Fatir · Makki · ayah 14 of 45

Fatir 35:14

إِن تَدْعُوهُمْ لَا يَسْمَعُوا۟ دُعَآءَكُمْ وَلَوْ سَمِعُوا۟ مَا ٱسْتَجَابُوا۟ لَكُمْ ۖ وَيَوْمَ ٱلْقِيَـٰمَةِ يَكْفُرُونَ بِشِرْكِكُمْ ۚ وَلَا يُنَبِّئُكَ مِثْلُ خَبِيرٍ

“If you invoke them, they do not hear your supplication; and if they heard, they would not respond to you. And on the Day of Resurrection they will deny your association.[1247] And none can inform you like [one] Aware [of all matters].”

Saheeh International

Essence

What you call on besides Allah cannot hear you, could not answer, and will disown you on the Day.

A reflection

The shine and the acid test

A young couple stand at a jeweller's counter, admiring a gold bangle under the lights. It gleams. Behind the counter, the assayer is not looking at the gleam at all. He scratches the metal on a dark stone and touches it with a drop of acid. The shine tells him nothing. The reaction tells him everything.

The ayah ends on a word built for that difference. Khabīr comes from khubr: knowing a thing's inner reality by testing it. The Arabs set a person's makhbar, what he proves to be when tried, against his manẓar, how he looks. Al-Khabīr is the One who knows every makhbar, and tells.

And the ayah says: none informs you like a khabīr. The commentaries agree that this means Allah Himself. He has just told you three things you could never have found out alone. What you call on cannot hear you. It could not answer. And on the Day it will deny you. That last one no reasoning could reach. Only the One who knows the end could report it.

This is where the ego has to bow. We trust our own reading of things. We judge friends, plans and causes by their shine. We are proud of our instinct for people. Yet our view is always the counter view, never the acid.

Why does Allah commend His own reporting? Not to be admired. A weather forecast does not boast when it says 'trust the storm warning'. It is protecting the person who reads it. Here, too, the claim is for our sake. When the One who knows the inside of everything speaks, the humble response is simply to listen.

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.