Ali 'Imran · Madani · ayah 146 of 200

Ali 'Imran 3:146

وَكَأَيِّن مِّن نَّبِىٍّ قَـٰتَلَ مَعَهُۥ رِبِّيُّونَ كَثِيرٌ فَمَا وَهَنُوا۟ لِمَآ أَصَابَهُمْ فِى سَبِيلِ ٱللَّهِ وَمَا ضَعُفُوا۟ وَمَا ٱسْتَكَانُوا۟ ۗ وَٱللَّهُ يُحِبُّ ٱلصَّـٰبِرِينَ

“And how many a prophet [fought in battle and] with him fought many religious scholars. But they never lost assurance due to what afflicted them in the cause of Allāh, nor did they weaken or submit. And Allāh loves the steadfast.”

Saheeh International

Essence

How many a prophet had many ribbiyyun with him who did not go slack at what befell them, nor weaken, nor submit.

A reflection

Three stages, and we usually only name the first

A man falls out with his brother over money and will not speak to him. Two years later he finds himself asking that brother's business partner to put in a word for him.

The ayah lists three things these people did not do, and a classical commentator insists that the three are not repetition.

He separates them in one line. They did not go slack at the killing of their prophet. They did not weaken in the striving afterwards. And they did not submit to the enemy.

So it is a sequence, and anyone who has collapsed slowly will recognise it.

The first stage is the blow landing. Something gives way inside, at once, before any decision is taken. The second is later and quieter: the work still gets done, but with less in it, and then less again. The third is the one nobody plans. You end up leaning on the very thing you were standing against.

And the ayah is not describing strangers. One commentary says plainly that this is an indirect reproach, and then names all three failures in the Muslims. The slackening and breaking when the rumour of the Prophet's death went round. The weakness that followed, which took them out of facing the enemy. And the submission, when some wanted to lean on a hypocrite for safe conduct from the man who had led the army against them.

Read that third one again, because it is the whole of the lesson.

These were men who had marched out that morning. Within hours, the plan under discussion was to get a guarantee of safety from the other side, brokered by a man they did not trust. Nobody had decided to change sides. They were simply at stage three.

And stage three always looks like practicality, which is why it is so hard to see from inside. You are not surrendering, you are being realistic. You are not giving in, you are keeping the channel open.

The useful part is that the stages are separable, and so are the interventions. At stage one the work is not to pretend you were not hit. It is to not let the hit decide tomorrow. At stage two the work is attention: noticing that you are going through the motions while the motions still look right. By stage three the decision has mostly been made for you.

So find your own stage honestly. Then name the one thing you are currently calling realistic, and ask whose terms it is on.

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.