Ali 'Imran · Madani · ayah 166 of 200

Ali 'Imran 3:166

وَمَآ أَصَـٰبَكُمْ يَوْمَ ٱلْتَقَى ٱلْجَمْعَانِ فَبِإِذْنِ ٱللَّهِ وَلِيَعْلَمَ ٱلْمُؤْمِنِينَ

“And what struck you on the day the two armies met [at Uḥud] was by permission of Allāh that He might make evident the [true] believers”

Saheeh International

Essence

What struck you on the day the two hosts met was by Allah's permission, and so that He would make the believers known.

A reflection

Nothing was on site that was not signed in

A secure yard has one gatehouse. Every lorry is signed in at the barrier. Whatever is standing in that yard at four in the afternoon is there because somebody let it through.

This ayah puts a gatehouse on the worst afternoon of their lives.

The word is idhn, and the commentaries read it in more than one way. One says by His will. One says by His knowledge, as the same root gives the word for an announcement. One reads it as His leaving them to each other, not holding the enemy back, in order to test them. Another objects that a consolation needs more than knowledge to console anyone. The schools differ here, and the difference belongs to the theologians.

What none of them disputes is the plain sense of the sentence. It did not happen outside His permission.

And the root is worth knowing, because it is unexpectedly intimate. The lexicons give two close origins: the ear, and knowing, and say they meet because everything heard reaches knowledge through the ear. A jug's handle is called its ear. Idhn, permission, is letting someone know the way is open. That is established. So permission in Arabic is not a stamped form. It is a word spoken into a hearing.

Now the ego, which has a very specific stake in this.

We narrate our lives as a contest between what we did and what was done to us. Both halves are flattering. The first makes us the author of every good thing. The second makes us the hero of every bad one. Look what I built. Look what they did to me. Pride and self-pity run on the same engine, which is the belief that the two actors in the story are me and them.

This ayah removes that frame in four words, without removing anybody's responsibility. The ayah before it had just said the cause was from themselves.

So does a Lord who insists that nothing happens without His leave want the credit? Notice the second half of the sentence. The permission is given a purpose, and the purpose concerns them: so that He would make the believers known. The gate was not opened to display the gatekeeper.

So take the worst thing in your current year. Say it plainly: this did not get past the gate without permission. Then stop asking who did it to you, and ask what it was let in for.

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.