Repeated Phrases in Verses

There is an interesting anecdote about a person who claimed to have memorized the entire Qur’an. In order to validate his claim, a panel of judges selected random excerpts from the holy book and asked him to identify, from memory, which verses the excerpts came from. As a particularly tricky challenge, one judge brought forth the following quote:

فِيهِ فِيهِ

How unusual! There are no nouns or verbs at all here (the phrase literally translates to “in it in it”) so there are no contextual clues to help out with the identification.

Only someone very familiar with the precise wording of the verses of the Qur’an would be able to recognize that this excerpt comes from verse 108 of chapter 9 (Surah al-Tawbah):

لَا تَقُمْ فِيهِ أَبَدًا ۚ لَّمَسْجِدٌ أُسِّسَ عَلَى ٱلتَّقْوَىٰ مِنْ أَوَّلِ يَوْمٍ أَحَقُّ أَن تَقُومَ فِيهِ ۚ فِيهِ رِجَالٌ يُحِبُّونَ أَن يَتَطَهَّرُوا۟ ۚ وَٱللَّهُ يُحِبُّ ٱلْمُطَّهِّرِين

Do not stand in it ever! A mosque founded on Godwariness from the [very] first day is worthier that you stand in it [for prayer]. Therein are men who love to keep pure, and Allah loves those who keep pure. [9:108]

This story is not only fascinating, it is also intriguing. Is this a property unique to this single verse of the Qur’an? Or are there other verses that have consecutively repeated words as well?

I had to investigate. I wrote a program to search for words that are repeated within a single verse and look for all cases where it happened. The results are shown below.

Question:

In verse 9:108, there is an interesting linguistic phenomenon where the word فِيهِ is repeated twice in a row with no other words in between the two occurrences. Are there any other places in the Qur’an that a word or phrase is repeated twice (or more) within a single verse, one immediately after the other?

Answer:

Yes. There are four verses in the Qur’an where this situation happens:

Location	Verse excerpt	Translation (Qarai)	Repeated word
9:108	لَّمَسْجِدٌ أُسِّسَ عَلَى ٱلتَّقْوَىٰ مِنْ أَوَّلِ يَوْمٍ أَحَقُّ أَن تَقُومَ فِيهِ ۚ فِيهِ رِجَالٌ يُحِبُّونَ أَن يَتَطَهَّرُوا۟	A mosque founded on Godwariness from the [very] first day is worthier that you stand in it [for prayer]. Therein are men who love to keep pure…	فِيهِ
17:7	إِنْ أَحْسَنتُمْ أَحْسَنتُمْ لِأَنفُسِكُم	If you do good, you will do good to your [own] souls…	أَحْسَنتُمْ
23:36	هَيْهَاتَ هَيْهَاتَ لِمَا تُوعَدُون	Far-fetched, far-fetched is what you are promised!	هَيْهَاتَ
26:130	وَإِذَا بَطَشْتُم بَطَشْتُمْ جَبَّارِين	and when you seize [someone for punishment], you seize [him] like tyrants.	بَطَشْتُمْ

In the above examples, the same word is repeated twice with no changes between the two occurrences. However, if we only require the letters to be the same, but allow the harakat (diacritical marks) to be different between the two words, then there are three additional examples:

Location	Verse excerpt	Translation (Qarai)	Repeated word
4:136	يَـٰٓأَيُّهَا ٱلَّذِينَ ءَامَنُوٓا۟ ءَامِنُوا۟ بِٱللَّهِ وَرَسُولِه	O you who have faith! Have faith in Allah and His Apostle…	ءَامنُوٓا۟
6:124	قَالُوا۟ لَن نُّؤْمِنَ حَتَّىٰ نُؤْتَىٰ مِثْلَ مَآ أُوتِىَ رُسُلُ ٱللَّهِ ۘ ٱللَّهُ أَعْلَمُ حَيْثُ يَجْعَلُ رِسَالَتَهُۥ	They say, ‘We will not believe until we are given the like of what was given to Allah’s apostles.’ Allah knows best where to place His apostleship!	ٱللَّه
42:40	وَجَزَٰٓؤُا۟ سَيِّئَةٍ سَيِّئَةٌ مِّثْلُهَا	The requital of evil is an evil like it…	سَيِّئَة

If we generalize further and instead of looking at repeated words, we look for repeated phrases, then there are three cases where a phrase of three words is repeated by itself exactly:

Location	Verse excerpt	Translation (Qarai)	Repeated phrase
24:31	وَلَا يُبْدِينَ زِينَتَهُنَّ إِلَّا لِبُعُولَتِهِنَّ أَوْ ءَابَآئِهِنَّ أَوْ ءَابَآءِ بُعُولَتِهِنَّ أَوْ أَبْنَآئِهِنَّ أَوْ أَبْنَآءِ بُعُولَتِهِنَّ أَوْ إِخْوَٰنِهِنَّ أَوْ بَنِىٓ إِخْوَٰنِهِنَّ أَوْ بَنِىٓ أَخَوَٰتِهِنَّ	And not display their charms except to their husbands, or their fathers, or their husband’s fathers, or their sons, or their husband’s sons, or their brothers, or their brothers’ sons, or their sisters’ sons…	إِخْوَٰنِهِنَّ أَوْ بَنِىٓ
24:40	أَوْ كَظُلُمَـٰتٍ فِى بَحْرٍ لُّجِّىٍّ يَغْشَىٰهُ مَوْجٌ مِّن فَوْقِهِۦ مَوْجٌ مِّن فَوْقِهِۦ سَحَاب	Or like the manifold darkness in a deep sea, covered by billow upon billow, overcast by clouds…	مَوْجٌ مِّن فَوْقِهِۦ
33:55	لَّا جُنَاحَ عَلَيْهِنَّ فِىٓ ءَابَآئِهِنَّ وَلَآ أَبْنَآئِهِنَّ وَلَآ إِخْوَٰنِهِنَّ وَلَآ أَبْنَآءِ إِخْوَٰنِهِنَّ وَلَآ أَبْنَآءِ أَخَوَٰتِهِنَّ	There is no sin on them [in socializing freely] with their fathers, or their sons, or their brothers, or their brothers’ sons, or the sons of their sisters,	إِخْوَٰنِهِنَّ وَلَآ أَبْنَآءِ

Finally, there is one case in the Qur’an where a phrase of four words (!!) is repeated by itself exactly:

Location	Verse excerpt	Translation (Qarai)	Repeated phrase
4:137	إِنَّ ٱلَّذِينَ ءَامَنُوا۟ ثُمَّ كَفَرُوا۟ ثُمَّ ءَامَنُوا۟ ثُمَّ كَفَرُوا۟ ثُمَّ ٱزْدَادُوا۟ كُفْرًا	As for those who believe and then disbelieve, then believe [again] and then disbelieve and then increase in disbelief…	ءَامَنُوا۟ ثُمَّ كَفَرُوا۟ ثُمَّ

There are no places in the Qur’an where a word or phrase appears three or more times consecutively within a single verse. So, this should be an exhaustive list of all of the verses in which a word or phrase is repeated with no other words in between. That’s that!