Ali 'Imran · Madani · ayah 82 of 200

Ali 'Imran 3:82

فَمَن تَوَلَّىٰ بَعْدَ ذَٰلِكَ فَأُو۟لَـٰٓئِكَ هُمُ ٱلْفَـٰسِقُونَ

“And whoever turned away after that - they were the defiantly disobedient.”

Saheeh International

Essence

Whoever turns away after so solemn and witnessed a covenant has stepped right outside the casing that held him.

A reflection

A date bursting out of its skin

A climber on the last pitch of a long route unclips from the safety rope to move faster. The rope was slowing her down. For a few metres she feels free.

The word the ayah uses for those who turn away is fāsiqūn. Its root has a picture from the date palm. The Arabs said a fresh date fasaqat when it burst out of its skin, leaving the casing that held and protected it. They called the mouse fuwaysiqa, 'little fāsiq', because it slips out of its hole to spoil the stores. One lexicon notes that the word was not heard of people in pre-Islamic poetry. The Quran gave it its moral sense.

So a fāsiq is not simply someone who sins. He is someone who has come out of something. Here, it is a covenant: the binding pledge described in the previous ayah, affirmed by the prophets and witnessed by Allah. Two modern commentaries explain the word in this ayah the same way: those who go out from Allah's religion and from obedience to their Lord.

The casing of a date is not a prison. It is what keeps the fruit whole and clean. A covenant with Allah is the same. It can feel like a restriction. In fact, it is protection.

The climber's freedom lasts exactly as long as she does not slip. The covenant is the rope. Turning away from it may feel like lightness. It is actually exposure.

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.