verb "earned" (kasabū) in (39:48) fits this framing of acquisition: the wrongdoers would give everything in the earth to ransom themselves, and what they had earned is now presented to them as a visible balance. The following verse (39:49) contrasts this with the human who, given a favor, claims he received it "on account of knowledge"—a claim about deserving what one has been given—so the language of earning runs through the passage. In sura 45, the context is denial of the Hour: the addressees said "we do nothing but suppose a supposition" (45:32), and the following verse announces abandonment (45:34). Here "what they did" (ʿamilū) matches their own stated posture—they treated the Hour as mere conjecture, and their deeds, not their earnings, are what become evident. The shared second colon turns their mockery back on them in both places: what they ridiculed is what encompasses them.
Where it occurs
- 39:48 States that the bad outcomes of what they earned became evident, framed by the hypothetical ransom in (39:47) and the claim of deserving in (39:49).
- 45:33 States that the bad outcomes of what they did became evident, concerning those who professed only conjecture about the Hour (45:32) and are then abandoned (45:34).
All Qur'anic expressions