Al-Mu'minun · Makki · ayah 89 of 118

Al-Mu'minun 23:89

سَيَقُولُونَ لِلَّهِ ۚ قُلْ فَأَنَّىٰ تُسْحَرُونَ

“They will say, "[All belongs] to Allāh." Say, "Then how are you deluded?"”

Saheeh International

Essence

They confessed that every thing is in Allah's hand and still turned away; the only word left for that is a spell.

A reflection

Remember, beware, and then astonishment

Three questions have been asked, each larger than the last. To whom belongs the earth? Who is Lord of the heavens and the Throne? In whose hand is the dominion of every thing? Each time, the same answer: Allah's.

And each time, the follow-up grows sharper. One commentary traces the pattern. First they are reproached for not remembering, since the slightest reflection would undo their knot. Then for not being wary, which carries a threat. Finally, with astonishment, at minds so deceived that they see falsehood as truth and truth as falsehood. How could such minds remember or fear?

Fa-annā tusḥarūn: then how are you bewitched? Two concise commentaries put it plainly. How do your minds desert you, so that you worship others while admitting all this?

The ego hates this question more than any threat. It can bear being called wrong. It cannot bear being called fooled. Yet that is exactly the diagnosis. The Lord of every thing has been named by their own mouths. Turning away from Him now is not a reasoned position. It is a trick played on the mind.

Allah gains nothing from their admission, and loses nothing by their denial. The astonishment in the ayah is not wounded pride. It is the clarity of truth looking at people who have just proved it, and walked away.

There is humility for every reader in this. Pride is the spell that most often works on the clever. The person who says 'I could never be fooled' is the easiest to fool. Before this ayah, the only safe position is to ask Allah not to let your own mind deceive you. Humility is not a weakness in that prayer. It is the one thing a spell cannot easily get past.

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.