Adh-Dhariyat · Makki · ayah 44 of 60

Adh-Dhariyat 51:44

فَعَتَوْا۟ عَنْ أَمْرِ رَبِّهِمْ فَأَخَذَتْهُمُ ٱلصَّـٰعِقَةُ وَهُمْ يَنظُرُونَ

“But they were insolent toward the command of their Lord, so the thunderbolt seized them while they were looking on.”

Saheeh International

Essence

Thamud turned away from their Lord's command in pride, and one crash from the sky took them in broad daylight while they watched.

A reflection

Pride that walks away from correction

The lexicons give the verb ʿatā a clear picture, and it is established. A man ʿatā when he grew large in his own eyes and crossed the line. Another lexicon describes it as a recoil, a standing-off from obedience. Its most chilling use is for extreme old age: ʿitiyy, a state for which, one lexicon says, no putting right and no treatment remain.

One classical commentator noticed the small word that follows it here. Usually the verb takes ʿalā, 'against': to be arrogant over someone. Here it takes ʿan, 'away from'. They disdained away from the command of their Lord. He compared it to another ayah about those near Allah: 'they are not too proud to turn away from His worship' (7:206). So this pride is not shouting in someone's face. It is the pride that turns its back and leaves the room.

That kind of pride is familiar in any workplace. Picture a senior surgeon, admired and gifted. Each month the hospital holds a meeting where cases that went wrong are reviewed calmly, to learn from them. Whenever one of his own cases is on the list, he discovers an urgent call and slips out. He never argues. He simply makes sure that correction never reaches him. After some years, his juniors stop raising concerns at all.

That is ʿutuww ʿan. It is not loud. It is a habit of absence, of always being elsewhere when the command arrives. And the lexicon's image of great age shows where it leads: to a condition no advice can treat any more.

The remedy is the opposite movement. Stay in the room when you are being corrected, especially by the Quran. When an ayah touches the thing you would rather not discuss, do not leave for an urgent call. Sit with it. Thamud had three days to stay in the room. They spent them walking away.

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.