Al-An'am · Makki · ayah 137 of 165

Al-An'am 6:137

وَكَذَٰلِكَ زَيَّنَ لِكَثِيرٍ مِّنَ ٱلْمُشْرِكِينَ قَتْلَ أَوْلَـٰدِهِمْ شُرَكَآؤُهُمْ لِيُرْدُوهُمْ وَلِيَلْبِسُوا۟ عَلَيْهِمْ دِينَهُمْ ۖ وَلَوْ شَآءَ ٱللَّهُ مَا فَعَلُوهُ ۖ فَذَرْهُمْ وَمَا يَفْتَرُونَ

“And likewise, to many of the polytheists their partners[348] have made [to seem] pleasing the killing of their children in order to bring about their destruction and to cover them with confusion in their religion. And if Allāh had willed, they would not have done so. So leave them and that which they invent.”

Saheeh International

Essence

Their partners dressed the killing of their own children as something fitting, to ruin them and cloak their inherited faith; Allah could have stopped it.

A reflection

The father who thought he held the power of life

Picture a father in Arabia before Islam. His wife has given birth to a girl. He fears another mouth to feed, or the shame a daughter might one day bring. The decision, as he sees it, is his alone. He decides whether this child lives.

The commentaries record that such killing happened, most often of daughters. Some were buried alive for fear of poverty, others for fear of disgrace. The ayah describes it with a word that sounds almost gentle: it was made to look fitting.

Then, in the middle of the horror, comes a short sentence. Had Allah willed, they would not have done it.

This is where the ego shrinks. The father felt like a sovereign over life and death. The ayah shows him from above. He was not sovereign at all. His 'free decision' had been dressed up for him by others. And everything he did happened within a will far greater than his own.

A fair doubt follows. Why mention Allah's will at the worst moment? Is it a boast of power over helpless children? The ayah answers by what surrounds the sentence. It does not say Allah approved. It says the partners adorned the deed, and it calls their claims fabrication. One classical commentator puts it precisely: it happened within His will as an event, not as His command.

So the mention of His will is not Allah needing to display power. It humbles every human who imagines himself the final authority over another life. No parent, ruler or crowd decides alone. All of them will stand before the One whose will they acted within.

There is comfort here too, for the wronged. The buried girl had no voice in that father's world. The Quran gives her one: when the girl buried alive is asked for what sin she was killed (81:8-9). The man who thought he held the power of life will be asked about it by the One who truly does.

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.