Ar-Rum · Makki · ayah 9 of 60

Ar-Rum 30:9

أَوَلَمْ يَسِيرُوا۟ فِى ٱلْأَرْضِ فَيَنظُرُوا۟ كَيْفَ كَانَ عَـٰقِبَةُ ٱلَّذِينَ مِن قَبْلِهِمْ ۚ كَانُوٓا۟ أَشَدَّ مِنْهُمْ قُوَّةً وَأَثَارُوا۟ ٱلْأَرْضَ وَعَمَرُوهَآ أَكْثَرَ مِمَّا عَمَرُوهَا وَجَآءَتْهُمْ رُسُلُهُم بِٱلْبَيِّنَـٰتِ ۖ فَمَا كَانَ ٱللَّهُ لِيَظْلِمَهُمْ وَلَـٰكِن كَانُوٓا۟ أَنفُسَهُمْ يَظْلِمُونَ

“Have they not traveled through the earth and observed how was the end of those before them? They were greater than them in power, and they plowed [or excavated] the earth and built it up more than they [i.e., the Makkans] have built it up, and their messengers came to them with clear evidences. And Allāh would not ever have wronged them, but they were wronging themselves.”

Saheeh International

Essence

Stronger nations ploughed deeper, built more and lived longer, were warned with clear proofs, and fell: Allah wronged none of them; they wronged themselves.

A reflection

Never His way to wrong them

The ayah ends with a sentence built in a particular way: fa-mā kāna Allāhu li-yaẓlimahum. It is not simply 'Allah did not wrong them'. The construction denies that wronging them was ever His way at all. One classical commentator noted that stating it like this shows how completely Allah is free of injustice. Another put it more bluntly: His very nature is the opposite of wrong.

Notice where the sentence stands. It follows a list of human strength. Those nations were mightier, ploughed deeper and built more. Human power, given room, tends to wrong. The strong lean on the weak because they can. History is a long record of it.

Here is the One who holds all power, and He states that wrong is not in Him. A commentator on this ayah linked it to another. 'Did they not see that Allah, who created them, was greater than them in strength?' (41:15). The One who created strength itself has nothing to prove by misusing it.

That is where the ego is cut down to size. Every strength those nations boasted of was created and lent. The arms that ploughed, the minds that engineered, the long years that let them build. None of it was theirs to begin with. Their pride was a borrower's pride.

Some may ask why Allah tells us He is just. Does He need our approval? He does not. The sentence is for the reader's sake. It settles where the fault lay, so that no one blames the Judge for the verdict.

It also gives the believer ground to stand on. When life seems unfair, he knows who has the last word. It is One who wrongs no one, not even by the weight of a speck (4:40).

Whatever power you hold today, a job title, a budget or a household, it is on loan. Use it as the One who is never unjust would have you use 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.