Al-Qamar · Makki · ayah 37 of 55

Al-Qamar 54:37

وَلَقَدْ رَٰوَدُوهُ عَن ضَيْفِهِۦ فَطَمَسْنَآ أَعْيُنَهُمْ فَذُوقُوا۟ عَذَابِى وَنُذُرِ

“And they had demanded from him his guests, but We obliterated their eyes, [saying], "Taste My punishment and warning."”

Saheeh International

Essence

A mob pressed Lūṭ to hand over his guests, and the eyes they came to use were wiped away like a track in the sand.

A reflection

Wiped like a track in the sand

After a night of desert wind, a convoy driver steps out of his truck and looks for the road. The stakes that marked it are gone. The tyre tracks of yesterday are gone. Everything that told him where to go has been smoothed into one blank surface of sand.

That is the picture in ṭamasnā. One lexicon gives the root a single sense: effacing a thing, wiping it away. You efface writing; you efface a track. To efface eyes, another lexicon says, is to take their light and their shape, as a footprint is taken from the ground. This picture is established. One early commentator cites the Arab saying that the wind has effaced the waymarks, when it buries them under blown sand.

The commentaries describe the eyes being wiped until they were like the rest of the face, with no slit to be seen. Some early authorities read it differently: their perception was veiled, so they entered and saw nothing. Both readings are recorded.

Now notice whose eyes these were. Men who had come to a house to take what they wanted. The ʿayn, eye, is the finest and clearest part of the face; the same word names a spring. In a moment, the very faculty they had come to use was gone.

This is majesty, and it humbles every kind of pride. We speak of "my eyes", "my strength", "my reach". The mob believed nothing could stop them at that door. One sweep, and they could not even find it.

Is this Allah displaying power for its own sake? No. He was protecting guests who were under a prophet's roof. Power used to shield the vulnerable is not vanity. It is justice.

Tonight, close your eyes for a few seconds before you sleep. Open them, and thank Him that the waymarks are still there.

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.