Al-'Ankabut · Makki · ayah 3 of 69

Al-'Ankabut 29:3

وَلَقَدْ فَتَنَّا ٱلَّذِينَ مِن قَبْلِهِمْ ۖ فَلَيَعْلَمَنَّ ٱللَّهُ ٱلَّذِينَ صَدَقُوا۟ وَلَيَعْلَمَنَّ ٱلْكَـٰذِبِينَ

“But We have certainly tried those before them, and Allāh will surely make evident those who are truthful, and He will surely make evident the liars.”

Saheeh International

Essence

Every generation of believers was tested, and through the test Allah brings into the open what He always knew: who was true, and who flinched.

A reflection

A mirror that never moves

'Allah will surely know those who are true.' Read quickly, the sentence can sound as if Allah is waiting to find something out. As if your trial were an audition, and the outcome were news to Him.

A classical commentator answered that impression with an image. Hang a clear, polished mirror on a wall and leave it there. A man walks past in a white robe, and the mirror shows a man in white. Another walks past in yellow, and it shows yellow. Has the mirror changed? Its metal, its shape, its polish, its place? No one would think so. What changed is what passed in front of it.

Allah's knowledge, he said, is like that and far above it. A mirror could crack; His knowledge cannot change at all. Before the test, He knew who would be true. During it, He knows they are being true. After it, He knows they were. The knowing never moves. What moves is us.

Notice also how the ayah speaks. It begins with 'We tested'. Then it turns, and names Him: 'Allah will surely know'. One commentator said this turn to the Majestic Name is there to bring awe. You are not being measured by a panel. You are passing in front of Allah.

That should shrink something in us. Much of our religious life runs on a quiet vanity. We want our patience to be noticed. We imagine our struggles add something to Him, a report filed, a record improved. We even feel, in hard seasons, that we are proving ourselves to Him. As if He needed the proof.

He does not. Nothing you endure adds to His knowledge, and nothing you achieve adds to His kingdom. The test is not for His information. It is so that what He knew becomes real in the world, and visible to you.

There is freedom in that. You do not have to perform. You only have to walk past the mirror as you truly are.

The full entry has 6 more reflections, questions to sit with, and "Live it today" - with the words, the roots and the tafsir alongside. Free, no account, works offline.