Ar-Rum · Makki · ayah 53 of 60

Ar-Rum 30:53

وَمَآ أَنتَ بِهَـٰدِ ٱلْعُمْىِ عَن ضَلَـٰلَتِهِمْ ۖ إِن تُسْمِعُ إِلَّا مَن يُؤْمِنُ بِـَٔايَـٰتِنَا فَهُم مُّسْلِمُونَ

“And you cannot guide the blind away from their error. You will only make hear those who believe in Our verses so they are Muslims [in submission to Allāh].”

Saheeh International

Essence

You can walk ahead and show the way, but turning a heart from its straying is Allah's; those who truly hear are those who yield.

A reflection

Not the staff that walks ahead of them

The lexicons give a striking first image for the root h-d-y. To guide someone on a road was to go ahead of them to show it. The leading horses of a herd were its hawādī, because they went in front. And a blind man's stick was called al-hādiya. It goes ahead of the one who holds it, as though guiding him.

Now hear the ayah with that picture: you are not the hādī of the blind. You are not the stick that taps ahead of them. One more lexicon detail completes the scene. A man was said to walk yuhādī bayna ithnayn when he went between two people, leaning on them.

Picture a blind woman with a long cane at a busy crossing. A stranger sees her hesitate and offers his elbow. He can describe the kerb, the traffic, the island halfway across. But she must reach out and take the arm. If she will not, his kindness stops at her sleeve.

The Quran uses 'guide' in two senses, and this ayah shows the difference. Of the Prophet ﷺ it says: 'you guide to a straight path' (42:52). That is showing the way, offering the elbow. It also says: 'you do not guide whom you love, but Allah guides whom He wills' (28:56). That is the turning of the heart itself.

One classical commentator noticed a small word. The ayah says guiding them ʿan, away from, their straying. Guidance here is turning someone aside from a road they are already on. That kind of turning is Allah's alone.

So offer the elbow, every time. The reaching out is a gift you cannot give.

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.