Al-Anbya · Makki · ayah 63 of 112

Al-Anbya 21:63

قَالَ بَلْ فَعَلَهُۥ كَبِيرُهُمْ هَـٰذَا فَسْـَٔلُوهُمْ إِن كَانُوا۟ يَنطِقُونَ

“He said, "Rather, this - the largest of them - did it, so ask them, if they should [be able to] speak."”

Saheeh International

Essence

With the city watching, Ibrahim pointed at the biggest idol and said: ask them, if they can speak, letting their silence answer for him.

A reflection

Did a prophet lie?

Bal faʿalahu kabīruhum hādhā: rather, this biggest one of them did it. Ibrahim had broken the idols himself. So a reader, believer or sceptic, asks plainly: did a prophet of Allah tell a lie?

The question is not new, and the sources face it head on. Both Sahihs record a narration from the Prophet ﷺ. Ibrahim never said anything untrue except three times, and two of those were for the sake of Allah. They were his words "I am unwell" (37:89) and "rather, their biggest did it". The third concerned his wife Sarah, whom he called his sister. In Sahih Muslim's wording, he explained to her: you are my sister in Islam.

So the narration itself uses the word for untruth. The commentaries explain what kind of statement this was. Several call it maʿārīḍ: indirect speech, words that point one way while the speaker means another true thing. One says such speech is a way of avoiding a lie. Another says that calling these "lies" in the authentic narration is figurative, because indirect speech resembles a lie in outward form. He insists there was no lie at all, since a prophet's word must be trustworthy. A third commentator takes the narration more literally and suggests Allah may have permitted it, to rebuke them. He compares the caller in Yusuf's story who announced "you are thieves" (12:70).

One commentator offers an everyday comparison. You are famous for beautiful handwriting. An illiterate friend, holding your elegant letter, asks: did you write this? You reply: no, you wrote it. Nobody hears that as a denial. It is your authorship stated with irony.

What remains open is exactly how to classify the words. What is not open is their purpose. They were spoken in Allah's cause, to make a whole city see its error.

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.