Sūrat al-Mulk · Āyāt 22–30

What the passage says

The sūra closes with a sustained appeal to the deniers, framed by a striking image. (v.22) Which of two travellers is truly guided — the one stumbling face-down, who sees nothing of the road, its dips, or what lies ahead; or the one walking upright on a straight path, who sees his footing and his goal? (v.23) Say: it is God who brought you into being and gave you hearing, sight, and hearts — the very instruments of perception and thought — yet how little you thank Him. (v.24) Say: it is He who scattered you across the earth, and to Him you will be gathered back. (v.25) They scoff: when will this promised reckoning come, if you are telling the truth? (v.26) Say: its timing rests with God alone; my task is only to give clear warning. (v.27) But when they see it drawn near, the faces of the deniers fall, darkened with grief, and they are told: this is the very thing you kept calling for. (v.28) Say: tell me — whether God destroys me and those with me, or has mercy on us, who will shelter you deniers from a painful punishment? (v.29) Say: He is the All-Merciful; in Him we believe and in Him we place our trust — and soon you will know which of us is in plain error. (v.30) And the closing sign: tell me — if your water sank away into the ground, who but God could bring you flowing water again?

Convergence — where the six agree

• On the opening parable (v.22), all six read the man stumbling face-down as the heedless denier — the blind imitator who cannot see his own road — and the upright walker as the believer who sees where he steps and where he is going. Ṭabarsī and Ṭūsī ground this in early authorities (Ibn ʿAbbās, Mujāhid, Qatāda); the Enlightening Commentary and Ṭabāṭabāʾī read it as a general parable of the stubborn unbeliever versus the discerning seeker of truth.
• Hearing, sight, and the heart (v.23) are understood across the board as God's gift of the "instruments of thought" — the means of perception, reflection, and knowledge — making the deniers' ingratitude all the more stark. Ṭabāṭabāʾī adds that "bringing into being" (inshāʾ) means an origination with no prior precedent, while the Enlightening Commentary and Ṭabarsī note the parallel verse 23:78.
• All six take vv.25–26 as a mocking demand to hasten the reckoning, answered by confining its timing to God's knowledge alone (cf. 7:187), with the Prophet's role limited to clear warning. They likewise agree that v.27 describes the deniers' faces darkening when the promised punishment finally draws near.
• On the final verse (v.30), every source reads the literal sense the same way: if the springs and wells dried up and the water sank beyond reach, only God could restore flowing water — a sign of His all-embracing mercy and providence, as the Enlightening Commentary and Ṭabarsī especially stress.

Divergence — where they differ

• The sharpest split is between the plain sense and the Imāmī esoteric reading (taʾwīl). On v.27 and v.30, al-Qummī and al-Baḥrānī transmit narrations from the Imams reading the images as pointing to ʿAlī and the Imamate: the darkened faces are those who denied ʿAlī's rank (al-Qummī sets the scene at the Pool on the Day of Resurrection), and the "sunken water" of v.30 is read as the occultation of the hidden Imam, with "flowing water" being the knowledge of the Imam — citing al-Riḍā that "your water" means the Imams, "the gates of God." al-Baḥrānī also reads "the straight path" of v.22 as the Commander of the Faithful (from al-Kāẓim).
• The sources handle this taʾwīl very differently. Ṭabāṭabāʾī gives the plain meaning in full and then notes explicitly — twice — that applying these verses to ʿAlī's guardianship is jary (a legitimate extended application), not the verse's literal exegesis. The Enlightening Commentary likewise transmits the Mahdī-occultation reading of v.30 but frames it as the esoteric layer alongside the literal "flowing water," cautioning that esoteric meanings rest solely on the authority of the Infallibles. Ṭabarsī takes a middle path, reporting the ʿAlī narration on v.27 (from al-Ḥaskānī) without making it the verse's primary sense. Ṭūsī keeps wholly to the surface meaning.
• Ṭūsī uniquely draws from v.22 the obligation of rational inquiry (naẓar) in religion — God praises the one who examines his road and blames the one who abandons inquiry.
• On the variant readings of v.27, Ṭabarsī and Ṭūsī alone record the lexical alternatives: tadʿūn ("call upon God for it") versus taddaʿūn ("clamour for it"), treated as one in meaning, and sa-yaʿlamūn ("they will know") versus sa-taʿlamūn ("you will know") in v.29.
• One distinctive item: al-Baḥrānī alone transmits a contested report (from al-Ṣādiq) claiming v.28 was altered and originally read "if God destroys you all" — recorded there as that source's narration, not as an established reading.

Each scholar's full text is in the source panels below.