And the Exalted One said:

“Or do they say, ‘He has fabricated a lie against Allah’? Yet if Allah so willed, He could seal your heart” (Ash-Shūrā 42:24).

He then said:

“But Allah effaces falsehood and establishes the truth by His words” (Ash-Shūrā 42:24).

His words, “But Allah effaces falsehood and establishes the truth” (42:24), form an independent clause; they are not part of the conditional answer. Had this phrase been joined to the apodosis of the conditional sentence, the verb would have appeared with a kasrah—“yuḥiqqi al-ḥaqqa”—to prevent the collision of two quiescent letters, just as in the Qur’anic phrase, “Stand (in prayer during) the night” (Al-Muzzammil 73:2). Because the reading is “yuḥiqqu al-ḥaqqa” with a ḍammah, it signals a fresh statement in which Allah, exalted be He, informs us that He erases falsehood—such as the falsehood of those who invent lies about Him—and vindicates the truth—such as the truth spoken by those who are honest about Him. The erasure of falsehood parallels the vindication of truth; it is not contingent upon divine will but is certain to occur, unlike the sealing of the heart, which is tied to the will. It is therefore impermissible to make the effacement of falsehood conditional upon the will in the same manner as the sealing. Rather, He hurls the truth at falsehood, and it crushes it.