Al-An'am · Makki · ayah 109 of 165

Al-An'am 6:109

وَأَقْسَمُوا۟ بِٱللَّهِ جَهْدَ أَيْمَـٰنِهِمْ لَئِن جَآءَتْهُمْ ءَايَةٌ لَّيُؤْمِنُنَّ بِهَا ۚ قُلْ إِنَّمَا ٱلْـَٔايَـٰتُ عِندَ ٱللَّهِ ۖ وَمَا يُشْعِرُكُمْ أَنَّهَآ إِذَا جَآءَتْ لَا يُؤْمِنُونَ

“And they swear by Allāh their strongest oaths that if a sign came to them, they would surely believe in it. Say, "The signs are only with [i.e., from] Allāh." And what will make you perceive that even if it [i.e., a sign] came, they would not believe.”

Saheeh International

Essence

They swore one more sign would win them, but signs are Allah's to send, and only He knows the heart that would meet them.

A reflection

You do not even hold your own future heart

At base camp, a climber tells his wife on a crackling satellite phone that this summit is his last. He means it, and he swears it. Nine days later, standing on the top, his first thought is the ridge of the next mountain.

He did not lie. He simply did not know the man who would be standing on that summit. Quraysh made the same mistake on a far larger scale. They swore by Allah, with the strongest oaths they had, that one more sign would make them believe.

The reply is a single line: 'Say: the signs are only with Allah'. The Prophet ﷺ, the most honoured of creation, does not claim to hold them. One classical commentator draws two meanings from 'with Allah'. Only He has the power to produce such signs. And only He knows whether a given sign would actually bring a person to faith.

That second meaning is where the ego shrinks. We assume we know ourselves. If this happened, I would change. If I saw that, I would believe. The ayah says quietly: you do not know. One early interpreter heard the next words as spoken to the swearers. What makes you so sure of these oaths of yours?

Is it arrogance for Allah to refuse a demand and keep the signs in His own hand? It would be, if He gained anything by it. He gains nothing from anyone's belief. The withholding, as the next reflection shows, was for their sake.

An early report says Allah told what His servants would say before they said it, and what they would do before they did it. He knows the heart you will have on the summit. You only know the one you have at base camp. The proud person sets terms for Allah. The humble person asks Him for a heart that will still want Him when the moment comes.

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.