to you in the finest manner, and recite to you in the finest way.”

The second interpretation is that the meaning is: “We relate to you the best of what can be related”—that is, the finest accounts and narratives—as He says in another surah:

“Allah has sent down the best discourse.”

He also says:

“And who is more truthful than Allah in speech?”

This is supported by His words in the account of Moses:

“When he came to him and related his story,”

and His words:

“There was certainly a lesson in their narratives for people of understanding.”

What is meant is their accounts, reports, and stories, not merely the act of narration. The two interpretations necessarily imply one another in meaning, as we shall explain. Thus, this accusative expression may combine the sense of a verbal noun with that of a direct object, since it contains both meanings. This differs from cases in which the action is distinct from its object: there, construing the accusative in one sense precludes the other.

The grammarians who preferred the first interpretation—such as al-Zajjāj and others—said that qasas is a verbal noun. One says, qassa atharahu, yaqussuhu qasasan, meaning that he traced someone’s footsteps. Hence the words of Allah Most High:

“So they turned back, retracing their footsteps.”

The expressions iqtassa atharahu and taqassasa have the same meaning. One also says, iqtasastu al-hadītha, meaning, “I related the account as it actually happened,” and iqtassa ‘alayhi al-khabara qasasan, meaning, “He related the news to him.”

Qasas, with an a, is not the plural of qissah, as some ordinary people suppose. Rather, the plural is qisas, with an i, and its singular is qissah. A qissah is an event or account that is related; it follows the pattern fi‘lah with a passive meaning. Its plural is qisas, with an i.

In His words,

“We relate to you the best of narratives,”

the word is qasas, with an a. He did not say qisas, with an i. Yet