Ya-Sin · Makki · ayah 75 of 83

Ya-Sin 36:75

لَا يَسْتَطِيعُونَ نَصْرَهُمْ وَهُمْ لَهُمْ جُندٌ مُّحْضَرُونَ

“They are not able to help them, and they [themselves] are for them soldiers in attendance.[1282]”

Saheeh International

Essence

They took gods to protect them and ended up as their gods' bodyguards: the helpers turned out to need help.

A reflection

The protectors who needed protecting

The natural reading of idolatry runs one way. People make gods so that the gods will look after them. The worshipper is weak, the god is strong, and the relationship flows from strength to weakness.

This ayah reverses it. They cannot help them, and they are, for them, an army brought forward.

One major commentator weighs the readings and chooses the one given by an early authority. The worshippers, he says, are an army for their gods in this world. They get angry on the gods' behalf. They fight to defend them. Meanwhile the gods bring them no good and turn no harm away. They are only idols. Another commentator puts the reversal plainly. They took the gods hoping to be strengthened by them, and the matter is the reverse of what they reckoned. They are the gods' army, standing ready, serving them and guarding them, while the gods have no power to help anyone.

Picture what that meant in practice. Statues that had to be carried, cleaned, housed, repaired and defended. Shrines that had to be guarded at night. Honour that had to be avenged when someone mocked them. All this effort flowed towards the gods. Nothing flowed back.

That is the quiet irony at the heart of the ayah, and it is not limited to stone. Whatever a person takes as a protector besides Allah tends to end up being protected by them. They feed it, defend it, worry about it and fight for it.

The question worth asking of anything you rely on is simple. Which way does the help actually flow?

The full entry has 6 more reflections, questions to sit with, and "Live it today" - with the words, the roots and the tafsir alongside. Free, no account, works offline.