Al-Ma'idah · Madani · ayah 113 of 120

Al-Ma'idah 5:113

قَالُوا۟ نُرِيدُ أَن نَّأْكُلَ مِنْهَا وَتَطْمَئِنَّ قُلُوبُنَا وَنَعْلَمَ أَن قَدْ صَدَقْتَنَا وَنَكُونَ عَلَيْهَا مِنَ ٱلشَّـٰهِدِينَ

“They said, "We wish to eat from it and let our hearts be reassured and know that you have been truthful to us and be among its witnesses."”

Saheeh International

Essence

The disciples give four reasons for wanting the Table, and the second borrows Ibrahim's own words: that our hearts may be at rest.

A reflection

Ibrahim asked with the same word

A woman has read the clinic's letter twice. It says all clear. She still rings the number on the letterhead, just to hear a nurse say the words aloud. She is not disbelieving the letter. She wants it to land.

Many readers carry a quiet assumption into this ayah. Wanting to see is a sign of weak faith. Real believers do not ask. On that view, the disciples are simply explaining away their lapse.

The Quran itself complicates that picture, and with a single verb. Here the disciples say: that our hearts may be at rest, taṭmaʾinna qulūbunā. Long before, Ibrahim asked his Lord to show him how He gives life to the dead. Have you not believed? he was asked. Yes, he said, but that my heart may be at rest, li-yaṭmaʾinna qalbī (2:260). The same root, the same longing.

The commentaries draw the line between two kinds of knowing. There is knowing by proof and report, and there is knowing by sight. The disciples say, in effect: we already know His power by evidence, and your truthfulness by the earlier signs. Seeing this one would add certainty to certainty. A later commentary calls it eyewitness knowledge after the knowledge of faith.

That is not weakness. It is a heart asking for its knowledge to settle.

But the two requests are not identical, and the difference matters. Ibrahim asked without terms, and was answered with a lesson he carried out himself. The disciples' request had come wrapped in 'can your Lord', and had already drawn a warning. The want was legitimate. The manner needed washing.

So the truer picture is neither 'asking is faithless' nor 'asking is free'. A believer may long to see. A believer must also accept what seeing will cost (5:115).

The full entry has 6 more reflections, questions to sit with, and "Live it today" - with the words, the roots and the tafsir alongside. Free, no account, works offline.