Adh-Dhariyat · Makki · ayah 54 of 60

Adh-Dhariyat 51:54

فَتَوَلَّ عَنْهُمْ فَمَآ أَنتَ بِمَلُومٍ

“So leave them, [O Muḥammad], for you are not to be blamed.”

Saheeh International

Essence

Allah tells His Messenger to turn from those who refuse, and lifts a weight from him: you delivered the message, and their refusal is not your fault.

A reflection

Their refusal is not your failure

One classical commentator saw a tender reason behind this ayah. The Prophet ﷺ, he wrote, out of the nobility of his character, would attribute his people's refusal to some shortcoming of his own. He would tell himself that they had not believed because he had not conveyed the message well enough. So he would strive harder and harder. Then Allah said: you have done what was yours to do. Their disbelief is not because of any failing of yours. Do not grieve. You are not to blame. They are.

The commentaries agree on the reason: you have delivered the message. One early voice put it simply: how could He blame him, when he had done all he was commanded?

Anyone who carries others' welfare knows the trap the Prophet ﷺ was being freed from. Picture a debt adviser at a community centre. For a year she has worked with a client: budgets, letters to creditors, a plan to keep his house. He keeps missing appointments, keeps taking new loans. In the end the house is repossessed. That night she lies awake running through every conversation. What should I have said? What did I miss?

This ayah speaks directly to her. If you have given your honest best, the outcome belongs to the person who chose, and to Allah who decrees. You are not the author of another person's refusal.

That is not permission to stop caring, or to do careless work. The Prophet ﷺ had given everything before these words came. But it is permission to put down a weight that was never yours.

If you are carrying someone's choices as though they were your sins, bring that weight to Allah tonight. Tell Him you did what you could. Ask Him to guide the one you could not reach. Then sleep, as one who is not blamed.

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.