72:1-Note by sam:
72:1-Note by sam: . 2. Many chapters have defining characteristics. Here that characteristic is annahu or that (it), and closely-related constructions. The verse at 72:1 identifies what was revealed to the Messenger, and other translators tend to render along the lines I have here in terms of the construction mentioned above. Thereafter, translators tend to elide this construction where it reappears. I can understand that because where this feature appears elsewhere in the broader text of the Qur’an it is often redundant in English. So on first blush it makes sense to elide it in the remainder of the sūrah also. But it occurs in the present sūrah with such frequency that I was compelled to consider this feature as significant in some way. My conclusion is that it appears so repeatedly in the chapter for two reasons. Firstly, the subject matter itself treats of al jinn, whom we understand to be representative of the dominant men who sit atop any society — including ours — and rule. In o...