Al-Qasas · Makki · ayah 44 of 88

Al-Qasas 28:44

وَمَا كُنتَ بِجَانِبِ ٱلْغَرْبِىِّ إِذْ قَضَيْنَآ إِلَىٰ مُوسَى ٱلْأَمْرَ وَمَا كُنتَ مِنَ ٱلشَّـٰهِدِينَ

“And you, [O Muḥammad], were not on the western side [of the mount] when We revealed to Moses the command, and you were not among the witnesses [to that].”

Saheeh International

Essence

You were not there when the command was handed, finished, to Musa: and being somewhere is not the same as witnessing it.

A reflection

There, and still not a witness

The ayah says two things that sound like one. You were not on the western side. And you were not among the witnesses. If he was not there, how could he have been a witness? Why say it twice?

One answer, reported in the commentaries, is striking. You were not present at that place. And even had you been present, you would not have witnessed those events. A person can be in a place and neither see nor take in what happens there.

The root explains why the two are different. Shahida joins three things: being present, knowing, and declaring. The Arabs called a wife mushhid when her husband was at home, and mughīb when he was away. They called the tongue al-shāhid, the one that tells what the eye saw. A witness is not merely in the room. A witness takes in what happens and can say it.

Picture a father who has not missed a single school concert in six years. He sits in the third row every time. Ask him what his daughter sang last term, and he hesitates. He was answering emails through the whole of it. He was present at six years of concerts and witnessed almost none.

Most of us know this gap from the inside. We are present at prayers we do not witness. We sit beside a parent at dinner without taking in how tired they look. We read an ayah to its end and could not say what it asked of us.

So the ayah's double denial is a quiet question to the reader. Not only, were you there? But when you were there, were you a witness?

There is a small, practical test. After any gathering that matters, ask whether you could describe it truthfully to someone who was absent. If you could not, you were present. You were not yet a witness.

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.