Luqman · Makki · ayah 7 of 34

Luqman 31:7

وَإِذَا تُتْلَىٰ عَلَيْهِ ءَايَـٰتُنَا وَلَّىٰ مُسْتَكْبِرًا كَأَن لَّمْ يَسْمَعْهَا كَأَنَّ فِىٓ أُذُنَيْهِ وَقْرًا ۖ فَبَشِّرْهُ بِعَذَابٍ أَلِيمٍ

“And when Our verses are recited to him, he turns away arrogantly as if he had not heard them, as if there was in his ears deafness. So give him tidings of a painful punishment.”

Saheeh International

Essence

He heard every word, then turned his back as if his ears were stopped: arrogance often looks less like shouting than like a shrug.

A reflection

Pretending not to hear

The ayah is careful. It does not say he did not hear. It says ka-an lam yasmaʿhā, as if he had not heard. The verses were recited to him. They reached him. Then he turned away as though they had not.

Why would anyone act deaf to words he has clearly heard? The narration-based commentary gives a sharp answer. He made himself deaf, though he was not deaf, because hearing the verses hurt him. He had no use for them and no wish for them. It reads the end of the ayah in the same light. A painful punishment awaits one who found Allah's words painful to hear.

That is a recognisable human move. Picture a man on a station platform, cigarette in hand. On the big screen above the tracks, an advert about smokers' lungs begins to play. He does not argue with it. He walks to the far end of the platform, where he cannot see the screen, and finishes his cigarette there. He heard enough to know he did not want to hear more.

This is not the honest doubter, who listens hard and remains unsure. A linguistic commentary sees a hint in the wording. Whoever truly hears these verses could hardly turn away; the man's turning shows he has refused to let them in.

The ayah names what drives the walk: mustakbiran, arrogantly. The Word Dictionary pictures arrogance as a self swollen past its real size. A swollen self cannot afford a word that would shrink it, so it moves out of range.

The question for the reader is gentle but real. Which ayah do I walk away from, not because I doubt it, but because I suspect it is right about me? The sting of hearing it may be the most useful thing in it.

The full entry has 6 more reflections, questions to sit with, and "Live it today" - with the words, the roots and the tafsir alongside. Free, no account, works offline.