Ash-Shu'ara · Makki · ayah 172 of 227

Ash-Shu'ara 26:172

ثُمَّ دَمَّرْنَا ٱلْـَٔاخَرِينَ

“Then We destroyed the others.”

Saheeh International

Essence

Three words end a town: the people who threatened to drive Lut out are themselves rooted out, and lose even their name.

A reflection

They decided who could stay

A few ayat earlier, Lut's people gave him their final answer. If you do not stop, Lut, you will surely be among the expelled (26:167). One commentator notices the wording. They did not simply say, we will expel you. They said you will be among the expelled: we have thrown others out, and you will join the list. It is the voice of people who are sure the town is theirs to sort.

Then comes this ayah. Then We destroyed the others. The ones who held the list are gone. The one they meant to throw out walks away alive.

The chairman of a residents' committee on a gated estate keeps a private list. On it are the families he means to force out: the wrong car, the wrong guests, the wrong prayers. He enjoys the list. It makes him feel like the estate is his. Within a year the developer sells the whole site, and his own house goes with it. He was never the owner. He was a tenant who had forgotten.

That is the ego this ayah humbles. People love to decide who belongs. They draw lines, keep lists, and feel the warm swell of pride that comes with the power to exclude. The verb here, dammarnā, has Allah as its subject. Every gate and every list was held on His land, by His leave, for a time He set.

Allah does not need His power acknowledged; it was complete before any town was built. The ayah is told for the reader's sake. Hold your small authority lightly. The ground under every committee belongs to Someone else.

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.