Al-Hujurat · Madani · ayah 2 of 18

Al-Hujurat 49:2

يَـٰٓأَيُّهَا ٱلَّذِينَ ءَامَنُوا۟ لَا تَرْفَعُوٓا۟ أَصْوَٰتَكُمْ فَوْقَ صَوْتِ ٱلنَّبِىِّ وَلَا تَجْهَرُوا۟ لَهُۥ بِٱلْقَوْلِ كَجَهْرِ بَعْضِكُمْ لِبَعْضٍ أَن تَحْبَطَ أَعْمَـٰلُكُمْ وَأَنتُمْ لَا تَشْعُرُونَ

“O you who have believed, do not raise your voices above the voice of the Prophet or be loud to him in speech like the loudness of some of you to others, lest your deeds become worthless while you perceive not.”

Saheeh International

Essence

A voice can carry more than sound: lower it before the Prophet ﷺ, because what swells unnoticed can empty a lifetime of deeds.

A reflection

The orator who locked himself in

Thābit ibn Qays had a voice that carried. He was the Prophet's ﷺ orator, the man who stood up to answer visiting delegations. When this ayah came down, he heard his own name in it, though it never mentioned him.

Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim record what happened next. Thābit stopped coming. He sat at home with his head bowed. The Prophet ﷺ noticed his absence and asked about him. A man went to find out. Thābit told him: it is bad. I used to raise my voice above the Prophet's. My deeds are gone. I am one of the people of the Fire.

The man brought this back. The Prophet ﷺ sent him again with a different message. Go and tell him: you are not one of the people of the Fire. You are one of the people of Paradise. In Sahih Muslim, Anas adds a line. After that, we used to watch him walking among us, a man of Paradise.

The commentaries preserve fuller reports. In one, Thābit sits in the road weeping. In another, he asks his wife to nail the stable door shut behind him. He will not come out until he dies or the Prophet ﷺ is pleased with him. One report also records that his hearing was poor, which is why he spoke so loudly.

The man most afraid of this ayah was the one it least condemned. His loudness came from nature, not contempt. Yet he did not reach for that excuse. He took the warning at its full weight and let it break his heart.

That is the right first response to an ayah like this. Not: surely this is not about me. But: what if it is? The door to Paradise opened for the man who asked.

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.