Ad-Dukhan · Makki · ayah 50 of 59

Ad-Dukhan 44:50

إِنَّ هَـٰذَا مَا كُنتُم بِهِۦ تَمْتَرُونَ

“Indeed, this is what you used to dispute."”

Saheeh International

Essence

The scene of the Fire closes with one sentence: this is exactly what you used to doubt and argue about.

A reflection

Stroking an udder that gives nothing

Inna hādhā mā kuntum bihi tamtarūn: indeed, this is what you used to doubt.

The verb tamtarūn is from the root m-r-y. One lexicon gives its first sense as stroking a she-camel's udder so that the milk comes down. A rider who drew the last effort out of his horse was said to do the same. Another lexicon defines mirya as wavering over a matter, narrower than doubt in general, and traces it back to that stroking. That is one classical view of where the word began.

The picture is striking. A hand stroking and stroking, coaxing out milk that will not come.

A man has a question about God that troubles him. Every night, after his family is asleep, he opens the same online threads. He reads the same arguments, back and forth. He scrolls for the reply that will finally settle it. He never finds it. He never asks a teacher, never prays about it, never opens the Quran itself. Months go by. The question is stroked smooth, and nothing comes down.

That is the kind of doubt this word names. Not an honest question that wants an answer. A wavering that keeps itself going, stroking the same udder forever.

The form here makes it worse. Form VIII, the lexicons note, turns the doubt inward and keeps it going. And kuntum, you used to, makes it a habit.

The Quran never asks us to switch off our questions. It asks us to bring them somewhere they can be answered: to Allah, to His Book, to people of knowledge. Doubt that seeks an answer can lead to certainty. Doubt that only strokes itself leads nowhere at all.

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.