Ash-Shu'ara · Makki · ayah 12 of 227

Ash-Shu'ara 26:12

قَالَ رَبِّ إِنِّىٓ أَخَافُ أَن يُكَذِّبُونِ

“He said, "My Lord, indeed I fear that they will deny me”

Saheeh International

Essence

Sent to the most dangerous court on earth, Musa's first words are an honest fear, told to his Lord: they will call me a liar.

A reflection

The word the whole surah turns on

Musa has just been called at the mountain. He is told to go to a people of wrongdoing, the people of Pharaoh. His first reply names one fear: an yukadhdhibūni, that they will call me a liar.

Read on through the surah and that verb keeps returning. Before Musa's story even begins, the surah has said of the Makkans: they have denied (26:6). Then each later story opens on the same note. 'The people of Nuh denied the messengers' (26:105). 'ʿĀd denied the messengers' (26:123). Thamud (26:141), the people of Lut (26:160), the companions of the thicket (26:176): the same verb, every time.

So Musa's first fear is not a stray detail. It is the word the whole surah is built around. At the very start, he names what every messenger after him in this surah will meet.

Think of who first heard this. The surah opens by speaking to the Prophet ﷺ directly: perhaps you will destroy yourself with grief that they do not believe (26:3). He was being called a liar in the streets where he had grown up. Then the surah tells him that Musa, who was spoken to by Allah, felt this fear before he had said one word to Pharaoh.

That is a kind of company. Someone who is disbelieved often assumes the fault is his. Perhaps he explained it badly. Perhaps he is the wrong person for the task. The surah answers by lining up messenger after messenger who were all denied, and by showing the first of them afraid of exactly this.

If you have ever been doubted while telling the truth, this ayah does not promise you will be believed. It tells you that being disbelieved is the ordinary road of truth. Musa saw it coming. He said so to his Lord. Then he went.

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.