Al-Mu'minun · Makki · ayah 105 of 118

Al-Mu'minun 23:105

أَلَمْ تَكُنْ ءَايَـٰتِى تُتْلَىٰ عَلَيْكُمْ فَكُنتُم بِهَا تُكَذِّبُونَ

“[It will be said], "Were not My verses recited to you and you used to deny them?"”

Saheeh International

Essence

The question asked in the Fire is about moments like this one: My signs were recited to you; what did you do with them?

A reflection

The question is about right now

Read this ayah slowly, and notice something strange. It is a question that will be asked in the Fire. Yet you are reading it now, outside the Fire, while the ayat are being recited to you.

The commentaries explain the scene plainly. The words 'it will be said to them' are left out, because the context makes them obvious. They will be asked: were My signs, the ayat of the Quran, not recited to you in the world? And did you not deny them?

The question has two halves. The first is about what reached them. The second is about what they did with it. It does not ask whether they were clever, or devout, or well-informed about religion. It asks only: the signs came to you; what did you do?

Now turn it round. This ayah is itself one of those signs. It is being recited to you at this moment, on a screen or in a book or from a reciter's mouth. In a sense, the evidence for the question on that Day is being gathered right now. This sitting, this reading, is one of the occasions it will refer to.

That is not meant to frighten you into paralysis. It is meant to make this moment weighty. Most people hear the Quran as background: in a car, at a funeral, at the start of an event, while scrolling. It washes past. This ayah says none of it was background. Every recitation that reached you was addressed to you, by name.

So pause on whichever ayah you heard most recently. Not the one you know best, the last one that actually reached your ears. What did it ask of you? Did you do anything with it, or did it pass like music in a shop?

The question will one day be asked in the past tense. Today it can still be answered in the present.

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.