Al-Mu'minun · Makki · ayah 38 of 118

Al-Mu'minun 23:38

إِنْ هُوَ إِلَّا رَجُلٌ ٱفْتَرَىٰ عَلَى ٱللَّهِ كَذِبًا وَمَا نَحْنُ لَهُۥ بِمُؤْمِنِينَ

“He is not but a man who has invented a lie about Allāh, and we will not believe him."”

Saheeh International

Essence

Having called the resurrection far-fetched, the chiefs called the messenger a liar about Allah, and closed the door: we will never believe him.

A reflection

A verdict reached on the first morning

On the first morning of a trial, one juror looks at the defendant and decides he looks guilty. For the next two weeks she listens carefully. But every piece of evidence somehow confirms what she already thought. A witness who helps the defence must be lying. One who harms it must be honest.

A classical theologian traces the chiefs' reasoning step by step. First they attacked the resurrection as impossible. Then, he says, they built on that an attack on the messenger's prophethood. Since he had brought this falsehood, he must have invented a lie about Allah. Then, having settled that, they declared they would not believe him.

Look at the chain. Its first link was not evidence. It was a feeling: far, far. Everything after it rested on that feeling. If resurrection is absurd, the man who preaches it must be a liar. If he is a liar, nothing he says needs weighing.

This is a very human way to think. We often begin with a conclusion and reason backwards. We decide a person is untrustworthy, then interpret everything they do through that decision. Every argument becomes proof of what we already believed.

Suspicion itself was not their mistake. A claim to speak for Allah deserves testing. The tests the Quran points to are a man's known honesty, what he asks for himself, and whether his message holds together. The chiefs ran none of them. Their first premise had already decided the case.

What remains open is how often we do the same. With faith, with people, with ideas we dislike. The test is simple: could any evidence change my mind? If the honest answer is no, I am not reasoning. I am the juror on the first morning.

Pick one belief you hold firmly about a person or an idea. Ask what evidence would change it. If you cannot think of any, hold it more lightly.

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.