Ash-Shu'ara · Makki · ayah 114 of 227

Ash-Shu'ara 26:114

وَمَآ أَنَا۠ بِطَارِدِ ٱلْمُؤْمِنِينَ

“And I am not one to drive away the believers.”

Saheeh International

Essence

Asked to clear out the poor as the price of the nobles' faith, Nuh refuses as a matter of who he is.

A reflection

Not 'I won't', but 'I am not one who does'

A landlord rings a locksmith. He wants a tenant's locks changed while she is at work. She is two months behind, and he will pay double. The locksmith says, 'I'm not a locksmith who does that'. Then he hangs up.

Notice the difference between 'I won't' and 'I'm not one who does'. The first is a decision, open to a better offer. The second is a statement of identity. There is nothing left to negotiate.

Nuh's sentence has that second shape. Wa mā anā bi-ṭāridi al-muʾminīn: and I am not one who drives away the believers. It is not a verb of refusal but a noun of identity. I am not a driver-away. The little bi before the noun adds emphasis, as it often does after a negation in Arabic.

One classical commentator notices another layer. The pronoun 'I' is placed straight after the negation. That order suggests: this is not my way, though it may be someone else's. The nobles had spoken as though he might be a man who drives people off. He hands the trait back to them. Driving people away is your habit, not mine.

Why does this matter? Because the nobles had made an offer. Their sneer in 26:111 carried a hint, and several commentators read it as a request. Be rid of these people and we might believe. A refusal at the level of 'I won't' invites a better price. A refusal at the level of 'I am not one who does' ends the bidding.

Character works this way for us too. Some lines are best held not as rules we keep deciding to obey, but as the person we are. I am not someone who mocks people. I am not someone who drops friends when they become inconvenient.

Nuh did not argue over the nobles' terms. He told them who he was. The offer died where it was made.

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.