Al-An'am · Makki · ayah 117 of 165

Al-An'am 6:117

إِنَّ رَبَّكَ هُوَ أَعْلَمُ مَن يَضِلُّ عَن سَبِيلِهِۦ ۖ وَهُوَ أَعْلَمُ بِٱلْمُهْتَدِينَ

“Indeed, your Lord is most knowing of who strays from His way, and He is most knowing of the [rightly] guided.”

Saheeh International

Essence

The near-twin of 68:7, set here after the warning about the crowd's guesses: only your Lord knows who is straying and who is guided.

A reflection

After the headcount, the only count that matters

This ayah returns, almost word for word, at 68:7, where its fuller treatment lives. What is different here is what it follows.

The ayah before it has just warned that obeying most of those on earth would lead you off the way of Allah. They follow nothing but assumption, it says, and they only guess (6:116). Then comes this line. The crowd estimates; your Lord knows.

One commentator reads it in two ways, and both suit this placement. First, once you know what is true and what is false, do not stay bound to the crowd. Leave their affair to the One who made them, for He knows who is guided and who is lost. Second, the many may sound certain, but He knows their hearts. Behind the confident talk, he says, they are bewildered, wandering in valleys of ignorance.

So the ayah lifts the weight of the majority off the believer twice. Their number does not prove them right. And their confidence does not prove they are sure.

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.