Ali 'Imran · Madani · ayah 112 of 200

Ali 'Imran 3:112

ضُرِبَتْ عَلَيْهِمُ ٱلذِّلَّةُ أَيْنَ مَا ثُقِفُوٓا۟ إِلَّا بِحَبْلٍ مِّنَ ٱللَّهِ وَحَبْلٍ مِّنَ ٱلنَّاسِ وَبَآءُو بِغَضَبٍ مِّنَ ٱللَّهِ وَضُرِبَتْ عَلَيْهِمُ ٱلْمَسْكَنَةُ ۚ ذَٰلِكَ بِأَنَّهُمْ كَانُوا۟ يَكْفُرُونَ بِـَٔايَـٰتِ ٱللَّهِ وَيَقْتُلُونَ ٱلْأَنۢبِيَآءَ بِغَيْرِ حَقٍّ ۚ ذَٰلِكَ بِمَا عَصَوا۟ وَّكَانُوا۟ يَعْتَدُونَ

“They have been put under humiliation [by Allāh] wherever they are overtaken, except for a rope [i.e., covenant] from Allāh and a rope [i.e., treaty] from the people [i.e., the Muslims].[144] And they have drawn upon themselves anger from Allāh and have been put under destitution. That is because they disbelieved in [i.e., rejected] the verses of Allāh and killed the prophets without right. That is because they disobeyed and [habitually] transgressed.”

Saheeh International

Essence

Lowness was stamped on them wherever they were caught, except by a rope from Allah and a rope from people.

A reflection

Anger without any boiling in it

In a riding yard a girl who handles a pony roughly is simply not given a horse the following week. Nobody raises a voice. Nobody explains at length. The consequence is quiet, fixed and has nothing to do with anyone's temper, which is exactly why it changes her.

This ayah uses the word anger of Allah, and most readers import their own worst mechanism into it without noticing. That import is itself a kind of arrogance: we assume the Creator works the way we do when we lose control.

The lexicons are careful, and they are worth quoting plainly. At its root ghaḍab means hardness or severity. A man called ghaḍūb is harsh in temper. The same letters name a vicious snake, and a ghaḍba is a shield of camel hide folded layer on layer, named for its toughness. In a person, anger is a change that comes when the heart's blood boils with the urge for revenge.

Then they make the distinction. Said of Allah, the word means not that beginning, the boiling, but its end: willing retribution against those who disobey. No boiling, and no loss of control. Only a firm will against wrong. That is how the lexicons put it.

And the other half of the ayah shrinks the ego from the opposite direction. The lexicons say ʿizz, might, comes from hard, firm ground, and dhull, lowness, is its yielding opposite. A riding animal was dhalūl when it had been broken in. A well-trodden path was dhull. Fruit clusters were dhullilat when they hung low and easy to reach.

So lowness in Arabic is the state of being easy to use. And the lexicons add one exception that is praised: tadhallul, lowering yourself on purpose.

That is the only form of it anybody gets to choose. Either you go low in prayer, where it is called humility, or you are made easy to use somewhere else.

So choose it tonight, deliberately. Put your forehead on the floor and stay there a few seconds longer than the prayer requires.

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.