“And among His signs are the ships sailing upon the sea like mountains. (32) If He wills, He stills the wind, and they remain motionless upon its surface. Surely in this are signs for everyone who is steadfastly patient and deeply grateful. (33) Or He may destroy them because of what they have earned, while He pardons much. (34) And so those who dispute concerning Our signs may know that there is no escape for them.” (35)

“And you cannot escape [Him]” means that you cannot elude Him by fleeing “on earth”; that is, you cannot render Me powerless wherever you may be, nor can you outrun Me. “Apart from Allah, you have neither protector nor helper.”

His saying: “And among His signs are the ships” means the vessels; the singular is jāriyah (that which moves along). “Sailing upon the sea like mountains,” that is, like mountains. [Mujahid said: “Like palaces; the singular is an ʿalam (a lofty landmark).”] (1) Al-Khalil ibn Ahmad said: “Among the Arabs, everything elevated is called an ʿalam (a lofty landmark).”

“If He wills, He stills the wind” that propels them, “and they remain,” meaning the ships, “motionless,” that is, stationary, “upon its surface”—upon the surface of the sea, not moving. “Surely in this are signs for everyone who is steadfastly patient and deeply grateful,” meaning every believer, for the believer’s characteristic is patience in hardship and gratitude in ease.

“Or He may destroy them,” meaning, He may ruin and drown them, “because of what they have earned,” that is, because of the sins earned by those aboard them; “while He pardons much” of their sins [and does not punish them for them]. (2)

“And so that those who dispute...” The reciters of Madinah and Syria read wa-yaʿlamu, with the final mīm in the indicative mood, as an independent clause, as in His saying in Surah al-Tawbah: “Allah accepts the repentance of whomever He wills” (al-Tawbah 15). The others recited it in the accusative, through syntactic displacement; and the jussive