And those who had wished for his position the previous day began to say, "Oh, how Allāh extends provision to whom He wills of His servants and restricts it! If not that Allāh had conferred favor on us, He would have caused it to swallow us. Oh, how the disbelievers do not succeed!"
Sahih International
وَأَصْبَحَ
wa-aṣbaḥa
And began
Word breakdown
و
Harf · Conjunctionand
أصْبح
Fi'l · VerbAnd began
to become, morning
45× in the Quran · Occasional
Grammar rules
وَأَصْبَحَ (And began) is a past tense verb — the action already happened and is complete.
We translate it in past tense — "did", "created", "said", etc.
Lesson 8 · Verbs — Past & Presentوَأَصْبَحَ (And began) uses form IV (أَفْعَلَ) — the أ at the start makes it causative ("to make someone do something").
We translate it as "to make [someone] do" or "to cause [action]".
Lesson 12 · Verb Families II–IVوَأَصْبَحَ (And began) starts with وَ, the most common Arabic word — it means "and".
We add "and" to connect this to what came before.
Lesson 4 · Particles