Az-Zukhruf · Makki · ayah 6 of 89
Az-Zukhruf 43:6
وَكَمْ أَرْسَلْنَا مِن نَّبِىٍّ فِى ٱلْأَوَّلِينَ
“And how many a prophet We sent among the former peoples,”
Saheeh International
Essence
The Prophet was not the first sent to an unwilling people: a long line of prophets stood behind him, a comfort and a charge.
A reflection
A trial that is shared grows lighter
The commentaries agree on why this ayah is here. It is consolation for the Prophet ﷺ. His people were mocking him, and Allah reminds him how many prophets were sent before him among the ancient nations, and what they met. One commentary puts it simply: do not let what your people do weigh on you; they are walking the road their forebears walked.
Two classical commentators quote the same old saying here. A calamity that is shared becomes lighter. Another version says: when a trial is general, it becomes bearable.
Picture a junior doctor at four in the morning on her first night shift. A patient's son has just shouted at her in front of the whole ward. She is standing in the corridor, shaking, sure she is not cut out for this. The consultant on call finds her there. He does not lecture her. He tells her about his own first night, twenty years ago, and the man who threw a cup of tea at him. Then he tells her about the registrar before him, and the one before that. She goes back onto the ward.
Nothing about the shouting changed. What changed was the story she placed it in. It was no longer a verdict on her. It was the ordinary weather of a hard calling, survived by everyone she now admired.
That is what this ayah does for the Prophet ﷺ, and through him for anyone mocked for carrying something true. Kam, how many. You are not the first, and you are not alone.
It is a quiet mercy that Allah consoles His Messenger at all. He could simply have commanded patience. Instead He first gave him company.
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