Al-Mu'minun · Makki · ayah 53 of 118

Al-Mu'minun 23:53

فَتَقَطَّعُوٓا۟ أَمْرَهُم بَيْنَهُمْ زُبُرًا ۖ كُلُّ حِزْبٍۭ بِمَا لَدَيْهِمْ فَرِحُونَ

“But they [i.e., the people] divided their religion among them into portions [i.e., sects] - each faction, in what it has,[960] rejoicing.”

Saheeh International

Essence

Handed one religion, people cut it into rival pieces, and each party grew delighted with its own piece.

A reflection

The delight that never checks if it is real

A village has two bakeries at opposite ends of the high street. The regulars of each swear theirs is the only real bread. Ask them, and it turns out none of them has ever tasted the other loaf.

The ayah ends on a feeling: kullu ḥizbin bimā ladayhim fariḥūn, each party delighted with what it has. The lexicons give faraḥ a sharp profile. One defines it as the chest opening with an immediate pleasure. Another distinguishes it from a related word for gladness. That other word, it says, comes only from what truly benefits. Faraḥ can rise over nothing at all.

Its examples are vivid. A child delighting in running and swimming until he hurts himself. A sleeper delighting in a dream. The pleasure is real. What it rests on may not be.

The commentators describe the parties in those terms. One says each was pleased and admiring of what it had chosen, seeing no truth outside it. Another describes each faction as delighted with its falsehood, settled in itself, sure it is right. A third says each sees itself as the winner and the others as the losers.

An early authority recorded in one commentary put it bluntly. Every group following its own whims, he said, is pleased with its opinion, its whims, and the man who invented it for them.

That is the danger the ayah names. Not disagreement itself, but a contentment that has stopped checking. The lift in the chest feels like proof. It is only a feeling.

The cure is not to stop enjoying belonging. It is to let the delight wait until the claim has been tested. Ask what your group would have to see to change its mind. If the honest answer is "nothing", the loyalty is not evidence. It is the dream the sleeper smiles in. At the very least, taste the other loaf.

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.