Ash-Shu'ara · Makki · ayah 186 of 227

Ash-Shu'ara 26:186

وَمَآ أَنتَ إِلَّا بَشَرٌ مِّثْلُنَا وَإِن نَّظُنُّكَ لَمِنَ ٱلْكَـٰذِبِينَ

“You are but a man like ourselves, and indeed, we think you are among the liars.”

Saheeh International

Essence

They stack a second charge on the first, 'only a human like us', then condemn him as a liar on nothing firmer than a guess.

A reflection

A verdict reached on a well no one looked into

The verb they use is naẓunnuka: "we think you", "we suppose you". Its root holds a striking image. The Arabs called a desert well ẓanūn when no one could be sure it held water. A debt was ẓanūn when its owner might never see it repaid. The root spans the whole range between doubt and a certainty reached by reflection.

One commentator notes that the people here meant their ẓann as a firm conviction. The grammar supports it. The construction is emphatic: "we are quite sure you are one of the liars." Yet they reached that firm verdict without lowering a bucket.

Picture a jury room. On the first morning, one juror glances at the defendant: tracksuit, slouch, a bored expression. Before a single witness speaks, he has decided. For the next three days he listens only for confirmation. When the evidence points elsewhere, he calls it a clever defence. His certainty is real. It was simply formed before the facts arrived, and it never let them in.

That is the shape of this ayah. Shu'ayb had asked them for nothing hidden. Full measure, fair weight, guarding themselves before their Creator. Each demand could be tested in the marketplace by the next morning. They did not test. They supposed, and then treated the supposition as proof.

The Quran elsewhere warns that supposition avails nothing against the truth (53:28). This ayah shows what that looks like in practice. A whole community, sure of itself, standing beside a well it never looked into, announcing that it is dry.

The lesson is not that suspicion is always wrong. A person who claims to speak for God should be examined. The fault is the order. Verdict first, investigation never. Justice, in a court or in a heart, asks for the reverse.

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.