Taha · Makki · ayah 108 of 135

Taha 20:108

يَوْمَئِذٍ يَتَّبِعُونَ ٱلدَّاعِىَ لَا عِوَجَ لَهُۥ ۖ وَخَشَعَتِ ٱلْأَصْوَاتُ لِلرَّحْمَـٰنِ فَلَا تَسْمَعُ إِلَّا هَمْسًا

“That Day, they [i.e., everyone] will follow [the call of] the Caller[856] [with] no deviation therefrom, and [all] voices will be stilled before the Most Merciful, so you will not hear except a whisper [of footsteps].”

Saheeh International

Essence

On that Day all follow the Caller without swerving, voices fall still before the Most Merciful, and only soft footsteps are heard.

A reflection

Every voice, and every reputation, hushed

And voices will be humbled before the Most Merciful. An early report in a narration-based commentary glosses khashaʿat simply: they became still. A concise modern commentary: the voices fell silent before the Most Merciful in awe.

The word for voices is aṣwāt, from ṣ-w-t. The Word Dictionary records something striking about this root, established in the lexicons. The same letters give ṣawt, a voice, and ṣīt, a reputation: a voice that carries beyond the room and becomes a name. To be heard and to be known are, in this language, nearly the same thing.

So on that Day, every voice falls still, and with it every reputation. The celebrated orator, the commentator with millions of followers, the leader whose speeches were broadcast across continents: all of them hushed.

A theological commentary records a classical explanation of why. Jinn and humans alike will know that they have no owner but Him, so no voice will rise above a whisper. It is fitting, the explanation continues, that whoever is to be judged by Allah should lower his eyes, weaken his voice and lengthen his sorrow.

The ego spends a great deal of effort on being heard. We raise our voices in arguments, post our opinions, build our names. Picture a television presenter whose voice has been familiar to millions for twenty years. One evening, a throat condition takes it from him for a month. He sits at home, unable to say more than a whisper. He discovers, to his surprise, how much of his sense of himself lived in that voice.

The ayah describes the moment when that discovery comes to everyone at once. Some hear it as a display of power. But it is a description of reality. In the presence of the Most Merciful, no voice needs to be raised. All anyone can do is listen.

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.