Ash-Shu'ara · Makki · ayah 151 of 227

Ash-Shu'ara 26:151

وَلَا تُطِيعُوٓا۟ أَمْرَ ٱلْمُسْرِفِينَ

“And do not obey the order of the transgressors,”

Saheeh International

Essence

Salih tells the ordinary people of Thamud to stop yielding to the orders of the few whose excess had already spilled past every limit.

A reflection

The order, not the officer

A newly qualified pharmacist is asked by her branch manager to relabel a shelf of near-expiry stock. The new dates would buy another three months. She likes him. He gave her the job and covers her shifts when her son is ill. She says no, quietly, and keeps calling him by his first name.

Look at how Salih words the warning. He does not say "do not obey the extravagant". He says lā tuṭīʿū amra al-musrifīn: do not obey the command of the extravagant. One linguistic commentary notes the shift. Obedience is really given to a person, yet here it is attached to the order itself. Another calls this a figurative turn that sharpens the point.

The effect is to move the line. The question is not whether a man is your chief, your elder or your employer. The question is what he is asking you to do. A person can keep his rank in your eyes while a particular order of his is refused.

The Prophet ﷺ taught the same line in a story recorded in Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim. He sent out a small troop under a commander and told them to obey him. Angered by something, the commander had them gather wood and light a fire. Then he ordered them into it. They looked at one another. Some said they had followed the Prophet precisely to escape the Fire. While they hesitated, the flames died down and his anger cooled. When the Prophet heard, he said that had they entered it they would never have come out. Then he gave the principle: obedience is only in what is right.

Notice that the troop was not told their commander was a bad man. They were told his order was not to be obeyed. That is the same distinction Salih draws.

For anyone who leads, this is sobering. Your authority does not travel with every word you say. It stops at the edge of what is right. For anyone who follows, it is freeing. You can honour a person and still refuse what he tells you.

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.