Al-Furqan · Makki · ayah 41 of 77

Al-Furqan 25:41

وَإِذَا رَأَوْكَ إِن يَتَّخِذُونَكَ إِلَّا هُزُوًا أَهَـٰذَا ٱلَّذِى بَعَثَ ٱللَّهُ رَسُولًا

“And when they see you, [O Muḥammad], they take you not except in ridicule, [saying], "Is this the one whom Allāh has sent as a messenger?”

Saheeh International

Essence

Seeing him, they could only sneer 'Is this the one Allah sent?', borrowing the truth to mock it for want of an answer.

A reflection

A sneer built out of the creed

Read the mockers' sentence slowly. 'Is this the one whom Allah has sent as a messenger?' Every word in the second half is true. Allah did send him. He is a messenger. The mockers say it themselves.

Two classical commentators noticed the trick. These men did not believe he was sent at all. Speaking plainly, they would have said: is this the one who claims to be sent? Instead they put the claim in their own mouths, as though conceding it. One commentator calls it sarcasm dressed as acknowledgement. The concession is the joke.

This is the most familiar kind of mockery, and the hardest to answer. Picture a wedding reception where a young man slips out to the cloakroom corridor to pray. An uncle calls after him across the table: 'Put in a word for the rest of us, your holiness.' The table laughs. Nothing the uncle said was false. That was the point.

Sarcasm hands your own words back with a curl at the edge. It does not argue. It does not need to. Its force lies in the tone and in one small word: 'this'.

The ayah's reply is to record it. Allah preserves their sentence exactly, in a Book recited ever since. The sneer meant to shrink the Messenger ﷺ now testifies for him. They found nothing to say against what he brought, only against who he was.

And the very phrase they used to mock, 'whom Allah sent as a messenger', is said every day by millions who mean it. Mockery that quotes the truth cannot help spreading it.

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.