Al-Anbya · Makki · ayah 59 of 112

Al-Anbya 21:59

قَالُوا۟ مَن فَعَلَ هَـٰذَا بِـَٔالِهَتِنَآ إِنَّهُۥ لَمِنَ ٱلظَّـٰلِمِينَ

“They said, "Who has done this to our gods? Indeed, he is of the wrongdoers."”

Saheeh International

Essence

Standing over their shattered gods, the people had to ask one another who did it, because the gods themselves could not say.

A reflection

Gods who could not report their own attacker

Man faʿala hādhā bi-ālihatinā: who has done this to our gods? Read the question slowly and it collapses under its own weight. They are asking one another, as one concise commentary notes. They are not asking the gods. The gods were in the room when it happened. They saw the whole thing, if they could see anything at all. Yet their worshippers must hunt for a witness among humans.

One commentator observes that they deliberately called them "our gods", not "the idols" or "these", to heighten their outrage. The word betrays them. A god who must have its attacker identified by its worshippers is a strange god.

Picture a small high-street shop with a hand-painted sign: Madame Rosa, Psychic Readings, Your Future Revealed. One Monday morning she arrives to find the door forced and the till empty. She stands on the pavement in her coat and rings the police like anyone else. When the officer asks whether she has any idea who might have done it, there is a long pause. A passer-by who recognises the sign tries hard not to smile.

That is the comedy and tragedy of this ayah. The people's own question contains its answer. If the gods knew nothing and could do nothing, what were they for?

Ibrahim had planned for exactly this moment. He did not need to argue that the idols were powerless. The worshippers' own first words proved it. Sometimes the strongest case is made by letting people state, in their own voices, the thing they have refused to see.

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.