"Not ones who can thwart [Him] on the earth" – twin verses
وَمَآ أَنتُم بِمُعْجِزِينَ فِى ٱلْأَرْضِ
wa-mā antum bi-muʿjizīna fī l-arḍ — And you are not ones who can thwart [Him] on the earth
Two verses share the declaration that the addressesee cannot thwart God on earth, followed by the same clause about having no ally or helper apart from Him; 29:22 adds "nor in the sky", extending the scope beyond the earth, while 42:31 keeps the earth alone.
The two verses are near-identical. Both open with wa-mā antum bi-muʿjizīna fī l-arḍ, "and you are not ones who can thwart [Him] on the earth" (29:22) / "and you are not ones to frustrate [Him] on the earth" (42:31), and both continue with the same clause: "and you have, apart from Allah, no ally and no helper". The Arabic of this second clause is identical in both verses. The single difference is that 29:22 adds wa-lā fī l-samāʾ, "nor in the sky", so that the impossibility of thwarting covers both earth and sky, while 42:31 states it of the earth only. The word data marks the added words as a negative particle, a preposition, and a genitive noun. The contexts differ in tone. In 29:22 the declaration stands between a statement of God chastising and having mercy upon whomever He wills, with all being turned back to Him (29:21), and a description of those who denied the signs and the encounter with Him despairing of mercy and facing painful punishment (29:23); there the added "nor in the sky" closes off any escape upward as well as on earth before the punishment context. In 42:31 the verse follows the statement that whatever affliction reaches the addressees is because of what their hands earned, while He overlooks much (42:30), and precedes the mention of the moving ones in the sea as signs (42:32); there the earth-only form suffices, and the verse ties the inability to escape to the afflictions experienced in the world. In both, the following clause about no ally and no helper apart from Allah spells out the consequence of not being able to thwart Him.
Where it occurs
- 29:22 Declares the addressees unable to thwart God on earth nor in the sky, with no ally or helper apart from Allah, between verses on His chastising and having mercy (29:21) and on those who despaired of His mercy (29:23).
- 42:31 Declares the addressees unable to frustrate God on the earth, with no ally or helper apart from Allah, following the statement that afflictions come from what their hands earned (42:30).
All Qur'anic expressions