Fussilat · Makki · ayah 44 of 54

Fussilat 41:44

وَلَوْ جَعَلْنَـٰهُ قُرْءَانًا أَعْجَمِيًّا لَّقَالُوا۟ لَوْلَا فُصِّلَتْ ءَايَـٰتُهُۥٓ ۖ ءَا۬عْجَمِىٌّ وَعَرَبِىٌّ ۗ قُلْ هُوَ لِلَّذِينَ ءَامَنُوا۟ هُدًى وَشِفَآءٌ ۖ وَٱلَّذِينَ لَا يُؤْمِنُونَ فِىٓ ءَاذَانِهِمْ وَقْرٌ وَهُوَ عَلَيْهِمْ عَمًى ۚ أُو۟لَـٰٓئِكَ يُنَادَوْنَ مِن مَّكَانٍۭ بَعِيدٍ

“And if We had made it a foreign [i.e., non-Arabic] Qur’ān, they would have said, "Why are its verses not explained in detail [in our language]? Is it a foreign [recitation] and an Arab [messenger]?" Say, "It is, for those who believe, a guidance and cure." And those who do not believe - in their ears is deafness, and it is upon them blindness. Those are being called from a distant place.[1398]”

Saheeh International

Essence

The stubborn would object to any book; to those who trust it, these words are guidance and healing, to others a far, muffled call.

A reflection

The objection that moves when you meet it

The ayah imagines a different Quran. Suppose it had come in a foreign tongue. The same people would have complained at once. Why are its verses not made clear? they would say. A foreign book, and an Arab audience?

A narration-based commentary reads this as a portrait of stubbornness. Their rejection, it says, came from defiance, not from any real difficulty. Another commentator states the conclusion more sharply. They would never stop making demands. Give them one thing, and they would ask for another.

That is a pattern most of us have met, in others and in ourselves. The stated objection is not the real one. Remove it, and a new objection appears in its place.

Picture a man whose friends invite him to a weekly study circle at the mosque. He says he would come, but it is all in Urdu. The circle starts a session in English. He says he would come, but Thursday evenings are impossible. They move it to Sunday mornings. Sunday is family time, he says. They offer to record it for him. He means to listen; he never does.

There is no villain here. He is not lying exactly. He has simply not admitted, even to himself, that the real obstacle is not the language or the day.

The ayah offers a test anyone can use. When you hear yourself giving a reason not to do something good, ask: if this reason disappeared tomorrow, would I do it? If the honest answer is no, the reason was never the reason.

That question is uncomfortable, but it is also freeing. It stops you wasting energy on moving objections, and points you to the real one underneath, which is the only one worth facing.

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.