Al-Mujadila · Madani · ayah 17 of 22

Al-Mujadila 58:17

لَّن تُغْنِىَ عَنْهُمْ أَمْوَٰلُهُمْ وَلَآ أَوْلَـٰدُهُم مِّنَ ٱللَّهِ شَيْـًٔا ۚ أُو۟لَـٰٓئِكَ أَصْحَـٰبُ ٱلنَّارِ ۖ هُمْ فِيهَا خَـٰلِدُونَ

“Never will their wealth or their children avail them against Allāh at all. Those are the companions of the Fire; they will abide therein eternally”

Saheeh International

Essence

Word for word, the verdict already given at 3:116 — but landing here on a shield of false oaths just described, not a boast of wealth.

A reflection

The same verdict, a different case just argued

This exact wording was first met at 3:116, where its full treatment lives: that root, the sense of standing in for someone and sufficing them, and the two defences, ransom paid and defenders who fight for you, that wealth and children are shown here to be powerless to offer. Nothing about the wording itself has changed.

What has changed is the case it closes. At 3:116, this verdict answered disbelievers who boasted openly that their wealth and numbers proved Allah would never punish them, a confident claim made in plain sight. Here, it closes a very different indictment, built across the previous three ayat: hypocrites who took false oaths as a shield, turned believers away from Allah's path behind that cover, and were promised a humiliating punishment for it. The same sentence that answered an open boast now answers a concealed deception.

That shift is worth noticing on its own terms. Open disbelief and hidden hypocrisy are different postures entirely, one declared, one disguised. Yet both, this repetition insists, end facing the identical fact: whatever was relied on instead of sincerity, confidence in numbers or confidence in a convincing cover, holds exactly the same weight before Allah. None.

The full entry has 2 more reflections, questions to sit with, and "Live it today" - with the words, the roots and the tafsir alongside. Free, no account, works offline.