Al-An'am · Makki · ayah 130 of 165

Al-An'am 6:130

يَـٰمَعْشَرَ ٱلْجِنِّ وَٱلْإِنسِ أَلَمْ يَأْتِكُمْ رُسُلٌ مِّنكُمْ يَقُصُّونَ عَلَيْكُمْ ءَايَـٰتِى وَيُنذِرُونَكُمْ لِقَآءَ يَوْمِكُمْ هَـٰذَا ۚ قَالُوا۟ شَهِدْنَا عَلَىٰٓ أَنفُسِنَا ۖ وَغَرَّتْهُمُ ٱلْحَيَوٰةُ ٱلدُّنْيَا وَشَهِدُوا۟ عَلَىٰٓ أَنفُسِهِمْ أَنَّهُمْ كَانُوا۟ كَـٰفِرِينَ

“"O company of jinn and mankind,[344] did there not come to you messengers from among you, relating to you My verses and warning you of the meeting of this Day of yours?" They will say, "We bear witness against ourselves"; and the worldly life had deluded them, and they will bear witness against themselves that they were disbelievers.”

Saheeh International

Essence

Jinn and humans are asked whether messengers of their own reached them; deceived by the near life, they testify against themselves too late.

A reflection

A messenger who speaks your language

A deaf teenager has spent years in classrooms where teachers spoke at her and an interpreter lagged behind. Then a new teacher arrives who is herself deaf. She signs fluently, jokes in sign, and knows exactly where the confusion lives. Within a term the girl understands things she had only ever copied before.

The question on that Day is pointed: did not messengers come to you from among you? One commentator explains why it matters that a messenger is one of us. People take comfort in their own kind more fully than in an angel. This same surah answers the demand for an angel messenger: had We made him an angel, We would have made him a man (6:9). The message arrives in a voice you can follow, from someone who eats and walks the markets as you do.

The phrase raised a real question in the commentaries, and it is worth knowing. The address is to jinn and humans together. Does 'from among you' mean the jinn had messengers of their own? One early scholar said yes. Most said the messengers were human. The jinn had warners who heard the messengers and carried the message back to their people, as Al-Ahqāf describes (46:29). On this view 'from among you' means from the whole gathering. It is like 'from both seas come pearls and coral' (55:22), though pearls come from the salt sea only.

Whichever view one takes, the purpose is the same. One commentator puts it plainly: the warning reached all of them, and so every excuse was removed.

There is a gift here for every reader. Allah did not shout instructions from a distance. He sent people who could sit beside us, feel what we feel, and explain. The question on that Day will not be whether you cracked an unreachable code. It will be whether someone of your own kind told you.

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.