Al-An'am · Makki · ayah 11 of 165

Al-An'am 6:11

قُلْ سِيرُوا۟ فِى ٱلْأَرْضِ ثُمَّ ٱنظُرُوا۟ كَيْفَ كَانَ عَـٰقِبَةُ ٱلْمُكَذِّبِينَ

“Say, "Travel through the land; then observe how was the end of the deniers."”

Saheeh International

Essence

Unlike its close echoes, this command joins travelling and looking with 'then': go where you need to, but do not come home without having looked.

A reflection

Go anywhere, but then look

Several ayat command travel and looking. Its close echoes join the two with fa, 'and so': travel in order to look (3:137, 16:36, 27:69). This one uses thumma, 'then'. Two classical commentators stop at the difference.

With fa, they say, looking is the purpose of the journey. Do not travel the way the heedless travel. With thumma, the travelling itself is left open: for trade, for need, for any benefit. The looking, though, is required. The small word 'then' marks the distance between what is allowed and what is owed.

Picture a consultant who has flown to forty cities in ten years. Ask her about any of them and she describes an airport, a hotel lobby and a conference room. She has crossed the earth and seen almost none of it. The ayah would not tell her to stop flying. It would tell her not to come home without having looked.

Another reading in the commentaries is just as rich. Just before this, the surah spoke of many generations destroyed and others raised after them (6:6). Seeing the traces of so many takes long travel over years. 'Then' suits a journey of that length. Both readings agree on the main point. Movement is not the same as attention.

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.