Maryam · Makki · ayah 46 of 98

Maryam 19:46

قَالَ أَرَاغِبٌ أَنتَ عَنْ ءَالِهَتِى يَـٰٓإِبْرَٰهِيمُ ۖ لَئِن لَّمْ تَنتَهِ لَأَرْجُمَنَّكَ ۖ وَٱهْجُرْنِى مَلِيًّا

“[His father] said, "Have you no desire for my gods, O Abraham? If you do not desist, I will surely stone you, so avoid me a prolonged time."”

Saheeh International

Essence

Four times the son said 'O my father'; the father answers once, with a bare name, a threat of stones and an order to leave.

A reflection

He answered tenderness with a bare name

Readers tend to remember Ibrahim's words in this passage and pass quickly over his father's. But the father's single reply is built as carefully as the son's four appeals, and it mirrors them in reverse.

Two classical commentators set the contrast out. Ibrahim brought proof; his father answered with nothing but imitation: are you turning away from my gods? Ibrahim gave counsel; his father answered with crude insolence, a threat of stoning and abuse. Ibrahim said 'O my father' four times; his father did not once say 'O my son'. He said: yā Ibrāhīm. His son's bare name.

Anyone who has heard a parent switch from a pet name to a full name knows what that does. It is not a mistake of address. It is distance, declared.

The commentators also say why the Qur'an records this. It was told to the Prophet ﷺ to console him, and to lighten what he met from his own people. They answered his arguments in exactly this way: with 'our fathers did it', with threats, and with coldness.

So the first audience in Makka heard their own behaviour narrated in the voice of Ibrahim's father. And the Prophet, reciting it to them, heard a prophet before him treated the same way by his own family.

The ayah does not need to call the father cruel. It lets his words stand beside his son's. Four tender appeals; one harsh reply. The reader can count.

There is a quiet lesson in that restraint too. The Qur'an does not add adjectives to the father's speech or tell us how loudly he shouted. It reports what he said and trusts the reader to feel its weight. Ibrahim's gentleness is never praised in so many words either. It is simply shown.

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.