As-Saffat · Makki · ayah 36 of 182

As-Saffat 37:36

وَيَقُولُونَ أَئِنَّا لَتَارِكُوٓا۟ ءَالِهَتِنَا لِشَاعِرٍ مَّجْنُونٍۭ

“And were saying, "Are we to leave our gods for a mad poet?"”

Saheeh International

Essence

Unable to answer the message, they gave the messenger two labels that cancel each other out: a poet, and a madman.

A reflection

Two insults that cannot both be true

A critic reviews a first novel. In the second paragraph she calls it cold and calculating, every effect engineered. In the fifth she calls it hysterical and out of control. A reader finishing the review learns very little about the book. He learns a great deal about the critic's determination to dislike it.

The chiefs of Makka give the Prophet ﷺ two labels in one breath: shāʿir majnūn, a mad poet. The lexicons show why the pairing is so strange. The root of shāʿir, sh-ʿ-r, has two branches, hair and knowing. One lexicon joins them. Shaʿartu first meant I touched the hair, and from it came I knew: a knowing as fine as touching a single hair. The poet was named for perceiving what others miss.

Majnūn comes from j-n-n, to cover. The jinn are hidden, the unborn child is hidden in the womb, and madness is junūn because it covers the mind.

So they called him a man of exceptionally fine perception, and a man whose mind was covered. One commentary notes the contradiction directly. Some called the pairing confused raving, since poetry needs a complete mind to order rare meanings in fine words. The same commentary adds, fairly, that it has seen unbalanced poets. But either label, it concludes, was nonsense when applied to him.

This is what happens when people argue to win rather than to understand. They grab every weapon in reach, even weapons that point in opposite directions.

It is a useful test for our own criticism. When we find ourselves attacking someone from two contradictory directions, it is worth stopping. We may not be describing them at all. We may simply be refusing to hear them.

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.