Al-An'am · Makki · ayah 5 of 165

Al-An'am 6:5

فَقَدْ كَذَّبُوا۟ بِٱلْحَقِّ لَمَّا جَآءَهُمْ ۖ فَسَوْفَ يَأْتِيهِمْ أَنۢبَـٰٓؤُا۟ مَا كَانُوا۟ بِهِۦ يَسْتَهْزِءُونَ

“For they had denied the truth when it came to them, but there is going to reach them the news of what they used to ridicule.[293]”

Saheeh International

Essence

They denied the truth the moment it reached them, and what they laughed at will come back to them as news that proves itself.

A reflection

News from beyond the horizon

The ayah does not say punishment will come to them. It says anbāʾ will come: news. The word is chosen with care.

Its root pictures something arriving from elsewhere. The first hearers called a stranger who turned up from another land a nābiʾ. A sayl nābiʾ was a flood that swept down a valley from rain nobody there had seen. The sky overhead was clear, and still the water came. News is nabaʾ because it too travels from beyond your sight to reach you. A commentary on language adds that a nabaʾ is news of great weight, not idle talk.

So the image is exact. The Makkans mocked a warning about things they could not see. One day it would reach them like that flood: from beyond the horizon, already in full spate.

A theological commentary explains why a threat is framed as news. The warning was a report about a punishment. When the punishment lands, the report is proved true, and every doubt about it is gone. The event is the confirmation of the news.

At Badr that confirmation was spoken aloud. The Prophet ﷺ stood at the edge of the well where the leaders of Quraysh lay. He called them by their names and their fathers' names. 'We have found what our Lord promised us to be true,' he said. 'Have you found what your Lord promised you to be true?' Both Sahihs record it.

The commentaries differ on where this ayah's news arrives. Some point to Badr, others to the Day of Judgement, others to Islam's rise; one says the wording covers them all. Either way, the report they laughed at became the thing they lived.

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.