Al-An'am · Makki · ayah 28 of 165

Al-An'am 6:28

بَلْ بَدَا لَهُم مَّا كَانُوا۟ يُخْفُونَ مِن قَبْلُ ۖ وَلَوْ رُدُّوا۟ لَعَادُوا۟ لِمَا نُهُوا۟ عَنْهُ وَإِنَّهُمْ لَكَـٰذِبُونَ

“But what they concealed before has [now] appeared to them. And even if they were returned, they would return to that which they were forbidden; and indeed, they are liars.”

Saheeh International

Essence

Their wish was no change of heart: what they hid came into the open, and sent back, they would walk the old road again.

A reflection

The old road walks itself

Wa-law ruddū la-ʿādū: and if they were sent back, they would go back. The ayah plays one going-back against another. Radd is being turned back to where you came from. ʿAwd is doing a thing again.

The lexicons give ʿawd a desert picture. An old, much-used road was called ʿawd. A line of old verse says such a road dies when it is left, and lives when it is travelled. That image is established. The feet know the way before the mind has decided anything.

One early interpreter put this ayah plainly. If Allah gave them a world like the one they had, they would go back to the same deeds.

A roofer slips on wet scaffolding and is caught by a single guard rail. For a month afterwards he clips his harness on at every job. He checks every board, and tells the apprentices to do the same. By spring the harness hangs on a hook in the van. Nothing about the height has changed. Only the fright has faded.

Change that runs on fright runs out when the fright does. That is the ayah's diagnosis of the wish in 6:27. It was sincere as a feeling. It had no roots as a choice.

This is not a counsel of despair for anyone trying to change. It is a warning about which engine to use. A habit is not broken by one terrible day. It is broken by building a new road and walking it daily, until the feet know it. The old road lives while it is travelled. So does the new one.

So when a scare shakes you into resolve, use the fright as a spark only. A hospital corridor, a near miss, a funeral: each can light the fire. Before it fades, attach the change to something that does not fade. A prayer kept at its time, a fixed hour with the Quran, a friend who will ask how it is going.

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.