Qaf · Makki · ayah 26 of 45

Qaf 50:26

ٱلَّذِى جَعَلَ مَعَ ٱللَّهِ إِلَـٰهًا ءَاخَرَ فَأَلْقِيَاهُ فِى ٱلْعَذَابِ ٱلشَّدِيدِ

“Who made [as equal] with Allāh another deity; then throw him into the severe punishment."”

Saheeh International

Essence

Beneath every other charge lies this one: he made another god beside Allah, and the command to throw him in comes again, heavier.

A reflection

A god with a price sticker

In a tourist market, a stall sells statues of a god. They are identical, cast in resin and lined up in rows. Each has a price sticker on its base. A customer picks one up, turns it over and haggles it down by a third.

Nobody in the market finds this strange. Yet it holds the whole of this ayah in one picture.

The ayah's verb is jaʿala: he made. 'The one who made, alongside Allah, another god.' It is the widest verb of making in the language. It covers placing, appointing and turning one thing into another. A god that is 'made' has already told you what it is. It came after its maker. It depends on him. He can carry it, sell it or replace it.

Allah is the one Being who was never made. Everything else, including the hand that carves an idol, was brought into being by Him. To set something made beside the Maker is not a small error of ranking. It turns reality upside down.

The ego is at work here, even where no statue stands. A god you have made is a god you can manage. It asks only for what you were going to give anyway. It approves of what you already wanted. The deepest idol is often the self in a borrowed crown. 'Have you seen the one who takes his own desire as his god?' (45:23).

Now the sceptic's question. Why should Allah care whom people worship? Is this the jealousy of a ruler who wants all the applause for himself?

A hadith answers from Allah's own side. Allah says: I am the One most free of need of any partner. Whoever does a deed in which he associates another with Me, I leave him and his partnership (Muslim). He does not compete for worship, because He needs none of it. He simply will not share it.

The harm of a made god falls entirely on its maker. He has given his heart to something that cannot hear him. And he has turned his back on the One who hears every whisper.

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.