Al-Kahf · Makki · ayah 73 of 110

Al-Kahf 18:73

قَالَ لَا تُؤَاخِذْنِى بِمَا نَسِيتُ وَلَا تُرْهِقْنِى مِنْ أَمْرِى عُسْرًا

“[Moses] said, "Do not blame me for what I forgot and do not overwhelm me in my matter with difficulty."”

Saheeh International

Essence

The word for burdening pictures a she-camel so long in stride that, as you lead her, she comes right up on you.

A reflection

He names the fault and asks for nothing else

Read as an excuse, this sentence is weak. I forgot, so let me off.

Look at what it actually contains.

He names the fault, in his own voice, with no softening: what I forgot. He asks for forbearance about it. And he asks one more thing, which is the part people skip: do not make my affair hard for me.

That is all. No explanation of the boat. No mention of the kindness of the crew, which was the strongest card he held. No suggestion that the warning could have been clearer.

And there is something else in the verb he chooses that should stop a Muslim reader.

The Qur'an teaches the believers a prayer that uses the identical words: our Lord, do not hold us to account if we forget. Same verb, same ground, same request.

The prayer belongs upward and only upward. But Musa's phrasing shows what kind of request this is. It is the shape of asking for forbearance, and it is the shape the Qur'an itself puts in our mouths.

A site foreman who writes up his own error in the book, without mentioning the weather, has made the same move. The weather was real. Putting it in the entry would have changed what the entry is.

So the difference between an excuse and this is one word long. An excuse supplies a cause in order to transfer the debt. This supplies a cause and keeps the debt.

He forgot. He says so. And then he asks only that the consequence not be made heavier than the fault.

The full entry has 5 more reflections, questions to sit with, and "Live it today" - with the words, the roots and the tafsir alongside. Free, no account, works offline.