Ash-Shuraa · Makki · ayah 16 of 53

Ash-Shuraa 42:16

وَٱلَّذِينَ يُحَآجُّونَ فِى ٱللَّهِ مِنۢ بَعْدِ مَا ٱسْتُجِيبَ لَهُۥ حُجَّتُهُمْ دَاحِضَةٌ عِندَ رَبِّهِمْ وَعَلَيْهِمْ غَضَبٌ وَلَهُمْ عَذَابٌ شَدِيدٌ

“And those who argue concerning Allāh after He has been responded to[1417] - their argument is invalid with their Lord, and upon them is [His] wrath, and for them is a severe punishment.”

Saheeh International

Essence

Arguments meant to pull people back from a call they have already answered slide away to nothing before their Lord.

A reflection

"I've been here twenty years"

"Their argument is dāḥiḍa with their Lord." The commentaries say: void, gone, without standing. One explains it as something with no footing, like a thing that slips from its place.

The root is precise. The lexicons give it as slipping and sliding away. A man's foot daḥaḍat when it slid out from under him. The sun daḥaḍat when it slid past its highest point. One lexicon notes the difference from simply destroying something: this is a thing made to slide out from under itself.

What was the argument? An early commentator records it. Some of those who had earlier scriptures told the believers that their book came first. Our prophet came before yours, they said, so we are better and closer to Allah. Another commentary adds that they counted themselves superior as people of scripture and children of prophets.

It is an argument from seniority, not from truth. And seniority is exactly the kind of footing that slides.

Picture a supervisor who has run the same process at a warehouse for twenty years. A new colleague suggests a safer method. He dismisses it in a meeting. "I've been doing this since you were at school." Six months later an inspection finds the old method dangerous and the new one sound. In front of the whole team, his argument slides out from under him. Nothing was wrong with his long service. Everything was wrong with treating it as proof.

The ego reaches for seniority, lineage and status whenever it lacks a better argument. We came first. Our family is respected. We have always done it this way.

The ayah names the only court that counts: with their Lord. Before Him, arguments stand on truth or not at all. That should humble anyone who leans on rank to win. And it should steady anyone being out-ranked while in the right.

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.