LessonsRhetorical Addition: Emphasis, Explanatory Coordination, Connections and Multiple MeaningsQuiz

«وَمَا أَهْلَكْنَا مِنْ قَرْيَةٍ إِلَّا وَلَهَا كِتَابٌ مَعْلُومٌ»
“We never destroyed a town except that it had an appointed record.” (al-Ḥijr 15:4)

The clause “illā wa-lahā” associates each destruction with a prescribed term or decree. The circumstantial wāw helps present that condition as inseparable from the event described.

Negation and exception establish a general rule; the following circumstance specifies how that rule applies. Ignoring the conjunction and reading two detached assertions would weaken the integrated statement about the appointed order of events.

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The circumstantial wāw in a universal statement

Rhetorical Addition: Emphasis, Explanatory Coordination, Connections and Multiple Meanings

«وَمَا أَهْلَكْنَا مِنْ قَرْيَةٍ إِلَّا وَلَهَا كِتَابٌ مَعْلُومٌ»
“We never destroyed a town except that it had an appointed record.” (al-Ḥijr 15:4)

The clause “illā wa-lahā” associates each destruction with a prescribed term or decree. The circumstantial wāw helps present that condition as inseparable from the event described.

Negation and exception establish a general rule; the following circumstance specifies how that rule applies. Ignoring the conjunction and reading two detached assertions would weaken the integrated statement about the appointed order of events.