An-Naml · Makki · ayah 84 of 93

An-Naml 27:84

حَتَّىٰٓ إِذَا جَآءُو قَالَ أَكَذَّبْتُم بِـَٔايَـٰتِى وَلَمْ تُحِيطُوا۟ بِهَا عِلْمًا أَمَّاذَا كُنتُمْ تَعْمَلُونَ

“Until, when they arrive [at the place of Judgement], He will say, "Did you deny My signs while you encompassed them not in knowledge, or what [was it that] you were doing?"”

Saheeh International

Essence

On arrival the deniers face two questions: did you reject My signs without ever knowing them, and what else were you spending your lives on?

A reflection

The king who checked, and the crowds who did not

This surah has already shown us someone faced with knowledge he had not encompassed. The hoopoe landed before Sulayman and said, "I have encompassed what you have not encompassed" (27:22). The same verb, aḥāṭa, returns here in Allah's question to the deniers: you did not encompass them in knowledge.

Look at what Sulayman did with knowledge he lacked. He did not dismiss the report because it came from a small bird, or because it was unwelcome. He did not believe it blindly either. He said, "We will see whether you have told the truth or are among the liars" (27:27). Then he wrote a letter and waited for the result. He let the claim be tested before he judged it.

The deniers did the reverse. Faced with signs they had never studied, they ruled on them at once. One commentary describes it exactly: they denied them at first sight, without the thought or inquiry that would lead to knowing what they really were. Another ayah says the same of the Quran itself. "They denied what they could not encompass in knowledge, before its meaning had reached them" (10:39).

Picture a hiring manager with two hundred applications and an afternoon. She bins one because it is set in an unfashionable font. That candidate was the only one who had done this exact job before. Nobody will ever tell her what she threw away.

Every decision-maker faces this temptation, because speed feels like strength. But a verdict reached before inquiry is only a guess wearing a judge's robe. Sulayman, with jinn and armies at his command, still stopped to check a bird's report.

So before you reject a claim, a person or an idea, ask the Sulayman question. Have I actually tested this? Or have I only reacted to its font?

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.