Ghafir · Makki · ayah 5 of 85

Ghafir 40:5

كَذَّبَتْ قَبْلَهُمْ قَوْمُ نُوحٍ وَٱلْأَحْزَابُ مِنۢ بَعْدِهِمْ ۖ وَهَمَّتْ كُلُّ أُمَّةٍۭ بِرَسُولِهِمْ لِيَأْخُذُوهُ ۖ وَجَـٰدَلُوا۟ بِٱلْبَـٰطِلِ لِيُدْحِضُوا۟ بِهِ ٱلْحَقَّ فَأَخَذْتُهُمْ ۖ فَكَيْفَ كَانَ عِقَابِ

“The people of Noah denied before them and the [disbelieving] factions after them, and every nation intended [a plot] for their messenger to seize him, and they disputed by [using] falsehood to [attempt to] invalidate thereby the truth. So I seized them, and how [terrible] was My penalty.”

Saheeh International

Essence

Nation after nation reached out to seize its messenger and argued to make the truth slip, and each was itself seized.

A reflection

They reached to seize, and were seized

The ayah uses one verb twice, and the second use is a reversal.

Every nation set its mind on its messenger li-yaʾkhudhūhu, to take him. Then: fa-akhadhtuhum, so I took them.

The root of akhadha is gathering something into your grip. A hand closing on a camel's rein. The Arabs called a captive an akhīdh, the one taken. The commentaries explain what these nations wanted: to get hold of their messenger, to imprison, torment or kill him.

One commentator draws out the symmetry. They aimed to take him, so I made their recompense for that aim the very same thing: I took them. The punishment wore the shape of the crime.

Notice the voice, too. Up to this point the ayah speaks of them. Then it turns to the first person. Not 'they were destroyed', but I took them. The One who was ignored, argued with and plotted against steps forward and acts.

That is the ego's blind spot. The one who reaches to seize always imagines himself as the taker. He plans, he grips, he decides who goes where. It rarely crosses his mind that he too can be held.

A large firm sets out to buy a small rival and bury its product. Lawyers circle. Within two years the regulators have broken up the giant instead. Nobody in the boardroom had imagined that outcome. They were too busy being the ones who take.

Pride assumes the direction of power runs one way, from me outward. This ayah reverses the arrow with a single verb. Before you reach for anyone, remember whose hand is over every hand.

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.