Ash-Shu'ara · Makki · ayah 103 of 227

Ash-Shu'ara 26:103

إِنَّ فِى ذَٰلِكَ لَـَٔايَةً ۖ وَمَا كَانَ أَكْثَرُهُم مُّؤْمِنِينَ

“Indeed in that is a sign, but most of them were not to be believers.”

Saheeh International

Essence

The refrain of 26:8 closes Ibrahim's story, where the sign is an argument and a Day still to come.

A reflection

A sign with no flood in it

This exact line was first met at 26:8, and its full treatment lives there. Here it returns for the third time.

At 26:67 it closed Musa's story, straight after the sea closed over Pharaoh's army. Read Ibrahim's story in this surah and something is missing. There is no flood, no earthquake, no ruined town. In this telling we never see his people punished at all.

So what is the sign? Two classical commentators answer directly. It lies in the arguments Ibrahim put to his people for the oneness of Allah. One adds that it lies in the fate he described, which awaits all who follow his people's way.

That changes what a sign can be. Some signs are events. This one is reasoning: a man asking what his people worship, and whether it hears them. And it is a warning about a Day still ahead. Neither needs a catastrophe to be clear. Both can be carried home and used tomorrow.

The full entry has 2 more reflections, questions to sit with, and "Live it today" - with the words, the roots and the tafsir alongside. Free, no account, works offline.