The truth is from your Lord, so never be among the doubters.
The truth is from your Lord, so do not be among the doubters.
Al-Baqara: fa-lâ takûnanna. Âl 'Imrân: fa-lâ takun. The ending -anna is a doubled nûn fastened to the verb.
Grammarians call it the nûn of emphasis. It turns “do not be” into “do not, ever, be”.
The Qur'an says “do not be among the doubters” four times. Three carry the nûn. Only Âl 'Imrân leaves it out.
Where does al-Baqara say it? In the passage where the qibla changed, from Jerusalem to the Ka'ba.
Al-Barâ' (may Allah be pleased with him): the Prophet ﷺ prayed toward Bayt al-Maqdis sixteen or seventeen months.
The foolish among the people will say: what has turned them from the qibla they used to face?
Those who were given the Scripture know well that it is the truth from their Lord.
The objection came from the Jews, among others; and their own books, say the commentators, had announced this qibla.
2:146 speaks of the scholars of the People of the Book: they knew, and some hid it. Then: do not, ever, doubt.
Ibn 'Âshûr: the words are addressed to the Prophet ﷺ, and their aim is to warn the whole community.
Âl 'Imrân says it without the nûn, right after the verse comparing 'Îsâ (peace be upon him) to Âdam (peace be upon him).
The example of 'Îsâ before Allah is like that of Âdam: He created him from dust, then said to him “Be”, and he was.
Christians from Najrân had come to Madîna to argue about 'Îsâ. These verses answered them.
Ibn Kathîr on 3:60 explains: this is the truth about 'Îsâ, nothing else; and what is there after the truth but error?
Ibn 'Âshûr: the Prophet ﷺ is addressed, but the ones meant are the Christians, who doubted because 'Îsâ had no father.
Whoever argues with you about him after the knowledge that came to you, say: come, let us call our sons and your sons…
Why the heavy nûn in one and not the other? Scholars who studied the look-alike verses give two answers.
Ibn Jamâ'a: al-Baqara had just said “We will surely turn you to a qibla”, fa-la-nuwalliyannaka, with that same nûn.
Al-Ansârî: the qibla passage had already insisted, “it is the truth from their Lord”. Âl 'Imrân keeps the plain form.
Two verses say the same six words: the truth is from your Lord, so do not be among the doubters.
In one of them, the verb carries one more letter. What does it change?
A nûn you never heard in translation carried the weight of a whole dispute.
Tonight, if a doubt has been pressing on you, ask whose voice it carries. Then say the six words: al-haqqu min rabbik.