Al-Mujadila · Madani · ayah 22 of 22

Al-Mujadila 58:22

لَّا تَجِدُ قَوْمًا يُؤْمِنُونَ بِٱللَّهِ وَٱلْيَوْمِ ٱلْـَٔاخِرِ يُوَآدُّونَ مَنْ حَآدَّ ٱللَّهَ وَرَسُولَهُۥ وَلَوْ كَانُوٓا۟ ءَابَآءَهُمْ أَوْ أَبْنَآءَهُمْ أَوْ إِخْوَٰنَهُمْ أَوْ عَشِيرَتَهُمْ ۚ أُو۟لَـٰٓئِكَ كَتَبَ فِى قُلُوبِهِمُ ٱلْإِيمَـٰنَ وَأَيَّدَهُم بِرُوحٍ مِّنْهُ ۖ وَيُدْخِلُهُمْ جَنَّـٰتٍ تَجْرِى مِن تَحْتِهَا ٱلْأَنْهَـٰرُ خَـٰلِدِينَ فِيهَا ۚ رَضِىَ ٱللَّهُ عَنْهُمْ وَرَضُوا۟ عَنْهُ ۚ أُو۟لَـٰٓئِكَ حِزْبُ ٱللَّهِ ۚ أَلَآ إِنَّ حِزْبَ ٱللَّهِ هُمُ ٱلْمُفْلِحُونَ

“You will not find a people who believe in Allāh and the Last Day having affection for those who oppose Allāh and His Messenger, even if they were their fathers or their sons or their brothers or their kindred. Those - He has decreed within their hearts faith and supported them with spirit[1648] from Him. And We will admit them to gardens beneath which rivers flow, wherein they abide eternally. Allāh is pleased with them, and they are pleased with Him - those are the party of Allāh. Unquestionably, the party of Allāh - they are the successful.”

Saheeh International

Essence

No one who truly believes stays loyal to someone opposing Allah, even blood kin, and that costly loyalty is what faith written in the heart looks like.

A reflection

A claim made with total confidence

Lā tajidu, you will not find, is a strong, closed form of statement. The Quran is not saying such loyalty is merely rare, or unwise, or something believers are urged to avoid. It says the two things, genuine belief and genuine, loving alliance with those actively opposing Allah and His Messenger, simply do not coexist in the same heart. Search as widely as anyone likes; this particular combination will not turn up.

That kind of closed statement is unusual, and worth taking at its full weight rather than softening into something more like a strong suggestion. It is making a claim about what belief actually is, not only about what believers ought to do. A heart that still holds real, warm loyalty to someone it knows is working against Allah's message has not simply made an exception within genuine faith. The ayah's own grammar says that particular combination was never actually faith to begin with, however much it may have resembled it from the outside.

This is a hard claim to sit with honestly, because it leaves no comfortable middle category to retreat into. A person cannot hold both loyalties at once and call the result a nuanced, balanced position; the ayah simply does not recognise that category as one belief can actually occupy.

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.