Ya-Sin · Makki · ayah 25 of 83

Ya-Sin 36:25

إِنِّىٓ ءَامَنتُ بِرَبِّكُمْ فَٱسْمَعُونِ

“Indeed, I have believed in your Lord, so listen to me."”

Saheeh International

Essence

Facing those about to kill him, he declares faith in 'your Lord', who is theirs as much as his, and asks to be heard.

A reflection

Not 'my Lord': your Lord

Two brothers stand at their mother's grave a year after the funeral. The elder prays quietly. The younger, who stopped believing at university, stands back. 'You go and talk to your God,' he says. His brother answers without turning. 'He's yours too. He made me two years before He made you.'

The man in Ya-Sin chose that same pronoun at the hardest moment of his life. He did not say 'I believe in my Lord'. He said āmantu bi-rabbikum: I have believed in your Lord.

One commentator explains why the word matters. Every disbeliever can say 'I too believe in my lord'. Saying 'your Lord', after 'the One who created me', makes the point unanswerable. My Lord and your Lord are one. The One who made me is the very One who made you. The Quran puts the same words elsewhere on a messenger's lips: Allāhu rabbunā wa rabbukum, Allah is our Lord and your Lord (42:15). A later commentator adds that this exposes their idols as false lords.

This is majesty in a single possessive. The town was about to kill a man for believing in Allah. And Allah was still their Lord: feeding them, holding their breath in their chests, while they raised their hands against His servant. Their denial took nothing from His lordship.

There is a doubt here for a modern reader. Isn't it arrogant to tell people that God is their Lord when they say He is not? The ayah suggests the opposite. Arrogance is treating God as a private possession, 'my God, not yours'. Humility is admitting that we are all equally His: equally made, equally fed, equally returning.

The pride that wants to opt out of being His does not change the fact. It only changes whether we thank Him.

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.