Al-Baqarah · Madani · ayah 59 of 286

Al-Baqarah 2:59

فَبَدَّلَ ٱلَّذِينَ ظَلَمُوا۟ قَوْلًا غَيْرَ ٱلَّذِى قِيلَ لَهُمْ فَأَنزَلْنَا عَلَى ٱلَّذِينَ ظَلَمُوا۟ رِجْزًا مِّنَ ٱلسَّمَآءِ بِمَا كَانُوا۟ يَفْسُقُونَ

“But those who wronged changed [those words] to a statement other than that which had been said to them, so We sent down upon those who wronged a punishment [i.e., plague] from the sky because they were defiantly disobeying.”

Saheeh International

Essence

Told to ask for their sins to be set down, they added one letter, asked for wheat, and shuffled in mocking.

A reflection

One letter, and the seal melted away

A fifteen-year-old is made to apologise to his teacher. He takes out his phone and types: 'Sorry you feel that way.' Every word of an apology is there except the apology.

The Prophet ﷺ described what happened at the gate. They were told to enter bowing and to say ḥiṭṭa, 'set down our sins'. Instead they entered shuffling on their backsides, and said ḥabba fī shaʿra, 'a grain in a hair' (Sahih al-Bukhari, Sahih Muslim). Other reports give ḥinṭa, 'wheat'. A commentary observes that they added a single letter.

The verb the ayah uses is exact. A lexicon preserves a grammarian's distinction. To abdala a signet ring is to take it off and put another on. To baddala a signet into a plain ring is to melt it down and recast it: the gold stays, the seal is gone. That is what they did with the word. The sound survived; the meaning was melted out.

Was the crime that they changed the exact wording? Scholars differed. One linguistic commentary says no. Had they said 'we seek Your forgiveness' instead, they would not have been blamed. The crime was turning a plea for forgiveness into a request for food, and doing it in mockery. A classical theologian disagreed in part. He argued that the ayah's wording condemns any change to a prescribed formula. Both agree on the core: they kept the shape of obedience and emptied it.

This is a quieter danger than open refusal. We can keep the outward form of a command, the words, the posture, the routine, while swapping its heart for something we prefer. The test is not whether the sounds are right. It is whether the seal is still there.

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.