An-Najm · Makki · ayah 27 of 62

An-Najm 53:27

إِنَّ ٱلَّذِينَ لَا يُؤْمِنُونَ بِٱلْـَٔاخِرَةِ لَيُسَمُّونَ ٱلْمَلَـٰٓئِكَةَ تَسْمِيَةَ ٱلْأُنثَىٰ

“Indeed, those who do not believe in the Hereafter name the angels female names,”

Saheeh International

Essence

People who expect no final reckoning feel free to say anything about God, even to rename His angels, because they never expect to answer for a word.

A reflection

What happens here stays here

A group of friends fly abroad for a stag weekend. Somewhere over the sea, someone says the old line: 'What happens here stays here.' By the second night, they are saying things to each other, and about other people, that none of them would say at home. Nothing has changed in their characters. Only their sense of being answerable has changed.

This ayah traces a reckless claim about God back to exactly that root. It does not begin, 'Those who call the angels female'. It begins, 'Those who do not believe in the Hereafter'. Then it says what they do: they name the angels with female names.

One commentary explains why the ayah ties the two together. Linking the naming to their disbelief in the Hereafter signals how outrageous the claim is. It is so grave, and so certain to bring consequences in the next life, that only someone who does not believe in that life at all would dare to say it.

So speech follows belief. A person who expects to be asked about every word chooses words carefully, especially words about God. A person who expects no such question says whatever suits him. The idol-worshippers' theology was not the fruit of careful thought. It was the fruit of feeling unaccountable.

This turns the ayah into a mirror for our own talk. How careful are we with sentences about Allah? 'God wouldn't mind.' 'God wants me to be happy, so this must be fine.' 'God doesn't care about that.' Each of these names something about God. Would we say them if we pictured being asked, on that Day, where we got them from?

Belief in the Hereafter is not only a doctrine. It is a filter on the tongue. Wherever the filter is missing, the stag-weekend logic takes over.

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.