Al-Mu'minun · Makki · ayah 70 of 118

Al-Mu'minun 23:70

أَمْ يَقُولُونَ بِهِۦ جِنَّةٌۢ ۚ بَلْ جَآءَهُم بِٱلْحَقِّ وَأَكْثَرُهُمْ لِلْحَقِّ كَـٰرِهُونَ

“Or do they say, "In him is madness"? Rather, he brought them the truth, but most of them, to the truth, are averse.”

Saheeh International

Essence

They called him mad, though he had only brought the truth; the real problem was that most of them disliked the truth itself.

A reflection

Calling the clear-sighted "covered"

A finance officer reports a fraud inside her company. Within a week, the managers involved are telling colleagues she is unstable, emotional, perhaps unwell. Nobody disputes her figures. They question her mind instead.

Am yaqūlūna bihi jinnah: or do they say there is madness in him? The lexicons give the root j-n-n an established picture: covering. Whatever is screened from you has been janna from you. The jinn are hidden from sight, the unborn child is hidden in the womb, and a shield hides its bearer. Madness is junūn because it covers the mind.

So the charge was that his mind was covered. The irony is sharp. He was the one uncovering what they had hidden: the truth about their Lord, their idols, their injustice.

One commentator says that, far from madness, he was the most weighty of people in reason, the most penetrating in judgement, the most composed. Another notes that they knew this by necessity. Another explains that a madman raves and speaks without meaning, while what he brought was wisdom of the highest order.

Why, then, the charge? One commentator suggests two reasons. They called him mad because he hoped they would follow him, which seemed absurd to them. Or they said it to confuse the common people, so they would not follow him.

That is the oldest strategy against an uncomfortable truth. When you cannot refute the message, question the messenger's mind. It saves you from engaging with what he said.

The whistle-blower's figures stood. The Prophet's ﷺ message stood. In both cases the attack on the mind was a confession that the content could not be answered.

Watch for this in yourself. When someone says something you do not like, do you examine what they said, or do you look for a reason to doubt their sanity?

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.