Az-Zukhruf · Makki · ayah 76 of 89

Az-Zukhruf 43:76

وَمَا ظَلَمْنَـٰهُمْ وَلَـٰكِن كَانُوا۟ هُمُ ٱلظَّـٰلِمِينَ

“And We did not wrong them, but it was they who were the wrongdoers.”

Saheeh International

Essence

Allah clears Himself of the smallest wrong: the darkness they are in is the darkness they made, and they themselves were the wrongdoers.

A reflection

The One who forbade wrong to Himself

Wa-mā ẓalamnāhum: and We did not wrong them. Here Allah speaks of Himself, and clears Himself completely.

A famous narration in Muslim gives the voice behind these words. Allah says: O My servants, I have forbidden wrongdoing for Myself, and I have made it forbidden among you, so do not wrong one another. Justice is not imposed on Allah from outside. He has chosen it, as His own way.

The narration-based commentators explain the ayah plainly. The proofs were established. Messengers were sent. People denied and disobeyed, and were requited exactly. One adds the Quranic phrase: wa-mā rabbuka bi-ẓallāmin li-l-ʿabīd, your Lord is not unjust to His servants (41:46).

Why would Allah need to say this? He does not need to. Nothing we think of Him adds to Him or takes from Him. He says it for our sake: so that no reader will imagine, for a moment, that anyone is treated unjustly before Him.

That should humble us in a particular way. Human beings are quick to justify themselves and slow to admit fault. When things go wrong, our first instinct is to look for someone else to blame.

Picture a seventeen-year-old who plays online games every evening. Every loss has a reason: the connection lagged, his teammates were useless, the controller stuck. One evening his nine-year-old sister picks up the same controller, on the same connection, and beats him three times in a row. He is silent. Then, slowly, he laughs.

The ayah contains that same reversal, without the laughter. The ones who blamed everything in this world will have no one left to blame. The One they might have blamed has declared, in His own words, that He did them no wrong.

The ego wants to be the victim of every story. Before Allah, that pretence ends. The humble response is to stop waiting for that Day, and to say now, with honesty: the wrong was mine.

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.