Al-Qasas · Makki · ayah 78 of 88

Al-Qasas 28:78

قَالَ إِنَّمَآ أُوتِيتُهُۥ عَلَىٰ عِلْمٍ عِندِىٓ ۚ أَوَلَمْ يَعْلَمْ أَنَّ ٱللَّهَ قَدْ أَهْلَكَ مِن قَبْلِهِۦ مِنَ ٱلْقُرُونِ مَنْ هُوَ أَشَدُّ مِنْهُ قُوَّةً وَأَكْثَرُ جَمْعًا ۚ وَلَا يُسْـَٔلُ عَن ذُنُوبِهِمُ ٱلْمُجْرِمُونَ

“He said, "I was only given it because of knowledge I have." Did he not know that Allāh had destroyed before him of generations those who were greater than him in power and greater in accumulation [of wealth]? But the criminals, about their sins, will not be asked.[1119]”

Saheeh International

Essence

Told what his wealth was for, the richest man answered with his credentials; the reply points to stronger men already gone.

A reflection

The one thing the learned man did not know

Innamā ūtītuhu ʿalā ʿilmin ʿindī: I was given it only because of knowledge I have.

What knowledge did Qarun mean? Several commentaries report that he knew the Torah better than anyone among the Israelites after Musa and Harun. One adds that he was among the seventy elders Musa chose. If so, this was not the boast of an ignorant man. It was the boast of a scholar.

Allah's reply turns his own word against him. A-wa-lam yaʿlam: did he not know? He claimed knowledge. He is answered with the one thing he did not know. Allah had destroyed, before him, generations stronger than he was, and greater in what they gathered.

Two commentaries read the question both ways. Perhaps it affirms that he knew. He had read it in the Torah, heard it from Musa, learned it from those who kept the histories. Then his learning made his blindness worse. Or perhaps it denies him real knowledge. He prided himself on learning, yet lacked the one useful knowledge that would have kept him from the fate of the destroyed.

Either way, the ego shrinks. Every scrap of Qarun's knowledge came from the One he forgot. People grasp nothing of His knowledge except what He wills (2:255). Qarun treated a loan as his own capital.

The ayah's last line widens the gap. The guilty will not be asked about their sins. One commentary explains that Allah already knows them in full, and needs no questions. The man who boasted of what he knew stands before One who knows everything about him without asking.

Is this petty, a God offended at being left out of the credits? Allah loses nothing when a man boasts, and gains nothing when he gives thanks. The correction is for Qarun's sake. A man who thinks he produced his blessings will soon think he deserves to keep them, whatever he does with them. Then he stops listening to anyone, as the ayah before shows he already had.

That is the majesty in this ayah, and it is not loud. It is the calm of the Knower beside a man waving his learning. The danger was never ignorance. It is knowledge that has forgotten where it came from.

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.