Ash-Shu'ara · Makki · ayah 227 of 227

Ash-Shu'ara 26:227

إِلَّا ٱلَّذِينَ ءَامَنُوا۟ وَعَمِلُوا۟ ٱلصَّـٰلِحَـٰتِ وَذَكَرُوا۟ ٱللَّهَ كَثِيرًا وَٱنتَصَرُوا۟ مِنۢ بَعْدِ مَا ظُلِمُوا۟ ۗ وَسَيَعْلَمُ ٱلَّذِينَ ظَلَمُوٓا۟ أَىَّ مُنقَلَبٍ يَنقَلِبُونَ

“Except those [poets] who believe and do righteous deeds and remember Allāh often and defend [the Muslims][1069] after they were wronged. And those who have wronged are going to know to what [kind of] return they will be returned.”

Saheeh International

Essence

The surah of the poets ends on an open door for words joined to faith, deeds, remembrance and a measured reply, then on a warning.

A reflection

The last word of 'The Poets' is 'except'

Most people know this surah by its name, and the name sounds like a verdict. The Poets. It is easy to assume the surah is about them, and that it ends by shutting them out. Neither is quite true. Of its 227 ayat, the poets appear only in the last four. And the very last of those four opens with one word: except.

The exception names no profession and no tribe. It names four qualities: belief, righteous deeds, much remembrance of Allah, and a reply that comes only after being wronged. One commentary explains that it was first meant for the Prophet's own poets, such as Hassan ibn Thabit and Ka'b ibn Malik. Then, it adds, it belongs to everyone who carries the description.

Another commentary widens it further. The door is open even to poets who had once spent their gift attacking Islam, then turned. It gives two of them. ʿAbdullah ibn al-Zibaʿra, one of the poets of Quraysh, wrote after accepting Islam that his tongue now mended what it had once torn. Abu Sufyan ibn al-Harith, the Prophet's cousin, had satirised him more than almost anyone. After he became Muslim, no one was dearer to him, and he praised whom he once mocked.

Picture a man who spent his twenties writing stand-up material that mocked religion. It was clever and it was cruel, and it paid. Now he prays, and he wonders whether his gift is spoiled for good. The last ayah of this surah says otherwise. The same tongue can mend what it tore.

The Prophet ﷺ did not merely tolerate such gifts. He told Hassan to answer the mockers, and that Jibril was with him (al-Bukhari, Muslim). He said the Holy Spirit would keep supporting Hassan as long as he defended Allah and His Messenger (Muslim).

So the surah does not end with a closed gate. It ends with a narrow, generous opening, and a description of who walks through it. The question it leaves is not whether you are a poet. It is where your words are running.

The full entry has 6 more reflections, questions to sit with, and "Live it today" - with the words, the roots and the tafsir alongside. Free, no account, works offline.