Ad-Dukhan · Makki · ayah 13 of 59

Ad-Dukhan 44:13

أَنَّىٰ لَهُمُ ٱلذِّكْرَىٰ وَقَدْ جَآءَهُمْ رَسُولٌ مُّبِينٌ

“How will there be for them a reminder [at that time]? And there had come to them a clear Messenger.”

Saheeh International

Essence

If a messenger whose honesty they knew could not remind them, a lifted smoke would not either: the reminder had already come.

A reflection

They had never known him to lie

One short commentary on this ayah adds a phrase that changes its weight. A clear messenger had come to them, it says, and they knew his truthfulness and his trustworthiness.

Sahih al-Bukhari records the moment that knowledge was put to the test. When the Prophet ﷺ was told to warn his nearest kin, he climbed the hill of Safa and called the clans of Quraysh by name. They gathered. Those who could not come sent someone to listen. He asked them: if I told you that horsemen were in the valley, about to attack you, would you believe me? They said: yes, we have never known you to say anything but the truth. Then, he said, I am a warner to you before a severe punishment.

The story pivots on that answer. The same people who swore they had never known him to lie turned away as soon as his message touched their gods. Abu Lahab cursed him on the spot.

That is what makes this ayah so pointed. Rasūlun mubīn: a messenger who was clear, whose message was clear, and whose character was beyond their own dispute. They had already granted everything needed to believe him. They simply would not follow their own testimony.

The ayah asks: from where, then, will they get remembrance? If the most trustworthy man they knew could not remind them, what reminder was left?

There is something here for every reader who has met a person of unquestioned honesty and still ignored them. The question is not whether the messenger was credible. Everyone agreed he was. The question was whether they were willing to pay the cost of believing him. That remains the real question in front of the Qur'an today.

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.