Maryam · Makki · ayah 69 of 98

Maryam 19:69

ثُمَّ لَنَنزِعَنَّ مِن كُلِّ شِيعَةٍ أَيُّهُمْ أَشَدُّ عَلَى ٱلرَّحْمَـٰنِ عِتِيًّا

“Then We will surely extract from every sect those of them who were worst against the Most Merciful in insolence.”

Saheeh International

Essence

Every following is kindling round a great log, and at the edge the log is pulled out first: the one most hardened against the Merciful.

A reflection

Not one heap, but degrees

A common picture of judgement is a single heap. Believers on one side, everyone else on the other, and within each side no distinctions worth mentioning. This ayah breaks that picture.

Thumma la-nanziʿanna min kulli shīʿatin ayyuhum ashaddu ʿalā al-Raḥmāni ʿitiyyan. Then We will pull out from every faction whichever of them was most insolent against the Most Merciful.

The commentaries describe an order. One early report, preserved through more than one chain, says the first are held back until the last have arrived. When the number is complete, He begins with the greatest, and then the greatest in crime after them. Another early commentary says: We will begin with them. A concise modern one says: the worst in rebellion and disobedience, and We begin their punishment with them.

So the judgement described here is not crude. It is graded. Within every group, people are distinguished by how far they went. The next ayah makes the same point from another side: We know best who most deserves to burn in it.

This matters for how a believer pictures Allah's justice. It is not the justice of a mob that sees only labels. It is the justice of One who knows exactly what each person did, how much they understood, and how far they pushed. No one is lost in a crowd, either to be punished for others or to escape for their own.

And it matters for the reader's own self-examination. The ayah does not only ask which side you are on. It asks, even on your own side: how hard have you set yourself against what you knew?

The full entry has 6 more reflections, questions to sit with, and "Live it today" - with the words, the roots and the tafsir alongside. Free, no account, works offline.