Ash-Shu'ara · Makki · ayah 70 of 227

Ash-Shu'ara 26:70

إِذْ قَالَ لِأَبِيهِ وَقَوْمِهِۦ مَا تَعْبُدُونَ

“When he said to his father and his people, "What do you worship?"”

Saheeh International

Essence

Ibrahim asks his father and people one short question, not to learn the answer, but so they will hear themselves give it.

A reflection

The same small word Pharaoh used

Earlier in this surah, Pharaoh put a question to Musa: 'And what is the Lord of the worlds?' (26:23). He used mā, the word for asking about things. He spoke of the Creator as though He were an object to be sorted and labelled.

Now the same small word returns, in another mouth. Ibrahim asks his father and people, 'Mā taʿbudūn?' The commentaries gloss it simply: what thing do you worship?

This time the word fits exactly. Pharaoh used the language of things for the Lord of all things, and was wrong. Ibrahim used the language of things for things, and was right. Asked of the true God, the question was arrogance. Asked of a carved figure, it was precision.

One classical commentator adds that Ibrahim did not ask in order to learn. The idols stood in plain view. He asked so that he could build on their reply. Its aim was to show that what they worshipped stood entirely outside any claim to worship.

There is a test hidden here for anything we bow to. Does it survive being called 'what'? Ask 'what' of Allah, and every answer runs out. He is not a thing among things: 'There is nothing like Him' (42:11). Ask 'what' of an idol, and the answer comes at once. Wood, stone, metal. A shape someone made.

Try it on the things that quietly run a life. What is a salary? A number in an account. What is a reputation? Other people's opinions, held for a while. What is a view count? A figure that will be different tomorrow. Some of these are useful. None of them survives the word 'what' as a god.

The surah lets two questions face each other across some forty ayat. A tyrant asked 'what' of the Creator. A young man asked 'what' of the created. Only one of them was asking the right way round.

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.