Ali 'Imran · Madani · ayah 162 of 200

Ali 'Imran 3:162

أَفَمَنِ ٱتَّبَعَ رِضْوَٰنَ ٱللَّهِ كَمَنۢ بَآءَ بِسَخَطٍ مِّنَ ٱللَّهِ وَمَأْوَىٰهُ جَهَنَّمُ ۚ وَبِئْسَ ٱلْمَصِيرُ

“So is one who pursues the pleasure of Allāh like one who brings upon himself the anger of Allāh and whose refuge is Hell? And wretched is the destination.”

Saheeh International

Essence

Can the one who follows what pleases Allah be the same as the one who comes home carrying His anger?

A reflection

A word that only runs one way

An apprentice corrects the master in front of the whole workshop on his second day. He is right about the measurement. He is also, for the next four years, never once shown the difficult part of the job, and he never understands what happened.

Listen to the word chosen for Allah's displeasure in this verse, because it is not the obvious one. A work on near-synonyms draws the line by who is permitted to use each word. Ghaḍab, anger, runs in both directions: from the lesser towards the greater, and from the greater towards the lesser. Sakhaṭ runs one way only. A ruler may feel it towards his chamberlain. The chamberlain may never feel it towards the ruler. That distinction is established in the lexicons.

So the Arabic here quietly declines a symmetry that we are very keen on.

You hear it in a phrase people use with complete sincerity. I have a difficult relationship with God. Said in the tone you would use about a brother-in-law: two parties with a history, each with a case, each entitled to their grievance. The verse does not argue with that. It simply uses a word that has no return journey in it.

And the other half of the pairing is just as deliberate. The lexicons define riḍā by its opposite and give it no older physical picture, so its picture is a turning towards. One lexicographer explains a line of poetry this way: when a man's people are pleased with him, they love him and they come towards him. That is what is on offer in the first half of this verse.

Which is where the ego has to put something down. Not its dignity, which He has never asked for. Its claim to be the other party in a negotiation. A face turning towards you, or a long walk home carrying something you cannot put down. Those are the two items, and neither of them is a settlement between equals.

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.