Saba · Makki · ayah 25 of 54

Saba 34:25

قُل لَّا تُسْـَٔلُونَ عَمَّآ أَجْرَمْنَا وَلَا نُسْـَٔلُ عَمَّا تَعْمَلُونَ

“Say, "You will not be asked about what we committed, and we will not be asked about what you do."”

Saheeh International

Essence

Even while calling people from error, the Prophet ﷺ is told to name his own side's faults as crimes and theirs only as deeds.

A reflection

The heavy word for us, the light word for you

Read the two halves of this ayah side by side and something seems back to front. About the believers it says ajramnā: what we committed, a word from the vocabulary of crime. About the deniers it says taʿmalūn: what you do, the plainest word for any deed.

You would expect the reverse. The Prophet ﷺ was calling people away from idols. Surely the heavy word belonged on the other side of the table.

The commentators on language noticed this and called it the height of fairness. The believer's small slips, which no believer is free of, are named with the word used for great wrongs. The other side's gravest error is named with the word used for ordinary work.

They point to a second layer. The believers' crimes come in the past tense, the tense of a thing settled and certain. The deniers' deeds come in the present tense, which asserts nothing final. Even the grammar declines to convict them.

One theological commentary gives the reason plainly. Had the ayah said 'your crimes', anger would have risen, and anger blocks understanding.

Picture the leader of an orchestra after a ragged concert. The players file in braced for blame. She begins with her own slip, an early entry in the second movement. Only then does she turn to the brass and their tempo. Nobody has to defend themselves before they can listen.

This is not false modesty. The Prophet ﷺ knew where the truth lay, and the surrounding ayat leave no doubt about it. It is a decision about which word lets the other person keep listening. When you are most certain you are right, the softer word matters most.

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.