Muhammad · Madani · ayah 30 of 38

Muhammad 47:30

وَلَوْ نَشَآءُ لَأَرَيْنَـٰكَهُمْ فَلَعَرَفْتَهُم بِسِيمَـٰهُمْ ۚ وَلَتَعْرِفَنَّهُمْ فِى لَحْنِ ٱلْقَوْلِ ۚ وَٱللَّهُ يَعْلَمُ أَعْمَـٰلَكُمْ

“And if We willed, We could show them to you, and you would know them by their mark; but you will surely know them by the tone of [their] speech. And Allāh knows your deeds.”

Saheeh International

Essence

Allah could have marked every hypocrite's face; He chose to let their speech give them away, and reminds everyone that He knows their deeds.

A reflection

He could have shown them, and held back

"If We willed, We would show them to you". Then: "you would know them by their mark". The voice shifts here to the "We" of majesty. One commentary notes that this shift signals the care taken over the showing. Allah could have identified every hypocrite to His Messenger ﷺ with an unmistakable sign.

Then the most striking detail. One classical commentator explains why He did not do this for all of them. It was a covering from Him over His creation. A choice to treat matters by their outward soundness, and to return what is hidden to the One who knows it.

That is majesty of a particular kind. Not only the power to expose, but the restraint not to. The One who knows every secret chooses, in His wisdom, to keep many of them covered.

Human beings rarely behave like this. Give someone a little knowledge of another's faults, and the urge to reveal it is strong. Gossip, exposure and public shaming are the ordinary uses of private knowledge.

Picture a mother who finds her sixteen-year-old's diary lying open on the bed. She can see her own name on the page, and a few angry words beside it. She could read the whole thing. She closes it, puts it back on the pillow, and goes downstairs. That evening she simply asks her daughter whether everything is all right between them.

That restraint is small and human. The ayah shows its infinite source. The ego that loves to expose others should shrink before it. If Allah, who knows everything, covers so much, who are we to uncover what we half know?

And the ayah ends by turning to everyone: "Allah knows your deeds". Every reader, not only the hypocrites, lives under that knowledge.

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.