Az-Zukhruf · Makki · ayah 78 of 89

Az-Zukhruf 43:78

لَقَدْ جِئْنَـٰكُم بِٱلْحَقِّ وَلَـٰكِنَّ أَكْثَرَكُمْ لِلْحَقِّ كَـٰرِهُونَ

“We had certainly brought you the truth, but most of you, to the truth, were averse.”

Saheeh International

Essence

The truth was brought and made plain; most refused it from aversion, not ignorance, because truth makes claims and falsehood offers ease.

A reflection

Falsehood is restful; truth is work

Wa-lākinna aktharakum li-l-ḥaqqi kārihūn: but most of you were averse to the truth.

Why would anyone hate the truth? One classical linguist gives an answer in a single, piercing line. You do not accept it, you recoil from it and shrink back, because with falsehood comes ease, and with truth comes toil.

That sentence explains a great deal of human behaviour. Most people do not reject truth because they have weighed it and found it false. They reject it because accepting it would cost them something: a habit, an income, a status, a comfortable story about themselves.

Another commentator puts it in terms of character. Their natures did not accept the truth or turn towards it. They yielded to falsehood and honoured it, turned away from the truth, and disliked its people.

Picture a man with a cracked back tooth. It does not hurt much, so for a year he chews on the other side. He knows, really, what the crack means. But the truth would mean a dentist, a drill, a bill and an afternoon off work. The falsehood, 'it's probably fine', costs nothing today. Every meal, he chooses the falsehood. Not because he believes it, but because it is easier.

The ayah describes the same choice on the largest scale. The truth about Allah, the Hereafter and how to live was brought to them. Accepting it would have meant giving up idols, unjust gains, and pride of lineage. Rejecting it cost nothing, until it cost everything.

The question this asks of a reader is not 'do I believe the truth?' Most of us would say yes. It is: where am I chewing on the other side? Where do I already know what is true, and stay with the restful falsehood because the truth would ask something of me?

The toil of truth is real. But it is the toil of a road that leads somewhere.

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.