Al-Baqarah · Madani · ayah 225 of 286

Al-Baqarah 2:225

لَّا يُؤَاخِذُكُمُ ٱللَّهُ بِٱللَّغْوِ فِىٓ أَيْمَـٰنِكُمْ وَلَـٰكِن يُؤَاخِذُكُم بِمَا كَسَبَتْ قُلُوبُكُمْ ۗ وَٱللَّهُ غَفُورٌ حَلِيمٌ

“Allāh does not impose blame upon you for what is unintentional in your oaths, but He imposes blame upon you for what your hearts have earned. And Allāh is Forgiving and Forbearing.[84]”

Saheeh International

Essence

Allah does not count the oaths that slip off the tongue; He counts what the heart has earned, and He is Forgiving, Forbearing.

A reflection

The One who could keep the list, and does not

A manager keeps a private file on one employee. Every careless remark in a meeting, every late email, every sigh. It is all there, dated, ready for the annual review. He calls it being thorough.

Now listen to how this ayah describes Allah. He will not take you to task for the careless words in your oaths. And He is Forgiving, Forbearing. The One who hears every word ever spoken chooses not to count the ones the heart never meant.

Ḥalīm has a precise sense. One lexicon defines ḥilm as restraining oneself from the surge of anger. A work on near-synonyms adds a fine distinction. Every act of forbearance is a respite, but not every respite is forbearance. Forbearance is the restraint of one who could act at once. A concise commentary says: He delays punishment from the one who deserves it.

This is majesty of a kind we rarely think about. Not the power to punish, but the power to hold back. Only the strong can be forbearing; the weak can only wait.

Set that beside the ego. We keep files on each other. We screen every slip and store it for later. The ego feels strong when it holds evidence. The ayah shows that true strength looks the other way: the One with all the evidence is the One most ready to let it go.

Does Allah need us to admire His forbearance? He needs nothing from us (35:15). The names are told to us so we know whom we deal with. They also hint at what we might become.

Perhaps the manager's file could be shorter.

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.