As-Saffat · Makki · ayah 89 of 182

As-Saffat 37:89

فَقَالَ إِنِّى سَقِيمٌ

“And said, "Indeed, I am [about to be] ill."”

Saheeh International

Essence

Asked to join the festival, Ibrahim said 'I am ill': true in what he meant, misread by those who heard, and still weighed against himself.

A reflection

Did a prophet lie?

A philosophy undergraduate is writing an essay on whether lying is ever justified. In the footnotes of a library book she finds a hadith: Ibrahim never lied except three times. The first example given is this very sentence. She sits back, unsettled. A prophet who lies?

The narration is authentic, and both Sahihs record it. Ibrahim never told a kadhba except three, two of them for the sake of Allah. One was 'I am ill'. Another was 'Rather, the biggest of them did it' (21:63). The third concerned his wife Sarah, whom he called his sister before a tyrant. In Muslim's version he explains to her that she is his sister in faith, for he knew no other believer on earth.

So what was actually said? The commentaries explain that each sentence was true in what Ibrahim meant, while the hearers understood something else. 'I am ill' can mean 'I am going to be ill', as every mortal will be. The Quran uses the same form for the Prophet: 'You are going to die, and they are going to die' (39:30). It can also mean sick at heart. And Sarah was truly his sister in faith.

Why then use the word 'lie' at all? One classical commentary answers that the word names what the listener understood, not what the speaker intended. Another notes that prophets stand so near to Allah that even this was counted against them. Ibrahim himself hopes his Lord will forgive his fault on the Day of Judgement (26:82).

One classical theologian found the narration so troubling that he doubted it. Others replied that it stands in both Sahihs, and the explanation removes the difficulty. The narration is honest in a way legends rarely are. It records its hero's own faults.

What remains open is the student's real question: is it ever right to deceive? This ayah gives no easy licence. It shows a prophet choosing true words, for Allah's sake, under a tyranny of idols. And it shows him still counting those words against himself.

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.