Al-Baqarah · Madani · ayah 114 of 286

Al-Baqarah 2:114

وَمَنْ أَظْلَمُ مِمَّن مَّنَعَ مَسَـٰجِدَ ٱللَّهِ أَن يُذْكَرَ فِيهَا ٱسْمُهُۥ وَسَعَىٰ فِى خَرَابِهَآ ۚ أُو۟لَـٰٓئِكَ مَا كَانَ لَهُمْ أَن يَدْخُلُوهَآ إِلَّا خَآئِفِينَ ۚ لَهُمْ فِى ٱلدُّنْيَا خِزْىٌ وَلَهُمْ فِى ٱلْـَٔاخِرَةِ عَذَابٌ عَظِيمٌ

“And who are more unjust than those who prevent the name of Allāh from being mentioned [i.e., praised] in His mosques and strive toward their destruction. It is not for them to enter them except in fear. For them in this world is disgrace, and they will have in the Hereafter a great punishment.”

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Essence

Whoever bars Allah's name from His places of worship, and works to ruin them by force or by emptying, does the greatest wrong.

A reflection

Every house where His name is mentioned

On a school trip to a ruined medieval abbey, a Muslim pupil reads the information board. The monks were driven out, the roof lead stripped and sold, and the walls left to fall. She turns to her teacher and asks whether the Quran would call this wrong.

The ayah asks a question that admits no answer. Who does greater wrong than one who bars Allah's mosques from His name, and works to ruin them? A major early commentator defines wrongdoing as putting a thing where it does not belong. A place made for remembrance, turned into a place of silence or rubble, is exactly that.

Who was meant? The commentaries give two main views and argue them openly. One major commentator held that it refers to those who helped destroy the sanctuary in Jerusalem long before, and barred worshippers from it. Another major commentator preferred a different reading. It refers to the Quraysh, who barred the Prophet ﷺ and his Companions from the Sacred Mosque at al-Ḥudaybiya. He records the Prophet's ﷺ words to them on that day. No one, he said, had ever been turned away from this House. A man would meet his father's killer there and not bar him.

Both agree that the wording is general. It condemns the act, whoever commits it.

And the Quran itself names more than mosques. Had Allah not checked some people by means of others, it says, monasteries, churches, synagogues and mosques would have been demolished (22:40). All of them are described as places 'in which Allah's name is much mentioned'. They are listed together, and their destruction is counted as a loss.

So the pupil's question has a clear answer. Ruining a house where His name is mentioned is not a victory for anyone. It is a wrong.

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.