Ash-Shu'ara · Makki · ayah 222 of 227

Ash-Shu'ara 26:222

تَنَزَّلُ عَلَىٰ كُلِّ أَفَّاكٍ أَثِيمٍ

“They descend upon every sinful liar.”

Saheeh International

Essence

The devils come down on every habitual liar who has also fallen behind in his deeds: a false tongue and a lagging life.

A reflection

The wolf takes the one who lags behind

A walking group sets off across the fells in clear weather. One man stops to answer a work email, then another. When he looks up, the group is a line of dots on the next ridge. Then the mist comes down, and he is alone on a hillside he does not know.

The ayah's last word is athīm, sinful. The lexicons give its root a picture from the desert road. A she-camel that lagged behind the caravan, slow and failing in the heat, was āthima. From that picture came ithm: whatever holds a person back and makes him fall behind on the road to good.

Now read the ayah with the picture in mind. On whom do the devils come down? On the one who has fallen behind. The Prophet ﷺ used the same picture for the same danger. Stay with the congregation, he said, for the wolf eats only the straggling sheep (Sunan Abi Dawud, graded ḥasan). He said it of people among whom prayer is not established, over whom Satan has gained the upper hand.

That changes how sin looks. The first image many of us carry is a stain, or a broken rule on a list. The lexicons suggest something more dangerous. Sin is distance. It is the gap that opens between you and the caravan, and the predator is waiting in that gap.

It also gives the way back. A straggler is not a different animal from the herd. He is the same animal, further back. He can still close the gap. Repentance is turning towards the dots on the ridge and walking fast, while you can still see them.

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.