And those who had longed to be in his place the day before that is only recently were saying ‘Alas! God expands provision for whomever He will of His servants and straitens it He restricts it for whomever He will way-ka’anna way is a noun of action with the sense of ‘How astonished I am’ while the kāf functions as a causative lām ‘because’. Had God not been gracious to us He would have made us to be swallowed too’ read active la-khasafa or passive la-khusifa. Lo! indeed those who are ungrateful for God’s grace such as Korah never prosper.
- 28:8282
وَأَصْبَحَ الَّذِينَ تَمَنَّوْا مَكَانَهُ بِالْأَمْسِ يَقُولُونَ وَيْكَأَنَّ اللَّهَ يَبْسُطُ الرِّزْقَ لِمَنْ يَشَاءُ مِنْ عِبَادِهِ وَيَقْدِرُ ۖ لَوْلَا أَنْ مَنَّ اللَّهُ عَلَيْنَا لَخَسَفَ بِنَا ۖ وَيْكَأَنَّهُ لَا يُفْلِحُ الْكَافِرُونَ
And those who had wished for his place but yesterday began to say: Ah! Allah expandeth the provision for whomsoever He will of His bondmen and stinteth, had not Allah been gracious unto us, He would have sunk the earth with us also. Ah! the infidels thrive not.
- common.revelation-Meccan
- common.hizb : 158