Al-An'am · Makki · ayah 140 of 165

Al-An'am 6:140

قَدْ خَسِرَ ٱلَّذِينَ قَتَلُوٓا۟ أَوْلَـٰدَهُمْ سَفَهًۢا بِغَيْرِ عِلْمٍ وَحَرَّمُوا۟ مَا رَزَقَهُمُ ٱللَّهُ ٱفْتِرَآءً عَلَى ٱللَّهِ ۚ قَدْ ضَلُّوا۟ وَمَا كَانُوا۟ مُهْتَدِينَ

“They will have lost who killed their children in foolishness without knowledge and prohibited what Allāh had provided for them, inventing untruth about Allāh. They have gone astray and were not [rightly] guided.”

Saheeh International

Essence

Those who buried their children and banned their own food are summed up in one word, loss; their lightness, ignorance and lie were one failure.

A reflection

Too poor to keep a daughter, rich enough to waste a camel

The ayah ties two crimes together in one breath. They killed their children, and they forbade what Allah had provided for them. Why put these two side by side?

One commentator saw the answer at once. They killed their daughters for fear of want. Yet they shut away whole animals from their own use, and felt no fear of want at all. A camel could be set loose, untouchable, while a baby girl was buried for the food she might eat. The ayah lays the two facts next to each other and lets the contradiction speak.

This tells us something about the frightened heart. Fear does not reason; it obeys. The same people were terrified of poverty in one room and careless of it in the next. What decided which fear they obeyed was not logic but custom, and behind custom, whoever had taught it.

The pattern is not dead. Picture a family that postpones a child's dental appointment because money is tight this month. The same week, they buy a lavish gift for a distant cousin's wedding, because the whole extended family will see it. Nobody in that house is wicked. But the child's need was weighed against the family's face, and the face won.

The question the ayah leaves is uncomfortable and useful. Where am I careful and where am I careless, and who drew that line for me? If my thrift falls hardest on the weakest person in the house, it is not thrift. It is a hidden master choosing my sacrifices for me.

The full entry has 6 more reflections, questions to sit with, and "Live it today" - with the words, the roots and the tafsir alongside. Free, no account, works offline.