Ali 'Imran · Madani · ayah 87 of 200

Ali 'Imran 3:87

أُو۟لَـٰٓئِكَ جَزَآؤُهُمْ أَنَّ عَلَيْهِمْ لَعْنَةَ ٱللَّهِ وَٱلْمَلَـٰٓئِكَةِ وَٱلنَّاسِ أَجْمَعِينَ

“Those - their recompense will be that upon them is the curse of Allāh and the angels and the people, all together,”

Saheeh International

Essence

The recompense of those who knowingly turn from faith is distance from Allah's mercy, confirmed by the angels and by people, every one of them.

A reflection

A verdict to fear, not a weapon to use

After a heated online argument, one man types a curse at another, naming Allah, and adds this ayah as a reference. He feels righteous. Forty strangers add their agreement.

A sceptic might say this ayah licenses exactly that: a religion that curses people. It deserves a careful answer.

First, the ayah describes Allah's recompense for a specific pattern: knowing rejection after belief, testimony and clear proof. It describes what will be, by Allah's judgement. It does not appoint any of us to pronounce it on a living person.

Second, the Prophet ﷺ was strikingly firm about cursing. Sahih Muslim records him saying that it does not befit a truthful person to be a frequent curser. Al-Tirmidhi records: the believer is not one who taunts, nor one who curses, nor one who is obscene. It is graded ṣaḥīḥ.

Third, a classical commentator notes that scholars disagreed about cursing particular individuals, and that caution is the wiser course.

Fourth, look two ayat ahead. 'Except those who repent afterwards and reform' (3:89). The man the passage is linked to did exactly that. Anyone cursing a living person is presuming to know an ending that only Allah knows.

So the ayah should make us afraid of becoming such people. It should not make us eager to label others as such people. A believer reads a verse like this and asks for protection. He does not reach for it as a weapon.

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.