In the Quran, there is a principle that when the addressee is likely to have doubts or resistance towards the message being communicated, the message should be emphasised using a particle of linguistic emphasis.
This principle is evidenced in verse 7 of Surah Ibrahim, which reads:
لَئِن شَكَرْتُمْ لَأَزِيدَنَّكُمْ ۖ
If you are grateful, I will certainly give you more.
At first glance, the English translation conveys a familiar message – that if we show gratitude for what we have been given, Allah will increase our blessings. And, according to the translation, it has been emphasised (‘certainly’) – so we should take note.
But to stop there would be to deprive oneself of what is tantamount to a secret, a key to unlock the treasures of this worldly life. The principle mentioned earlier continues on to state that when Allah knows that we will resist a concept, or when He wants to ensure we really take note of it, He will emphasise it with not just one, but with more than one emphatic particle.
And so we should be humbled into submissive gratitude to learn that, in the Arabic, Allah has not emphasised this concept with just one emphatic particle…not even two.
He has actually employed no less than four modes of emphasis – four, for just three words.
Surely only the most significant and momentous of messages would warrant such a defined insistence, and only the most oblivious of listeners would not take heed.
And Allah knows best.