As-Sajdah 32:12 - Linguistic Miracle

If you could but see when the criminals are hanging their heads before their Rabb. Our Rabb! we have seen and heard, so return us; we will work righteousness for we are certain. You will see the surah coming together from here on out.

We discussed in ayah 10 that the disbelievers were criminals for rejecting the amr of Allah, which in the case of man, is the rūḥ inside us, and so this verse calls them out plainly for it by calling them criminals.

The one being addressed is the Prophet ﷺ himself since he was the one who faced these words regarding the Qurʾān and was being called a liar. It is also for us, especially those involved in the dawah work, who often have to deal with violent and insolent remarks from others regarding the Qurʾān and the Prophet ﷺ .

Hanging their heads -The word نكس is translated as hanging. It comes from the root nūn kāf sīn which was used for an arrow whose feathered ends broke so its top is turned

downwards, for a newborn delivered feet first instead of head first, as well as for a sick person who recovers, but then becomes sick again with the same disease.

The central meaning is for something to reverse or turn back from its normal course.¹²⁵ In this verse, it does not simply mean the criminals lowered their heads, it means a head that is forced downwards in humiliation, contrary to their former state of pride. It is a collapse of their former state of arrogance. In this world, they were argumentative, prideful, arrogant, but now, they are silent, humble and lowly. Before they were deniers and disbelievers; now, they submit and have become believers.

Now pay attention to what they say. First, they call Allah their rabb - their caretaker, nourisher, sustainer and the kind Master, the same word as in verse 2. Now, they recognize that the Qurʾān was not an act of corruption, but of love, kindness and goodwill from Allah, and that Allah meant good for them, not bad.

We saw and we heard -In the 9th verse, Allah had said, He made for you, hearing, sight and emotions.

This verse uses the same words. Except that here sight is mentioned before hearing while the 9th ayah mentioned hearing before sight. On judgment day, the disbelievers will actually visibly see what they had only heard in this world regarding judgment day and its events. They will actually visibly see the consequences of their actions in front of them. Therefore, they put emphasis on seeing reality not hearing it. We have seen what we used to hear.

But this is their problem. They only believed after they had seen. Hearing about it and being reminded of it in the previous life did not make them believe in it. I will only believe when I see it - we hear it today as well. For something to be true, it does not have to be visible.

Now that we have seen with our own eyes what we used to hear in the worldly life -return us; we will work righteousness for we are certain. We have now verified what we used to hear. We see that actions do have consequences, we see that you actually meant good for us, that you wanted to guide us, that the Qurʾān was an act of love from you, not of corruption.

Lastly, the answer to the condition presented is omitted. If you could but see, but what then? What would happen if we could see it? Its answer is omitted so that our imagination can consider all possibilities which itself is the rhetoric here. The actual answer to the condition is; if you could but see when the criminals are hanging their heads in front of their Master, you would see something that is beyond what your imagination

can encompass. When you understand something, your imagination does not need to

wander left and right to consider all sorts of possibilities. It knows the answer, it does not even need to consider other options. But by omitting the answer in this verse, Allah deliberately lets our imagination wander to consider all sorts of possibilities to say that just as your imagination is running wild and not arriving at a definite answer right now, similarly will your imagination fail to grasp the gravity of what the disbelievers will find themselves in, upon seeing the criminals hanging their heads in front of Allah on judgment day.

¹²⁵ Al-Muʿjam al-Ishtiqāqī al-Muʾaṣṣal li-Alfāẓ al-Qurʾān al-Karīm, vol. 4, p. 2258