Ash-Shu'ara · Makki · ayah 168 of 227

Ash-Shu'ara 26:168

قَالَ إِنِّى لِعَمَلِكُم مِّنَ ٱلْقَالِينَ

“He said, "Indeed, I am, toward your deed, of those who detest [it].”

Saheeh International

Essence

Threatened with exile, Lut neither pleads nor threatens back: he names his deepest loathing, and aims it squarely at their deed.

A reflection

A word the Quran uses only twice

Al-qālīn: those who utterly detest. The corpus data shows this root appearing only twice in the whole Quran. Once here, on Lut's lips. Once in Surat al-Duha, when revelation had paused and the Prophet ﷺ was taunted that his Lord had left him. Your Lord has not taken leave of you, nor has He detested (93:3).

Put the two side by side. The Quran's fiercest word for hatred is denied of Allah towards His servant. And it is affirmed of a prophet towards a deed. Not towards a people. Towards your deed, li-ʿamalikum.

The lexicons agree that qilā is hatred at its height, the kind that makes you leave. Where the word comes from is less settled. One classical derivation hears the heart throwing out what it loathes, as a surging camel throws off its rider. Another hears the frying pan, miqlā. A linguistic commentary puts that second view vividly: a hatred that seems to scorch the heart and liver. Both are proposals, not settled facts, but both carry the same force.

So the Quran keeps this word for a narrow use. Allah does not feel it for the one who turns to Him. A believer may feel it, but for what corrupts, not for the people caught up in it.

That is a discipline worth practising. Before you let a hatred grow, ask what its object is. If it is a deed that ruins people, you stand where Lut stood. If it is a person, notice that the Quran never once uses this word that way.

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.