Ghafir · Makki · ayah 74 of 85

Ghafir 40:74

مِن دُونِ ٱللَّهِ ۖ قَالُوا۟ ضَلُّوا۟ عَنَّا بَل لَّمْ نَكُن نَّدْعُوا۟ مِن قَبْلُ شَيْـًٔا ۚ كَذَٰلِكَ يُضِلُّ ٱللَّهُ ٱلْكَـٰفِرِينَ

“Other than Allāh?" They will say, "They have departed from us; rather, we did not used to invoke previously anything." Thus does Allāh put astray the disbelievers.”

Saheeh International

Essence

Asked where their gods are, they answer: they have strayed away from us; in truth, we were never calling on anything at all.

A reflection

The gods that wandered off

Qālū ḍallū ʿannā. They said: they have strayed away from us.

The verb ḍallū is the same word the Quran uses throughout for going astray. A later commentary explains its sense here: their absence, as when a man says his animal has strayed and he cannot find where it is. A concise commentary says simply: they have vanished, and we do not see them.

The irony is sharp. In the world, these people strayed from the truth by following their gods. Now the gods have strayed from them. The guides have wandered off, like a loose animal into the dunes, and left their followers alone.

The root ḍ-l-l in the lexicons covers losing the way, being lost from sight, and effort that comes to nothing. All three are present in this answer. The gods are lost from sight. The way their followers walked has led nowhere. A lifetime of devotion has come to nothing.

A herder in the desert ties his camel loosely one night, too tired to check the knot. In the morning, the rope lies on the sand. A line of tracks leads off into the dunes and disappears. Everything he planned to do that day depended on that animal. He stands there, holding an empty rope.

That is roughly the picture the commentary draws. The deniers stand in the worst place imaginable, holding an empty rope. What they relied on has simply gone.

The ayah invites a practical question. What am I tying my life to, and how firm is the knot? Anything other than Allah can stray, wander, vanish. Health, wealth, people, plans. They are gifts, not anchors. Only the One who never strays can bear the full weight of a heart.

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.