Al-Mu'minun · Makki · ayah 94 of 118

Al-Mu'minun 23:94

رَبِّ فَلَا تَجْعَلْنِى فِى ٱلْقَوْمِ ٱلظَّـٰلِمِينَ

“My Lord, then do not place me among the wrongdoing people."”

Saheeh International

Essence

The second half of the Prophet's taught prayer asks for one thing only: whatever comes to the wrongdoers, do not place me among them.

A reflection

Take me to You unharmed in my faith

A woman reads the news late at night. War, scandal, cruelty, all of it delivered to her bed. She puts the phone face down and does not know what to pray for. The world feels too large to ask about.

This ayah offers a prayer sized for that moment. Rabbi fa-lā tajʿalnī fī al-qawmi al-ẓālimīn: my Lord, then do not place me among the wrongdoing people. Two concise commentaries expand it gently. Do not destroy me with what You destroy them with. Save me from Your punishment and displeasure. Make me instead one of those You are pleased with.

One commentary links this ayah to a supplication the Prophet ﷺ taught. Al-Tirmidhi records it in a long narration, and calls it ḥasan ṣaḥīḥ. It includes these words. And if You intend a trial for people, take me to You without my being tried.

Notice the shape of both prayers. They do not ask Allah to fix the whole world tonight. They do not ask for a front-row seat as the guilty are punished. They ask for something smaller and more urgent. Keep me. Keep my faith whole. Whatever happens to the world, do not let it happen to my heart.

That is a prayer anyone can carry. A teenager in a school where cruelty is normal. A worker in an office where corners are cut. A citizen watching a society drift. Each can say: my Lord, do not place me among them.

Allah does not need to hear it. But the one who says it daily is changed by it. It keeps the heart awake to the line between itself and the wrong around it. And it hands the keeping of that line to the One who can hold it.

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.