Al-Ahzab · Madani · ayah 13 of 73

Al-Ahzab 33:13

وَإِذْ قَالَت طَّآئِفَةٌ مِّنْهُمْ يَـٰٓأَهْلَ يَثْرِبَ لَا مُقَامَ لَكُمْ فَٱرْجِعُوا۟ ۚ وَيَسْتَـْٔذِنُ فَرِيقٌ مِّنْهُمُ ٱلنَّبِىَّ يَقُولُونَ إِنَّ بُيُوتَنَا عَوْرَةٌ وَمَا هِىَ بِعَوْرَةٍ ۖ إِن يُرِيدُونَ إِلَّا فِرَارًا

“And when a faction of them said, "O people of Yathrib,[1185] there is no stability for you [here], so return [home]." And a party of them asked permission of the Prophet, saying, "Indeed, our houses are exposed [i.e., unprotected]," while they were not exposed. They did not intend except to flee.”

Saheeh International

Essence

Deserters pleaded that their houses lay exposed; Allah answers that the houses were sound, and the only breach was their wish to flee.

A reflection

The gap was not in the wall

Most Muslims meet the word ʿawra in one context only: the parts of the body to be covered. So this ayah can sound odd on first hearing. Our houses are ʿawra?

The word is much older and wider than that one use. The lexicons quoted in the commentaries define it as any gap or weak point that is feared, at a frontier or in battle. A place is ʿawra when it lies open and easy to enter. A horseman was said to have 'shown his ʿawra' when a gap appeared in his guard for a blow. One early reading, ʿawira, describes houses with low walls and breaks in them. The body sense grew from this: what is exposed, what must be shielded.

So the deserters were speaking the language of military defence. Our homes are a breach in the line. They sit on the side facing the enemy, with no men inside. Thieves could walk in. It sounded responsible.

Then comes the shortest rebuttal in the ayah: wa mā hiya bi-ʿawra. They were not exposed. Allah does not argue with their reasoning. He simply denies the fact, and then names the real gap: in yurīdūna illā firārā, they wanted nothing but to flee.

Picture a security assessor walking round a family home. Every door has a new lock, and every window has a sensor. The owner is proud. Then the assessor lifts the plant pot by the back step and holds up the spare key. The breach was never in the building. It was in a habit.

That is the turn this ayah makes. The houses were sound. The breach was in the men who described them. Fear had opened a gap in their guard, and they pointed at the walls to hide it.

It is a useful question to carry. When you list the reasons you cannot do something hard, ask which of them are walls and which are you. Often the ʿawra we describe is outside us, and the one Allah sees is within.

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.