Al-Mu'minun · Makki · ayah 106 of 118

Al-Mu'minun 23:106

قَالُوا۟ رَبَّنَا غَلَبَتْ عَلَيْنَا شِقْوَتُنَا وَكُنَّا قَوْمًا ضَآلِّينَ

“They will say, "Our Lord, our wretchedness overcame us, and we were a people astray.”

Saheeh International

Essence

In the Fire they finally say 'our Lord, we went astray': a true confession, made where it no longer changes anything.

A reflection

Same first word, wrong side of the door

Two men say exactly the same words: I am sorry, I was wrong. One says them to his wife at midnight, on the evening it happened. The other says them in a letter, a year later, after she has gone. The words are identical. One opens a door. The other only describes a door that has closed.

This ayah begins with rabbanā, our Lord. It is the same word with which the believers pray three ayat later: rabbanā āmannā, our Lord, we believe, so forgive us (23:109). And the surah ends with the same address, rabbi, my Lord, in the prayer taught to the Prophet ﷺ (23:118). The people of the Fire finally use the believers' language. They address Allah as Lord. They admit they went astray.

The commentaries agree on something important about their words. Whatever else they mean, they are not a defence. They are a confession, an acknowledgement that Allah's case against them stands. Even those who read the ayah through very different theological lenses converge on this. The people of the Fire are not wrong about what they say. They are only late.

That is perhaps the most unsettling thing in the passage. There is no lie in their prayer. Rabbanā is true. Kunnā qawman ḍāllīn, we were a people astray, is true. And it does not help, because the time for confession that changes things has passed.

So the lesson is not that their words were bad words. It is that good words have a season. Rabbanā said today, in a quiet room, with nothing forcing it, is the believers' prayer. The same word said at the gate of the Fire is a confession too late to count.

If there is something you know you should say to Allah, the ayah gives one piece of advice. Say it now, on this side of the door. The words will never be more powerful than they are today.

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.