قُلْ هَلْ تَرَبَّصُونَ بِنَآ إِلَّآ إِحْدَى ٱلْحُسْنَيَيْنِ ۖ وَنَحْنُ نَتَرَبَّصُ بِكُمْ أَن يُصِيبَكُمُ ٱللَّهُ بِعَذَابٍ مِّنْ عِندِهِۦٓ أَوْ بِأَيْدِينَا ۖ فَتَرَبَّصُوٓا۟ إِنَّا مَعَكُم مُّتَرَبِّصُونَ
Qul hal tarabbasoona binaaa illaaa ihdal husnayayni wa nahnu natrabbasu bikum ai yus eebakumul laahu bi'azaa bim min 'indiheee aw biaidee naa fatarabbasooo innaa ma'akum mutarabbisoon
De ki: "Bize iki iyiden, gazilik ve şehidlikten başka bir şeyin gelmesini mi bekliyorsunuz? Oysa biz Allah'ın kendi katından veya elimizle, sizi bir azaba uğratmasını bekliyoruz. Bekleyiniz, doğrusu biz de sizinle birlikte beklemekteyiz."
Say: "What do you await for us but one of the two best outcomes? And we await for you that God will strike you with a punishment from himself or by our hands. So wait — we too are waiting alongside you."
The verb of waiting, tarabbaṣa, appears four times in this verse, so two camps are pictured watching each other, each for the other's misfortune. The believers name what they expect with al-ḥusnayayn, a dual of the word for best: a battle can end for them in victory or in a death counted as martyrdom, and both are good. They name two outcomes for the other side as well, punishment from God directly or through their own hands, so a pair of best endings meets a pair of bad ones.