Qaf · Makki · ayah 29 of 45

Qaf 50:29

مَا يُبَدَّلُ ٱلْقَوْلُ لَدَىَّ وَمَآ أَنَا۠ بِظَلَّـٰمٍ لِّلْعَبِيدِ

“The word [i.e., decree] will not be changed with Me, and never will I be unjust to the servants."”

Saheeh International

Essence

Nothing said in His presence is altered, and He wrongs no servant at all: no one carries another's sin, and no good deed goes missing.

A reflection

A word that no crowd can bend

In the eighty-ninth minute a referee gives a penalty against the home side. Forty thousand people jeer. He jogs to the screen at the side of the pitch, hesitates, and reverses it. Nobody quite trusts his next decision.

Human words bend. They bend under crowds, donors, deadlines, tiredness and fear. We are so used to it that we treat every rule as negotiable. Someone, somewhere, can always be persuaded.

The ayah closes that door in four words. Mā yubaddalu al-qawlu ladayya: the word is not changed in My presence. The commentaries give several readings of which word is meant. Some say His judgement on that Day. Some say His earlier word that He would fill Hell from jinn and people together (32:13). Some say it means no lie can be passed off before Him, because He knows the unseen. Each reading lands on the same truth. Nothing in His presence shifts under pressure.

For the ego this is humbling. We are used to getting round things with charm, connections, a good story or a loud enough complaint. The ayah describes a Lord with whom none of that works. No lobbying, no appeal to status, no performance.

Does 'I am not unjust' sound like a ruler praising himself? It is the reverse. A tyrant never promises fairness. He prefers people uncertain, guessing at his moods. A just ruler tells his subjects exactly where they stand, so they can live without fear of caprice.

When Allah says His word does not change and He wrongs no one, it is a gift of certainty to the servant. He gains nothing by saying it. We gain ground to stand on. We can plan a life around a word that will still be the same word at the end of it.

The humble response is simple. Stop trying to manage Him. Start trusting what He has said.

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.