Ali 'Imran · Madani · ayah 60 of 200

Ali 'Imran 3:60

ٱلْحَقُّ مِن رَّبِّكَ فَلَا تَكُن مِّنَ ٱلْمُمْتَرِينَ

“The truth is from your Lord, so do not be among the doubters.”

Saheeh International

Essence

The account of ʿĪsā just given is the truth from your Lord, so do not settle among those who keep doubting it.

A reflection

Certainty after the evidence, not instead of it

In a school laboratory, a sixteen-year-old runs her titration a third time. The reading matches the first two to the drop. Her teacher tells her to write it down. Three clean runs, he says, so stop re-titrating and draw your conclusion.

Is it closed-minded to tell someone not to doubt? The objection is fair, and it deserves a fair answer. This ayah does not arrive out of nowhere. It comes straight after an argument. The previous ayah set ʿĪsā beside Adam. If a birth without a father made someone divine, Adam, with neither parent, would have the stronger claim (3:59). Only then does the ayah say: 'The truth is from your Lord, so do not be among the doubters'.

A classical commentator reads 'the truth' here as that very argument. On this question, he says, there is no clearer proof than the case of Adam. The prohibition follows the evidence; it does not replace it. And the very next ayah opens the matter to a public challenge (3:61). That is not the posture of someone afraid of questions.

The lexicons give the root of ḥaqq a sturdy picture. A young camel entering its fourth year was a ḥiqq: now it could rightly be ridden and loaded. Truth, in this picture, is what can bear weight. Another lexicon traces the root to firmness and soundness.

What remains open should be admitted. Not everyone finds an argument decisive, and the surah does not pretend otherwise. But honest inquiry is different from re-running a settled result for ever. The student did not stop thinking when she wrote down her answer. She started using it.

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.