Ghafir · Makki · ayah 63 of 85

Ghafir 40:63

كَذَٰلِكَ يُؤْفَكُ ٱلَّذِينَ كَانُوا۟ بِـَٔايَـٰتِ ٱللَّهِ يَجْحَدُونَ

“Thus were those [before you] deluded who were rejecting the signs of Allāh.”

Saheeh International

Essence

Those who made a habit of denying Allah's signs were turned away in just the same manner; the turning grew out of the denying.

A reflection

Denying what you know

Alladhīna kānū bi-āyāti allāhi yajḥadūn. Those who used to deny Allah's signs.

The verb is yajḥadūn, and it is more precise than English denial. The lexicons define juḥūd as denying what one knows to be true. Not something hidden, but something plain and evident. It is the opposite of acknowledging. This is the established sense.

So the people described here are not those who never saw. They saw, and refused to admit it. The Quran describes Pharaoh's people this way elsewhere. They denied the signs, though their own souls were certain of them, out of wrongdoing and arrogance (27:14).

That is a hard thing to recognise, because it rarely feels like lying. It feels like disagreement, or caution, or simply not being convinced. Inside, the person often has a sense of what is true. They just will not let it reach their mouth.

A tenant moves out of a flat, leaving damage to the walls and floor. The landlord sends photographs, together with the tenant's own dated messages from months earlier, apologising for the damage. The tenant writes to the deposit service that the flat was like that when he moved in. He is not confused. He knows. He denies anyway.

That is juḥūd in a small form. The Quran describes it at its largest: people who stood before signs of Allah that were plain to them, and said no.

The ayah's quiet warning is about habit. Kānū yajḥadūn: they used to deny. The grammar suggests repetition, a pattern rather than a single moment. Each denial made the next one easier.

It is worth asking ourselves honestly. Is there something I know to be true, about Allah, about myself, about a wrong I have done, that I keep refusing to say? The ayah suggests that is exactly where turning begins.

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.