Az-Zukhruf · Makki · ayah 50 of 89

Az-Zukhruf 43:50

فَلَمَّا كَشَفْنَا عَنْهُمُ ٱلْعَذَابَ إِذَا هُمْ يَنكُثُونَ

“But when We removed from them the affliction, at once they broke their word.”

Saheeh International

Essence

The moment the punishment was lifted, the promise was unpicked, as quickly as a spun thread pulled apart strand by strand.

A reflection

Unpicking the yarn

Yankuthūn: they break their pledge. The root n-k-th has a picture from the tent and the loom. Old woollen cloaks and tent cloth were picked apart, their twisted threads undone, so the wool could be spun again. That undone yarn was nikth. To break a covenant is nakth: undoing something after it had been made firm.

The Quran uses the same root elsewhere in a famous image. Do not be like the woman who unravelled her yarn into loose strands after it had been spun strong (16:92). It warns against making oaths only to break them.

So the court's promise was like strong spun yarn. They had twisted it carefully: if you lift this, we will believe, and we will let the Children of Israel go. Under pressure, the words held. And the moment the pressure was gone, they sat down and picked it apart, strand by strand.

The word idhā again marks suddenness. One commentary says the breaking came upon them all at once, or they rushed at the moment of breaking. No interval. No struggle. Relief arrived, and the promise came undone.

The Prophet ﷺ named breaking promises as one of the signs of a hypocrite: when he promises, he breaks it (Sahih al-Bukhari).

A builder promises a young family their extension by Christmas, taking a large deposit. Weeks pass with excuses. When the family finally threatens legal action, he returns for two days. As soon as the threat is dropped, he disappears again.

Every promise is spun yarn. Spinning takes effort. Unpicking takes a moment. Be slow to unpick what you twisted in front of Allah.

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.