As-Saffat · Makki · ayah 38 of 182

As-Saffat 37:38

إِنَّكُمْ لَذَآئِقُوا۟ ٱلْعَذَابِ ٱلْأَلِيمِ

“Indeed, you [disbelievers] will be tasters of the painful punishment,”

Saheeh International

Essence

After speaking about them for many ayat, the Quran suddenly turns and speaks to them: you will taste the painful punishment.

A reflection

When the speaker suddenly looks at you

A lecturer is explaining a case study to a hall of two hundred students. Halfway through a sentence, she stops. She looks directly at one young man in the back row and says: you. The whole hall turns. Until that moment, he had been an anonymous listener to a story about other people.

This ayah does the same thing. For many ayat, the deniers have been described in the third person. They said, they will be gathered, they turned on each other, they were arrogant. Then, without warning, the address turns: innakum, indeed you. You will taste the painful punishment.

The commentaries have a name for this shift: iltifāt, a turning of the face. One commentary explains its purpose. The turn to direct address shows the full weight of displeasure, by confronting them face to face with the threat. It also treats them with the disregard that suits those who were too proud to listen.

There is a lesson here for every reader, not only the deniers of Makka. It is very easy to read the Quran as a book about other people. The proud chiefs, the misled followers, the idol worshippers. We read about them with a comfortable distance, like a student listening to a case study.

The Quran does not allow that distance to last. Again and again it turns and says: you. The reader who notices those turns cannot remain a spectator.

So the next time you read a passage about people far away in time, watch for the moment the pronoun changes. When the book looks up from its story and says you, stop. Take the word personally. That is what it was always meant for.

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.