Al-Mu'minun · Makki · ayah 96 of 118

Al-Mu'minun 23:96

ٱدْفَعْ بِٱلَّتِى هِىَ أَحْسَنُ ٱلسَّيِّئَةَ ۚ نَحْنُ أَعْلَمُ بِمَا يَصِفُونَ

“Repel, by [means of] what is best, [their] evil. We are most knowing of what they describe.”

Saheeh International

Essence

Push back harm with the most beautiful response you can find, and leave what they say of you to the One who knows.

A reflection

You do not have to correct every lie

A volunteer at a community centre is falsely accused in a large group chat of pocketing donations. Her hands shake. She spends two hours drafting a long, angry defence, with screenshots. At midnight she reads it once more, deletes it, and sends one line to the organiser offering the accounts for inspection. Then she prays and goes to bed.

The ayah ends: naḥnu aʿlamu bi-mā yaṣifūn, We know best what they describe. Commentaries spell out the two senses. Allah knows the falsehoods they attribute to Him: partners and lies. And He knows what they say about you: the names they call you, magician and madman. One adds: do not let the ugly things you hear from them grieve you.

Another commentary calls the phrase both a warning to them and a consolation to the Prophet ﷺ. It guides him to hand his affair over to Allah.

This is where the ego is trained. The ego cannot bear an unanswered accusation. It wants the last word, the full rebuttal, the public vindication. It treats its reputation as something it must personally defend at every moment.

The ayah relieves it of that job. The One who knows best already knows. He knows what they said, what they meant and what is true. He is also able to repay it, as the previous ayah said.

That does not mean truth should never be spoken, or that injustice should be accepted. It means you can answer with calm and proportion, rather than with the desperation of someone who thinks no one else is keeping the record. Someone is. Let that make your reply shorter, kinder and more honest.

The full entry has 6 more reflections, questions to sit with, and "Live it today" - with the words, the roots and the tafsir alongside. Free, no account, works offline.