Al-Anbya · Makki · ayah 45 of 112

Al-Anbya 21:45

قُلْ إِنَّمَآ أُنذِرُكُم بِٱلْوَحْىِ ۚ وَلَا يَسْمَعُ ٱلصُّمُّ ٱلدُّعَآءَ إِذَا مَا يُنذَرُونَ

“Say, "I only warn you by revelation." But the deaf do not hear the call when they are warned.”

Saheeh International

Essence

The Prophet's only tool is revelation; but no warning, however loud, reaches ears that have been deliberately stopped.

A reflection

Warnings, not spectacles

Qul innamā undhirukum bil-waḥy: say, I only warn you by revelation. A narration-based commentary identifies who is being answered. These are people who had said: let him bring us a sign, as the earlier messengers were sent with signs. The Prophet ﷺ is told to reply that his warning comes from revelation. It is not his own making, and not the mocked thing produced on demand.

One classical commentator explains why, in a phrase worth remembering. The Prophet's task is to warn by informing them, not by bringing the Hour itself. That would conflict with the wisdom of creation and of revealed law. For faith rests on proof, he says, not on eyewitness.

A sceptic today often says something similar to the Prophet's opponents. If God wanted me to believe, why not show me something undeniable? The commentator's answer is that faith built on spectacle is not faith at all. Once the Hour is seen, belief has no merit; the previous ayat said there would be no respite then.

Picture a crowd on a city square watching a street magician. He appears to float a foot above the pavement. People gasp, film it and applaud. But not one person walks away believing that the laws of nature have changed. Within a minute they are asking each other how it was done. Spectacle produces astonishment. It rarely produces conviction.

The Quran works differently. It offers arguments, signs in creation, the testimony of messengers, and warnings delivered while there is time to respond. It asks for the kind of belief that comes from thinking and choosing.

What remains open for the honest sceptic is whether those proofs are enough. The ayah does not force the answer. It only insists that a warning by revelation is the right kind of evidence for a test that is still running.

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.