Al-An'am · Makki · ayah 157 of 165

Al-An'am 6:157

أَوْ تَقُولُوا۟ لَوْ أَنَّآ أُنزِلَ عَلَيْنَا ٱلْكِتَـٰبُ لَكُنَّآ أَهْدَىٰ مِنْهُمْ ۚ فَقَدْ جَآءَكُم بَيِّنَةٌ مِّن رَّبِّكُمْ وَهُدًى وَرَحْمَةٌ ۚ فَمَنْ أَظْلَمُ مِمَّن كَذَّبَ بِـَٔايَـٰتِ ٱللَّهِ وَصَدَفَ عَنْهَا ۗ سَنَجْزِى ٱلَّذِينَ يَصْدِفُونَ عَنْ ءَايَـٰتِنَا سُوٓءَ ٱلْعَذَابِ بِمَا كَانُوا۟ يَصْدِفُونَ

“Or lest you say, "If only the Scripture had been revealed to us, we would have been better guided than they." So there has [now] come to you a clear evidence from your Lord and a guidance and mercy. Then who is more unjust than one who denies the verses of Allāh and turns away from them? We will recompense those who turn away from Our verses with the worst of punishment for their having turned away.”

Saheeh International

Essence

'If only we had a Book, we would do better': the Book has come, and now the question is whether you turn towards it.

A reflection

If I lived by the sea, I would run

For years a woman says the same thing. If she lived by the sea, she would run every morning. The cold air, the long flat beach, the light on the water: it would be easy. Then her job moves her to a coastal town. Her flat looks out over the beach. Her trainers stay in their box by the door for a whole winter.

The Makkans had a similar sentence ready. If only the Book had been sent down to us, we would have been better guided than them. One classical commentary gives their reasoning. We have sharper minds, quicker understanding, and better memories, they would say. We hold the battles of the Arabs, their speeches, poems, rhymed sayings and proverbs in our heads. Give us a scripture and watch what we do with it. A concise commentary sums it up: because of the excellence of our minds.

The Quran records how such promises ended elsewhere. They swore by Allah their strongest oaths that if a warner came, they would be more rightly guided than any other people. When a warner came, it increased them only in aversion (35:42).

The 'if only' sentence has a strange comfort. It lets a person feel virtuous about a goodness they have never had to practise. The condition is always out of reach, so the promise is never tested.

Then the condition is met. Fa-qad jāʾakum: so it has come to you. One commentary calls this the finest kind of omission. The full sense is: if you were telling the truth about yourselves, then here it is.

Most of us carry an 'if only' of our own. If I had more time, I would read the Quran properly. If I lived near a good mosque, I would pray in congregation. The ayah gently asks you to look at the box by the door.

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.