Sad · Makki · ayah 64 of 88

Sad 38:64

إِنَّ ذَٰلِكَ لَحَقٌّ تَخَاصُمُ أَهْلِ ٱلنَّارِ

“Indeed, that is truth [i.e., reality] - the quarreling of the people of the Fire.”

Saheeh International

Essence

Allah closes the scene with His guarantee: this quarrel in the Fire is no figure of speech, but will be spoken word for word.

A reflection

A quarrel reported before it happens

Step back and notice what has just happened. The Quran has reported, line by line, a quarrel that has not yet taken place. Every line is there: the crowd rushing in, the refused welcome, the 'no, you', the cry for double, the search for missing men. Then it signs the report: inna dhālika la-ḥaqq, that is truly real.

The sentence is doubly emphatic, with inna at the front and la- fixed to ḥaqq. One classical commentary explains the force of ḥaqq here. It is bound to happen; they will certainly say these words. Another notices the structure. First 'that' is left vague, then it is named: the quarrelling of the people of the Fire. Leaving a thing unnamed and then naming it, he says, presses it home.

Ḥaqq is what is firm and real, the opposite of what is empty and vanishes. The lexicons tie it to tightly woven cloth, and to a door's pivot turning true in its socket. A report that is ḥaqq fits reality exactly.

Think how little command we have over even our own words. A woman prepares for a hard phone call with her brother about their mother's care. She writes down what she will say, in order, calmly. Thirty seconds in, he says one thing she did not expect. The page is useless. She hears herself say the very words she had sworn not to say.

We cannot script our own next conversation. Allah has set down, with certainty, the conversation of people many of whom are not yet born, in a place none of us has seen. He knows what they will say and in what order. He states it as plain fact.

That should humble the ego. Our pride rests on the feeling that we are the authors of our own lives, in charge of what comes next. Yet here is the transcript of a quarrel, written before the quarrellers. His knowledge holds time the way a hand holds a page.

And there is mercy inside the majesty. He did not keep the transcript to Himself. He read it to us while we can still choose not to be in it.

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.