As-Saffat · Makki · ayah 23 of 182

As-Saffat 37:23

مِن دُونِ ٱللَّهِ فَٱهْدُوهُمْ إِلَىٰ صِرَٰطِ ٱلْجَحِيمِ

“Other than Allāh, and guide them to the path of Hellfire”

Saheeh International

Essence

They refused to be guided all their lives; now, at last, they are guided, and the road they are shown leads only to the blaze.

A reflection

Guidance, finally accepted, to the wrong door

At the end of an airport jet bridge, a member of staff in a bright vest stands with one arm out. Transfers to the left, arrivals to the right. Nobody argues with her. Nobody asks why. Tired passengers simply go where the arm points, because the arm knows the building and they do not.

Hold that calm, pointing arm in your mind. Then read the verb this ayah uses: fa-hdūhum. Guide them.

It is the verb of the whole Quran's hope. It is the verb in the prayer every Muslim says many times a day. The root names showing the way, making a road plain, and leading someone forward along it. The lexicons add that the Arabs called the one who walks out in front a hādī, a guide. One early reading of this ayah takes it in exactly that sense: put them in front, lead them on.

And here it is spoken over people who refused it for a lifetime. They were offered guidance by prophets, by revelation, by their own consciences. Every offer was waved away. Now, on the Day of Sorting, they are finally guided. Quietly, efficiently, without argument. The road they are shown is the road to the blaze.

The commentators of language name what is happening in the wording. They call it tahakkum, a pointed irony. Using the words guidance and road for a march to the Fire is meant to sting. A people who mocked the idea of being led are led after all.

There is something here for every reader, not only for deniers. Nobody goes through life unguided. Every person follows some arm pointing somewhere: a habit, a crowd, an appetite, an ambition. The only question is which guide we accepted, and where it was pointing all along. The ayah shows the moment when that question is answered for good.

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.