Al-An'am · Makki · ayah 58 of 165

Al-An'am 6:58

قُل لَّوْ أَنَّ عِندِى مَا تَسْتَعْجِلُونَ بِهِۦ لَقُضِىَ ٱلْأَمْرُ بَيْنِى وَبَيْنَكُمْ ۗ وَٱللَّهُ أَعْلَمُ بِٱلظَّـٰلِمِينَ

“Say, "If I had that for which you are impatient, the matter would have been decided between me and you, but Allāh is most knowing of the wrongdoers."”

Saheeh International

Essence

Had the punishment been in his hands it would already have fallen; it rests instead with the One who knows the wrongdoers, and their futures.

A reflection

Glad the button was never ours

Law anna ʿindī: if it were with me. The Prophet ﷺ is told to admit something remarkable. Had the punishment they dared him to bring been in his hands, the matter would already be over.

One concise commentary spells out the feeling: I would have hastened it for you and been at rest. But it is with Allah, the ayah continues, and Allah knows best the wrongdoers. An early commentary adds that He knows better than the Prophet, and better than all creation, what sets His creation right.

Sit with that. The best of creation, mocked and pressed for years, is taught to say: it is good that this is not mine to decide. What would the rest of us do with such power?

Picture a woman at one in the morning, drafting an email to a colleague who humiliated her in a meeting. Every sentence is true. The tone is devastating. She presses send. Then she remembers a setting she once switched on: a thirty-second delay. In that half-minute she reads it once more, and pulls it back.

Our pride assumes we would make good judges, if only the authority were ours. The ayah quietly says otherwise. Human anger moves at the speed of the injury. It does not know what tomorrow holds or who the wrongdoer will become.

Aʿlam is a comparative: more knowing, most knowing. Allah's knowledge of the wrongdoers is not only greater than ours. It reaches what ours cannot: hidden motives, future repentance, children not yet born.

A sceptic may hear this as a God guarding a privilege. Look at what the claim does in practice. A power hoarded out of pride would be used quickly, to make a point. This one is held back, for the sake of the very people mocking it. A Lord who needs nothing from them can afford to wait for them.

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.