Taha · Makki · ayah 44 of 135

Taha 20:44

فَقُولَا لَهُۥ قَوْلًا لَّيِّنًا لَّعَلَّهُۥ يَتَذَكَّرُ أَوْ يَخْشَىٰ

“And speak to him with gentle speech that perhaps he may be reminded or fear [Allāh]."”

Saheeh International

Essence

Two prophets are told to speak softly to a self-declared god, and every believer learns how gently they are spoken to.

A reflection

If this is how He treats His enemy

A man has drifted from prayer for years. He wants to come back, but something stops him every time he thinks of it. Who am I, after everything, to stand in front of Allah? He feels too far gone to be welcomed.

This ayah has an answer for him, and it comes from an unexpected direction. Allah is sending Musa and Harun to Pharaoh, the man who would soon announce: I am your lord, the most high (79:24). A man who killed newborns and enslaved a people. And the instruction for how to speak to him is: fa-qūlā lahu qawlan layyinan. Speak to him a gentle word.

The commentaries preserve how some early worshippers reacted when this ayah was recited. One would say, whenever he read it: O You who are kind to the one who makes himself Your enemy. How, then, to the one who befriends You? Another, hearing it read aloud, wept and said: my God, this is Your gentleness with one who says, I am god. How then is Your gentleness with one who says, You are God?

That is the argument the man needs. Allah commanded gentleness towards Pharaoh at the height of his tyranny. What does that say about how He receives a servant who turns back, ashamed, wanting forgiveness?

The lexicons give the word's picture. Līn is the opposite of roughness. A pillow was a līna for its softness. The word begins in bodies and is then borrowed for character.

The man who feels too far gone has pictured Allah as harsher than He has described Himself. This ayah corrects the picture. The door is softer than he thinks. He can walk through it tonight.

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.