Ash-Shu'ara · Makki · ayah 113 of 227

Ash-Shu'ara 26:113

إِنْ حِسَابُهُمْ إِلَّا عَلَىٰ رَبِّى ۖ لَوْ تَشْعُرُونَ

“Their account is only upon my Lord, if you [could] perceive.”

Saheeh International

Essence

Nuh hands every follower's final account to his Lord alone, and tells the proud that their contempt shows a missing sense, not superior knowledge.

A reflection

Stepping down from a bench you were never given

Look along the back row of almost any mosque and you may find him. He is not praying. He is watching. That man's hands are too low. That boy's feet are too far apart. That woman came late again. By the final salām he has a full report and no prayer.

Nuh's sentence removes the bench this man sits on. 'Their account is only with my Lord.' The structure is a closed door: in… illā, not… except. Not with me. Not with you. Only with Him.

That is a statement of majesty. Reckoning belongs to the One who sees everything. The commentaries say it plainly. Their account for their deeds and their inner lives is with my Lord, who sees what is secret and what is open. Weighing hearts is His affair alone.

It is also a quiet blow to the ego. Much of our pride is the pride of the assessor. We like to grade. We like to be the one who knows who is really sincere. The ayah takes the clipboard from our hands and returns it to its Owner.

A doubt rises here. Does Allah insist on judging alone because He wants the power? Is this a jealous hold on control?

Picture an examiner holding every script in a hall. A pupil glimpses one answer over a shoulder and starts announcing everyone's grades. We would not call the examiner a tyrant for keeping the marking. We would call the pupil reckless. Judgement belongs with the one who has seen everything, and only He has.

Allah gains nothing from reckoning us. He is not made greater by our accounts, nor smaller by our sins. The reckoning is for justice, so that no one is wronged by a partial view.

So the humility the ayah asks is a relief as much as a rebuke. You are not the judge of the people around you. You never had the evidence. Put the report down and pray.

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.