Saba · Makki · ayah 8 of 54

Saba 34:8

أَفْتَرَىٰ عَلَى ٱللَّهِ كَذِبًا أَم بِهِۦ جِنَّةٌۢ ۗ بَلِ ٱلَّذِينَ لَا يُؤْمِنُونَ بِٱلْـَٔاخِرَةِ فِى ٱلْعَذَابِ وَٱلضَّلَـٰلِ ٱلْبَعِيدِ

“Has he invented about Allāh a lie or is there in him madness?" Rather, they who do not believe in the Hereafter will be in the punishment and [are in] extreme error.”

Saheeh International

Essence

Liar or madman, the deniers ask; Allah sets both boxes aside and names the real loss: theirs, for refusing the Hereafter.

A reflection

Only two boxes, and neither fits

A fair question first. Many people in history have claimed to speak for God. Some lied. Some were deluded. Was it not reasonable for Quraysh to ask which this one was?

The question is reasonable. The trouble is the shape of their answer. They allowed only two boxes: he invents lies about Allah, or he is mad. A third box is missing, the one the evidence pointed to. He is telling the truth.

One classical reader notices something sly in their wording. They did not commit to calling him a liar. They hedged: liar or mad. Why? Because a plain charge of lying could be tested, and they knew how it would fail. Hedging protected them from being caught out.

The Sunnah preserves a striking scene on exactly this point. Sahih al-Bukhari reports that Abu Sufyan, then still an enemy, was questioned about the Prophet ﷺ by the Byzantine emperor. Abu Sufyan admitted afterwards that he would have lied about him. Only one thing stopped him: shame that his own companions would report him as a liar. The enemy feared the label liar for himself, while pinning it on the most truthful man he knew.

Picture a nurse who reports that a senior doctor is falsifying records. The hospital's response comes in two flavours. Either she is lying, or she is having some kind of breakdown. Nobody checks the records. The two boxes exist so that the third question never has to be asked.

What remains open is fair. A claim to revelation should be examined, not swallowed. But examination means looking at the man's whole record, not choosing between two insults in advance.

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.