Al-Mu'minun · Makki · ayah 74 of 118

Al-Mu'minun 23:74

وَإِنَّ ٱلَّذِينَ لَا يُؤْمِنُونَ بِٱلْـَٔاخِرَةِ عَنِ ٱلصِّرَٰطِ لَنَـٰكِبُونَ

“But indeed, those who do not believe in the Hereafter are deviating from the path.”

Saheeh International

Essence

Those who do not believe in what comes after keep veering off the road, like a wind that will not hold any quarter.

A reflection

The wind that will not hold a quarter

In a sudden squall, the weather vane on a farm barn spins and spins. It points east, then north-west, then nowhere. The farmer below cannot tell which way the weather is coming from.

La-nākibūn: they are veering. One lexicon gives the root a single sense: turning aside. To nakaba a path is to turn off it. The image is established. One commentator adds the lovely detail: nakabati al-rīḥ, the wind veered, when it would not keep to one course. And he records that the worst of winds is the nakbāʾ.

The lexicons describe the nakbāʾ as any wind swung away from the main quarters. Not a north wind, not a south wind. A wind that cannot be named because it will not hold.

The commentators gloss the ayah plainly. They turn aside from the truth and from the direct way. They swerve and deviate. One commentator records an early view: they veer from the road of Paradise until they reach the Fire.

The picture fits the ayah's cause. Those who do not believe in the Hereafter have no fixed point to steer by. Without an end in view, each new pressure swings them. Pleasure from one quarter, fear from another, fashion from a third. They are not always rushing towards evil. They simply cannot hold a course.

The lexicons note that the shoulder, mankib, comes from the same root, because it sits off to one side. A whole life can be lived off to one side of the road, never quite on it.

The weather vane is not wicked. It is responding honestly to every gust. That is the problem. A heart with no settled direction answers every wind.

Ask what fixes your direction when the squall comes. If nothing does, the ayah suggests where to look: at what comes after.

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.