Muhammad · Madani · ayah 14 of 38

Muhammad 47:14

أَفَمَن كَانَ عَلَىٰ بَيِّنَةٍ مِّن رَّبِّهِۦ كَمَن زُيِّنَ لَهُۥ سُوٓءُ عَمَلِهِۦ وَٱتَّبَعُوٓا۟ أَهْوَآءَهُم

“So is he who is on clear evidence from his Lord like him to whom the evil of his work has been made attractive and they follow their [own] desires?”

Saheeh International

Essence

Two people walk the same street: one stands on clear proof from his Lord, the other on a wrong made to look lovely.

A reflection

Clear proof, or a pretty picture

Two words in this ayah sound almost alike and mean almost opposite things. The believer is on bayyina. The other has had his bad deed zuyyina, adorned.

Bayyina comes from a root of parting and standing apart. The lexicons picture dawn pulling away from the dark. Once something stands apart, it can be seen. A proverb says the dawn has made itself plain to anyone with two eyes. So a bayyina is proof that shows itself clearly, without needing to be dressed up.

Zuyyina comes from a root of adornment. One lexicon gives its image: the earth after rain, decked in new grass. Lovely, and for a season. Another adds a test. True beauty never disfigures a person in any state, now or later. What only looks good for a while is, from another side, a blemish.

So the ayah sets two ways of seeing side by side. One person sees things as they are. The other sees things as they have been made to look.

Picture a late-night takeaway menu online. The photograph shows a towering burger, glossy, stacked high, lettuce bright green. Forty minutes later, a flat, lukewarm burger arrives in a cardboard box. Nothing in the picture was technically false. Everything in it was arranged to be wanted.

The commentaries say the believer is on a proof from his Lord: certainty, insight, what Allah revealed and the sound nature He placed in people. The other has a picture. The ayah's question is meant to be answered by any honest reader. Can these two possibly be the same?

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.