Al-Baqarah · Madani · ayah 145 of 286

Al-Baqarah 2:145

وَلَئِنْ أَتَيْتَ ٱلَّذِينَ أُوتُوا۟ ٱلْكِتَـٰبَ بِكُلِّ ءَايَةٍ مَّا تَبِعُوا۟ قِبْلَتَكَ ۚ وَمَآ أَنتَ بِتَابِعٍ قِبْلَتَهُمْ ۚ وَمَا بَعْضُهُم بِتَابِعٍ قِبْلَةَ بَعْضٍ ۚ وَلَئِنِ ٱتَّبَعْتَ أَهْوَآءَهُم مِّنۢ بَعْدِ مَا جَآءَكَ مِنَ ٱلْعِلْمِ ۙ إِنَّكَ إِذًا لَّمِنَ ٱلظَّـٰلِمِينَ

“And if you brought to those who were given the Scripture every sign, they would not follow your qiblah. Nor will you be a follower of their qiblah. Nor would they be followers of one another's qiblah. So if you were to follow their desires after what has come to you of knowledge, indeed, you would then be among the wrongdoers.”

Saheeh International

Essence

Even every sign would not move those set against the new qibla; the Prophet would not follow theirs, and following desire after knowledge would be wrongdoing.

A reflection

When evidence is not the problem

A woman has decided she dislikes a new colleague. When the colleague brings in cakes, it is showing off. When she helps with a deadline, it is angling for promotion. When she stays quiet, she is sulking. No evidence could change the verdict, because the verdict came first.

The ayah describes the same dynamic. 'Even if you brought every sign to those given the Scripture, they would not follow your qibla.' A later commentary says plainly what this means. They did not reject the qibla because of a doubt that an argument could remove. It was resistance, not uncertainty. So more evidence would not help. The commentary calls the sentence a consolation to the Prophet ﷺ.

A major theologian adds a careful distinction. Someone who sincerely believes a false thing to be true is not following desire; he thinks he is following guidance. The one who follows desire is the one who knows in his heart and denies with his tongue. Another view he records is sterner. Whoever stops investigating halfway, short of the truth, has let desire stop him.

He also guards against misreading. The ayah cannot mean every individual, he notes, because many of the People of the Book did believe. A later commentary agrees that it speaks of a stance, not of every person.

This is uncomfortable for everyone, believers included. Each of us has verdicts that came before the evidence: about a person, a group, a view. The ayah invites an honest question. Is there anything that could change my mind on this? If the answer is nothing, the problem may not be the evidence.

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.