Adh-Dhariyat · Makki · ayah 53 of 60

Adh-Dhariyat 51:53

أَتَوَاصَوْا۟ بِهِۦ ۚ بَلْ هُمْ قَوْمٌ طَاغُونَ

“Did they suggest it to them?[1547] Rather, they [themselves] are a transgressing people.”

Saheeh International

Essence

Deniers across the ages said the same words without ever meeting, because the same overflowing pride produced them: the sickness, not a script, was shared.

A reflection

A torrent too big for its bed

Ṭāghūn is often translated 'transgressing' or 'rebellious'. The lexicons give it a picture that is far more vivid, and it is established. The Arabs said a torrent ṭaghā when it came down with more water than its bed could hold. The sea ṭaghā when its waves heaved and rose. The Quran uses the word of Nuh's flood: 'when the water overflowed, We carried you' (69:11).

Water is good. It is life. But when it leaves its bounds, it drowns. That is ṭughyān: something good in itself, spilling over the limit set for it, and sweeping others away with it.

One Companion's explanation of this ayah, preserved in a classical commentary, fits that picture exactly. He said: their ṭughyān in what I gave them, and in the abundance I spread for them, carried them to deny you. The flood was made of blessings. Too much water, too little bed.

Picture a small river town after a week of storms. For years the river has been a pleasure: children paddle in it, anglers sit on its banks. Then it rises. It tops the banks one night and pours down the high street, through shop doors and front rooms. The same water that made the town beautiful is now destroying it. Nothing about the water has changed except its relation to its banks.

That is how many people lose their way. Wealth, intelligence, status, health: all good, all given. But when they rise beyond the banks of gratitude and obedience, they start to overflow. The person stops listening. The messenger becomes 'a madman'. Advice becomes an insult.

So the question this ayah plants is not 'Am I a tyrant?' Most of us are not. It is: where is a good thing in my life rising above its banks? Where has a blessing begun to carry me away from the One who gave it?

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.