as well as the hā in “hisābiyah” (“my account”), “iqtadih” (“follow their guidance”), “māliyah” (“my wealth”), and “sultāniyah” (“my authority”). Most reciters retain the hā both in connected recitation and when pausing, whereas Hamzah and al-Kisāʾī omit it in connected recitation here and in “iqtadih.” According to their reading, it must therefore be a pausal hā, since a radical letter is not omitted.

The form would thus be “lam yatasanna” (“it did not change with time”), just as one says “lam yataghanna” (“he did not sing”); it would derive from their expression “tasannā–yatasannā.” On the other interpretation, it derives from “tasannaha–yatasannahu,” but the meaning is the same.

Ibn Qutaybah said:

“That is, it was not altered by the passing of the years over it.”

He said:

“The expression derives from sanah (‘year’). It is said (1) that a date palm sānahat when it bears fruit one year and fails to bear the next.”

Thus, Ibn Qutaybah cited the usage of those who regard the hā as a radical letter. There are two forms in this usage: one says, “ʿāmaltuhu musānahatan” or “musānātan” (“I dealt with him for a year”).

Among the poetic attestations supporting what Ibn Qutaybah mentioned are the poet’s words:

“It is no palm that bears only every other year, nor one fenced about (2);
rather, its fruit is bestowed as a gift (3) in years of devastation (4).”

He is praising the date palm, though his real purpose is to praise its owner for generosity. He says that the owner (5) grants its crop to someone who may eat its fruit. He does not fence it off (6), but leaves (7) its fruit (8) freely available; nor is it a palm that bears only every other year (9).

The Quran commentators who are philologists say that in the verse it means: “It did not change.” As for the usage of those who say that its original form is sunwah, it is well known. Hence its plural is sanawāt,