Ar-Rum · Makki · ayah 32 of 60

Ar-Rum 30:32

مِنَ ٱلَّذِينَ فَرَّقُوا۟ دِينَهُمْ وَكَانُوا۟ شِيَعًا ۖ كُلُّ حِزْبٍۭ بِمَا لَدَيْهِمْ فَرِحُونَ

“[Or] of those who have divided their religion and become sects, every faction rejoicing in what it has.[1147]”

Saheeh International

Essence

Splitting a religion into parties is described here by its feeling: each group delighted with what it holds, as if delight were proof.

A reflection

Delighted, because they never checked

The ayah ends on one word for the mood of every faction: fariḥūn, delighted. Not anxious, not searching, not humbled. Delighted, with mā ladayhim, whatever happens to be in their hands.

One commentator added a sharp diagnosis. They are pleased and admiring of themselves, he wrote, because they never made the truth clear to themselves, though that duty was on them. In other words, the delight comes from not checking. A group that has never examined its own position has nothing to spoil its pleasure in it.

That is a psychological insight before it is a theological one. Belonging to a group that is right feels wonderful. It feels exactly the same whether the group is right or wrong. Picture a pub quiz team cheering their answer to the final question, high-fiving across the table. Two tables away, another team cheers a different answer just as loudly. The feeling is identical at both tables. Only the answer sheet will tell them apart.

Notice also the word kull: every party. The ayah does not single out one faction as the deluded one. Delight is the common condition of all of them. That is precisely why it cannot be evidence. If every side feels it equally, the feeling settles nothing.

The commentators preserve a further possibility. A person who disobeys Allah can be delighted with his disobedience too. Pleasure attaches to almost anything a person has decided is his. That is what makes it such a poor judge.

So the test is not 'do I feel sure?' Everyone feels sure. The test is whether the certainty has been checked against the revelation, honestly, by people willing to lose the argument. A position that has passed that test may be held with joy. A position that has never faced it is only being enjoyed.

Faith has its own joy, and the Quran welcomes it. But that joy rests on what Allah gives. The joy of a faction rests on what it holds. One is a gift received. The other is a possession defended.

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.