Ash-Shu'ara · Makki · ayah 67 of 227

Ash-Shu'ara 26:67

إِنَّ فِى ذَٰلِكَ لَـَٔايَةً ۖ وَمَا كَانَ أَكْثَرُهُم مُّؤْمِنِينَ

“Indeed in that is a sign, but most of them were not to be believers.”

Saheeh International

Essence

The refrain first heard at 26:8 returns to close the surah's longest story: a sea split before witnesses, and still most did not believe.

A reflection

The first story the refrain closes

This exact line was first met at 26:8, and its full treatment lives there. At its first appearance it closed a sign anyone can see on any day. Plants of every noble kind grow out of the earth (26:7).

Here it closes something very different. Not an ordinary sign, but the most extraordinary event of the story. A sea split into walls like mountains. A people walked through on dry ground. An army drowned. The longest story in the surah, from 26:10 to 26:66, ends on the same sentence as the growing plants.

That pairing is the point. The everyday sign and the spectacular sign receive the same verdict. Most did not believe either. The problem was never the size of the evidence. A heart that ignores a seed will find a way to ignore a sea.

One commentator marks the scale of this sign: a sign beyond description, seen with people's own eyes, and its news spread among them. Yet most paid it no attention and did not believe in Allah.

The full entry has 2 more reflections, questions to sit with, and "Live it today" - with the words, the roots and the tafsir alongside. Free, no account, works offline.