Al-Baqarah · Madani · ayah 41 of 286

Al-Baqarah 2:41

وَءَامِنُوا۟ بِمَآ أَنزَلْتُ مُصَدِّقًا لِّمَا مَعَكُمْ وَلَا تَكُونُوٓا۟ أَوَّلَ كَافِرٍۭ بِهِۦ ۖ وَلَا تَشْتَرُوا۟ بِـَٔايَـٰتِى ثَمَنًا قَلِيلًا وَإِيَّـٰىَ فَٱتَّقُونِ

“And believe in what I have sent down confirming that which is [already] with you, and be not the first to disbelieve in it. And do not exchange My signs for a small price, and fear [only] Me.”

Saheeh International

Essence

Believe in what confirms your own scripture, do not lead the way in rejecting it, and never trade Allah's signs for any price.

A reflection

The whole world, a small price

A young structural engineer is offered three times her usual fee to sign a safety certificate. The catch: she has not been allowed to inspect the building. The money would clear her student debt in a year. She sits in her car outside the site for an hour, doing the sum again and again.

'Do not sell My signs for a small price.' What price did the early generations have in mind? One early authority answered: the small price is this world, all of it. Another said: the world and its desires. A classical linguist names what the scholars of that time actually feared losing. It was their position at the head of their communities. They would have become followers if they accepted the new Prophet ﷺ. Beside the truth, he writes, every great thing is small, so what of something already small and paltry?

That is a statement of Allah's majesty, set in the language of the market. Put His signs on one side of the scales. Put on the other side every salary, title, following and fortune on earth. The second pan does not merely lose. It barely registers.

The ego finds this hard to accept, because the price on offer always looks large up close. A promotion. A safe position. An audience. The ayah zooms out until the whole world is the size of a coin.

Why does Allah insist on the worth of His signs? Does He need them to be valued? He is free of all need (35:15). The warning is for the seller. A person who sells the truth for a price has not harmed the truth. He has sold himself cheaply.

The ayah ends: wa-iyyāya fa-ttaqūn, and Me alone be mindful of. The engineer in the car is not choosing between money and a principle. She is choosing whom to be mindful of. She drives home, and turns the fee down in the morning.

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.