Fussilat · Makki · ayah 13 of 54

Fussilat 41:13

فَإِنْ أَعْرَضُوا۟ فَقُلْ أَنذَرْتُكُمْ صَـٰعِقَةً مِّثْلَ صَـٰعِقَةِ عَادٍ وَثَمُودَ

“But if they turn away, then say, "I have warned you of a thunderbolt like the thunderbolt [that struck] ʿAad and Thamūd.”

Saheeh International

Essence

With every argument given, one plain sentence is left: I have warned you of a crash like the one that ended ʿĀd and Thamūd.

A reflection

The hand over the Prophet's mouth

This is the ayah at which, by a well-known report, the first hearing of this surah stopped. ʿUtba ibn Rabīʿa had come to bargain on behalf of Quraysh. The Prophet ﷺ recited to him from the opening letters onwards. When he reached these words, "I have warned you of a crash like the crash of ʿĀd and Thamūd", ʿUtba sprang forward. He put his hand over the Prophet's mouth, and begged him by the bond of kinship to stop.

Then he went home and would not come out to Quraysh. When they came looking for him, accusing him of going over to the new religion, he told them what had happened. He had put his hand over his mouth, he said, because "you know that when Muhammad says something, he does not lie. I was afraid the punishment would fall on you."

Honesty about the source matters here. Several commentaries carry this version, and one notes that a narrator in its chain is considered somewhat weak. Another version, from the early biography, ends differently, with ʿUtba listening to the end. So the story is a report, not a certainty. Nothing in the meaning of the ayah depends on it.

But as a report, it is extraordinary. The most striking testimony to the Prophet's truthfulness here comes from an opponent. ʿUtba did not believe. He would not follow. Yet when the warning came, his body moved before his pride could stop it. He knew the man in front of him had never lied.

Many people carry a similar split inside them. They argue against a truth by day and fear it at night. They mock the warning in company and lie awake over it alone.

The report leaves a question for every reader. If you already know, somewhere beneath your arguments, that the one warning you is truthful, what is your hand doing? Is it reaching to stop the words, or to take hold of them?

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.