Fussilat · Makki · ayah 27 of 54

Fussilat 41:27

فَلَنُذِيقَنَّ ٱلَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا۟ عَذَابًا شَدِيدًا وَلَنَجْزِيَنَّهُمْ أَسْوَأَ ٱلَّذِى كَانُوا۟ يَعْمَلُونَ

“But We will surely cause those who disbelieve to taste a severe punishment, and We will surely recompense them for the worst of what they had been doing.”

Saheeh International

Essence

Those who tried to shout the Quran down are answered by its Speaker, on oath: a punishment tied tight, and their worst deeds returned.

A reflection

The Speaker answers the hecklers

In the previous ayah, the deniers plotted to drown out the Qur'an with noise. This ayah is the reply, and it comes in the first person, with double emphasis: fa-la-nudhīqanna. We will surely, surely make them taste.

One commentary describes the turn exactly. Allah, it says, is here taking the side of the Qur'an, and answering those who showed it enmity. The people who tried to shout the recitation down now hear its Speaker speak.

The ego that organises noise against the truth assumes it is fighting a man. A messenger, a reciter, a few followers. It never imagines that the words it is drowning out have a Speaker who is listening, and who will answer.

Picture a group of students heckling a visiting lecturer, talking loudly, laughing, filming her on their phones. They think they are dealing with one tired woman at a lectern. Then the university's vice-chancellor, who has been standing at the back of the hall all along, walks to the front and takes the microphone. The room goes silent. They had not realised who was in the room.

That is only a faint picture. The One who answers here is not a man at the back of a hall. He is the Speaker of the words they mocked.

A sceptic may hear the oath as vindictive. But the ayah follows a long sequence: argument (41:9–12), warning (41:13), history (41:14–18), testimony (41:19–23). And it answers a specific act: a deliberate plan to stop others hearing. One commentary says it is "in return for" what they did with the Qur'an when it was heard.

So the ego is put in its place. Whoever sets out to silence the Qur'an is not in a contest with a reciter. They are speaking over its Speaker. That is a fight no one wins, and it is a mercy to be told so in time.

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.