The phrase “an taʿdilū” is in the accusative because, according to the Basran grammarians, it functions as a purpose clause (1). They explain its sense as “out of dislike that you should act justly,” or “out of fear that you should act justly,” so that following your caprice amounts to disliking justice and fleeing from it. The Kufan grammarians, however, understand the underlying sense to be: “that you should not act justly.” The Basran explanation is clearer and more compelling (2).
The Exalted then says: “If you distort or turn away, Allah is ever All-Aware of what you do.” In this verse He identifies the two motives that lead people to conceal the truth, warning against them and threatening those who employ them:
- Distortion (lī).
- Turning away (iʿrāḍ).
When the evidence for the truth becomes manifest, and someone seeking to repudiate it can find no way to do so, he turns away from it and keeps silent, becoming a mute devil; at other times he twists it or tampers with it.
Lī, literally “twisting,” means alteration, and it comes in two forms: twisting the wording and twisting the meaning.
Twisting the wording is to articulate the statement in such a way that it no longer necessarily yields the truth—whether by adding a word, omitting one, substituting one word for another, or by twisting (3) the very manner in which it is pronounced,