Al-Qasas · Makki · ayah 52 of 88

Al-Qasas 28:52

ٱلَّذِينَ ءَاتَيْنَـٰهُمُ ٱلْكِتَـٰبَ مِن قَبْلِهِۦ هُم بِهِۦ يُؤْمِنُونَ

“Those to whom We gave the Scripture before it - they[1111] are believers in it.”

Saheeh International

Essence

While the near refused, people who already knew revelation heard the Quran and believed: the best-placed judges recognised it.

A reflection

Strangers believed while the neighbours watched

Two ayat earlier, Quraysh were described as following only their desires. This ayah sets a contrast right beside them.

The commentaries attach several reports to it. One, from the early biography of the Prophet ﷺ, is vivid. While he was still in Makkah, about twenty Christians arrived from Abyssinia, having heard of him. They found him in the sanctuary and sat with him. They asked their questions. Around the Kaaba, the men of Quraysh sat in their usual circles, watching.

When the visitors had finished asking, he invited them to Allah and recited the Quran to them. Their eyes overflowed with tears. They believed, and recognised in him what their own book had described.

Hold that scene in your mind. The men of Quraysh had known him all his life. They were his own tribe, and they spoke his language from birth. The visitors had crossed a sea and spoke it as strangers. Yet the strangers wept, and the neighbours stayed in their circles.

The report says this may have been the delegation in question, and other reports name others. Some name a group from Najran, some the companions of the Negus, some individual scholars of the Jews. The commentaries leave the question open. The pattern is the same in all of them.

One commentary draws the argument out. If those who knew the earlier books believed, then those who had no book had even less excuse.

This still happens. People raised in the faith can sit in the circle for decades, unmoved. A newcomer hears the same recitation once and cannot stop crying. Familiarity can make a person deaf to what a stranger hears at once.

If you grew up near the Quran, sit with it today as a visitor would. Imagine you have crossed a sea to hear it.

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.