Al-Qasas · Makki · ayah 64 of 88

Al-Qasas 28:64

وَقِيلَ ٱدْعُوا۟ شُرَكَآءَكُمْ فَدَعَوْهُمْ فَلَمْ يَسْتَجِيبُوا۟ لَهُمْ وَرَأَوُا۟ ٱلْعَذَابَ ۚ لَوْ أَنَّهُمْ كَانُوا۟ يَهْتَدُونَ

“And it will be said, "Invoke your 'partners,'" and they will invoke them; but they will not respond to them, and they will see the punishment. If only they had followed guidance!”

Saheeh International

Essence

Told to call their partners, they call, and nothing turns towards them; they see the punishment, and the ayah ends on an unfinished 'if only'.

A reflection

A name called, and nobody turns

The lexicons give duʿāʾ a simple, physical picture. You call someone by name, and they turn and come towards you. Your voice draws them across the distance. A mother calls across a park and her child looks up and runs back. That is the root at its plainest.

Now read the ayah with that picture. Fa-daʿawhum: so they called them. Fa-lam yastajībū lahum: and they did not respond to them. The names are called across the plain of the Day. Not one head turns. Nothing comes running.

Think of a man who spent thirty years building his savings. He checked the balance most evenings, the way some people check the weather. It was his safety, he said, the thing that let him sleep. Then one afternoon a consultant explains the scan to him. On the drive home he does the sums in his head. The money will pay for a private room and the best care. It cannot answer the fear sitting in his chest. He calls on it, in his own way, and it does not turn round.

That is the mirror this ayah holds up. The partners here were idols and the leaders people obeyed. But the lexicons add that calling on something in hope is a form of worship. So the question for each reader is quieter: what do I call on when I am afraid?

One commentator observes that the order itself, 'call your partners', is not a real request. It is there to expose them before every witness. They call on what cannot help even itself. The exposure is not that the partners are wicked. It is that they are silent.

Money, status, a powerful friend, a reputation: each can do real work in its place. None of them can turn towards you on that Day. Only One answers when He is called, and He is not among the partners.

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.