Ash-Shu'ara · Makki · ayah 72 of 227

Ash-Shu'ara 26:72

قَالَ هَلْ يَسْمَعُونَكُمْ إِذْ تَدْعُونَ

“He said, "Do they hear you when you supplicate?”

Saheeh International

Essence

Ibrahim's first test of any god is the plainest one: at the very moment you call on it, does it even hear you?

A reflection

A refuge from prayers that go nowhere

The Prophet ﷺ had a short prayer of refuge that his Companions remembered. Sahih Muslim records one wording of it: 'O Allah, I seek refuge in You from a call that is not answered'. Al-Tirmidhi records another wording from a different Companion and calls it ḥasan ṣaḥīḥ gharīb. It reads: 'from a supplication that is not heard'.

Set side by side, the two wordings shed light on this ayah. 'Not heard' and 'not answered' stand in the same place. One commentator on this ayah makes the same link. Hearing, he notes, can mean answering, as in 'You are the Hearer of prayer'. He still prefers the plain sense of hearing here, as better suited to the scene. Both senses stay alive.

So Ibrahim's question runs on two levels. Do they even register your voice? And if they did, could they respond? The idols failed at the first step.

The Prophet's ﷺ refuge shows that an empty call is something a believer fears too. In Sahih Muslim it sits among close neighbours. Knowledge that brings no benefit. A heart that is not humbled. A self that is never satisfied. Each is something that looks alive and gives nothing.

The lesson has two edges. First, turn away from every false address, every person or thing you call on as though it could save you. Second, when you call the true One, bring a heart that means it. Ask Him to protect your prayers from emptiness, as the Prophet ﷺ did.

The address matters first. The heart that speaks to it matters next.

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.