Al-Anbya · Makki · ayah 93 of 112

Al-Anbya 21:93

وَتَقَطَّعُوٓا۟ أَمْرَهُم بَيْنَهُمْ ۖ كُلٌّ إِلَيْنَا رَٰجِعُونَ

“And [yet] they divided their affair [i.e., that of their religion] among themselves,[904] [but] all to Us will return.”

Saheeh International

Essence

One way was handed down whole, and people cut it into pieces among themselves; yet every piece, and every person holding one, returns to Him.

A reflection

Every faction walks back alone

The ayah ends with three words: kullun ilaynā rājiʿūn, all are returning to Us. One classical commentator stops on the word kullun, all. It may mean every faction, he says. Or it may mean every single member of every faction. The grammar allows both, and both are sobering.

The sentence is also built as a noun sentence, not a verb sentence. In Arabic that gives it the feel of something settled and fixed. Not 'they will return, perhaps'. They are returning. It is already the direction of travel.

The lexicons picture rujūʿ as going back to where you started: the traveller arriving home, the rain that comes again. Everyone who split the one way began from the same place. Everyone goes back to the same place.

That has a quiet effect on sectarian pride. Picture two rival online channels, each with a large following, trading clips that mock the other's scholars. Each side is certain. Each side counts its followers as proof. The comments sections grow hotter every week.

Now picture the ayah's scene instead. No followers come along. No channel, no clip, no crowd. 'All' is broken down into 'each'. Every person who joined the mockery stands alone, returned to the One they all claimed to speak for. The faction that seemed so solid on screen dissolves into individuals with their own record.

The ego loves a team because a team lends it size. This ayah takes the team away and leaves the person. It does not say the factions will be sorted by Us. It says they are returning to Us, and the 'Us' is the whole of the matter. He does not need any faction to win. Every faction needs Him.

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.