Ghafir · Makki · ayah 73 of 85

Ghafir 40:73

ثُمَّ قِيلَ لَهُمْ أَيْنَ مَا كُنتُمْ تُشْرِكُونَ

“Then it will be said to them, "Where is that which you used to associate [with Him in worship]”

Saheeh International

Essence

In the Fire, one question is put to them: where now are the partners you used to set up beside Allah?

A reflection

The simplest question

Thumma qīla lahum ayna mā kuntum tushrikūn. Then it will be said to them: where are those you used to associate as partners?

The question is a single word followed by a memory. Ayna: where? The commentaries hear in it a rebuke, not a request for information. A modern commentary fills it out. Where are the gods you used to worship besides Allah? Will they help you today? Call them, then, to rescue you from this, if they can.

The power of the question lies in its simplicity. It does not argue. It does not list the proofs again. Those were given in life, at length. Now it only asks where.

A later commentary notes the past tense of qīla, it was said, describing something still to come. It signals that the question is certain to be asked.

That word, where, has a way of exposing things that seemed solid. The partners they set up, idols, powers, patrons, were always present in the world. They were carved, honoured, consulted, sacrificed to. Now, at the one moment their help would matter, they are simply not there.

After a sudden market crash, an investor who lost most of his savings sits at his kitchen table. For years, a crowd of confident voices had told him exactly where to put his money: commentators, newsletters, an online forum. He scrolls through them now. Most have gone quiet. A few have deleted their posts. He finds himself asking, aloud, to an empty room: where are you all now?

That is a worldly shadow of the ayah. When the moment of need comes, false supports do not argue back. They simply are not there.

The question is asked on the Day. But it can be asked now, by anyone, of their own supports. Where will this be when I truly need 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.