What is the interpretation of the phenomenon of iltifāt (sudden shift in pronoun or addressee) in the Noble Quran, and is it related to His saying, the Most High: "A Quran in Arabic, without any deviance" and His saying, the Most High: "All praise is due to Allah, who sent down upon His Servant the Book and did not make therein any deviance"? And is the verse, "And how many a city have We destroyed, and Our punishment came to it by night or while they were sleeping at noon," considered a fallacious proposition in logic?

Iltifat in the Noble Qur’an is the shifting of discourse from one style to another (first person, second person, third person) after expressing it in the initial style, or expressing it in one while it should have been expressed in another. It is one of the aspects of linguistic inimitability and Arabic eloquence, aiming to renew speech and avoid boredom. It also carries rhetorical benefits such as conciseness in expression and alerting the recipient.

As for the letter fa in His Almighty's saying: "And how many a city have We destroyed, and Our punishment came to them by night or while they slept at noon" (Qur'an 7:4), exegetes have discussed it, including Ibn Jarir al-Tabari, who mentioned that its meaning could be: We destroyed it because We abandoned it from following guidance, so Our punishment came to it. Or that destruction and punishment are one and the same, in which case the fa here indicates that. Some also preferred that the verb "We destroyed it" means "We intended to destroy it," and the fa here signifies immediate consequence and the swiftness of the punishment's occurrence, or that the mentioned order is the order of the news, not the order of the action's occurrence.