Al-Qamar · Makki · ayah 36 of 55

Al-Qamar 54:36

وَلَقَدْ أَنذَرَهُم بَطْشَتَنَا فَتَمَارَوْا۟ بِٱلنُّذُرِ

“And he had already warned them of Our assault, but they disputed the warning.”

Saheeh International

Essence

Lūṭ warned them plainly of Allah's seizing grip, and they spent the warning arguing it back and forth among themselves until it was too late.

A reflection

A grip no one shakes off, and a grip worth holding

A child at a crowded fair lets go of his father's hand to chase a balloon. Within seconds he is lost in a forest of legs. Then a hand closes round his wrist, firm and sudden. For a moment he is frightened. Then he looks up and sees whose hand it is.

Baṭsha is a grip like that. The lexicons describe the root as taking hold of a thing by force and overpowering it. A yad bāṭisha is a hand that seizes and holds. It is the hard grip at the moment of attack, the kind the one caught cannot shake off. This picture is established. One commentary glosses it here as Allah's severe taking of them with punishment.

The form matters. Baṭshatanā is a single seizing, Our one grip. One classical commentator notes the Quran also says the seizing of your Lord is severe (85:12), describing His grip in general. If even the ordinary grip is severe, he asks, what of the greatest one? He suggests Lūṭ warned them of the greatest seizing (44:16), so as not to fall short in what he conveyed.

This is where pride is humbled. The arrogant person believes he can always wriggle free. Lūṭ's people believed it right to the end. But no human strength slips a grip like this.

Yet the same word holds a mercy. The Prophet ﷺ described waking on the Day of Resurrection and finding Mūsā bāṭish, gripping the side of the Throne, in Sahih al-Bukhari. The same root that names Allah's seizing names a servant's clinging. Is Allah boasting of His power to grip? He has no need to. He tells us so that we take hold of Him first.

Whichever grip you meet, you will meet one. Choose to be the one holding on.

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.