As-Saffat · Makki · ayah 163 of 182

As-Saffat 37:163

إِلَّا مَنْ هُوَ صَالِ ٱلْجَحِيمِ

“Except he who is to [enter and] burn in the Hellfire.[1309]”

Saheeh International

Essence

Only one already walking towards the Fire can be lured there; who that is, Allah alone knows, and the knowing is not ours to borrow.

A reflection

Knowledge we are not given

The commentators explain the exception in almost the same words, one after another. Except one whom Allah knew would burn. Except one for whom it was already written. Except one about whom it was decided. The weight of the ayah rests on knowledge, and the knowledge is His.

Notice what the ayah does not do. It does not name anyone. It does not give the Makkans a list, or the believers a test to apply to their neighbours. It describes a category and leaves its membership with Allah.

In a mosque car park after the evening prayer, a man leans on his car and mutters to his friend about the neighbour's son. The earring, the music through the wall, the girlfriend. 'That boy is going to hell,' he says, and opens his door. He speaks with total confidence about the one thing the ayah keeps out of human hands.

This is where the ego has to shrink. Pride loves to sort people. It enjoys standing on the right side of a line and looking across. But the line here is drawn by One who knows the end of every life, and we do not know the end of our own. The boy with the earring may die in prostration. The man by the car may not.

Someone may object that a God who knows in advance who will burn sounds like a tyrant displaying his power. The sources answer in two ways. First, He needs nothing from anyone; people are the needy ones and He is the Free of need (35:15). Power that gains nothing from its subjects has no motive to show off. Second, the two Sahihs report a book Allah wrote when He completed creation. It is with Him above the Throne, and it says: 'My mercy has outstripped My anger.' The One who holds this knowledge wrote mercy first.

So the ayah humbles in both directions. It denies the tempters any real power. And it denies us the right to play judge.

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.