Al-An'am · Makki · ayah 68 of 165

Al-An'am 6:68

وَإِذَا رَأَيْتَ ٱلَّذِينَ يَخُوضُونَ فِىٓ ءَايَـٰتِنَا فَأَعْرِضْ عَنْهُمْ حَتَّىٰ يَخُوضُوا۟ فِى حَدِيثٍ غَيْرِهِۦ ۚ وَإِمَّا يُنسِيَنَّكَ ٱلشَّيْطَـٰنُ فَلَا تَقْعُدْ بَعْدَ ٱلذِّكْرَىٰ مَعَ ٱلْقَوْمِ ٱلظَّـٰلِمِينَ

“And when you see those who engage in [offensive] discourse[316] concerning Our verses, then turn away from them until they enter into another conversation. And if Satan should cause you to forget, then do not remain after the reminder with the wrongdoing people.”

Saheeh International

Essence

When talk turns to mocking Allah's verses, turn your side to it; and if you forgot, rise the moment you remember.

A reflection

The clock starts when you remember

A retired man sits in a barber's chair on a Saturday morning. The barber and another customer are swapping clips on a phone. One is a cartoon of Nuh's ark, played for laughs. The old man chuckles at the voices before he grasps what is being mocked. Then it lands. He feels his face go hot.

The ayah has a sentence for exactly that moment. 'If Satan makes you forget, then do not sit, after the remembering, with the wrongdoing people.' Notice where the instruction begins. Not at the first joke. At the remembering.

The commentaries read it plainly. If you forgot and sat with them, then remembered, get up. The earliest interpreters said the same in a few words: if you forget and then remember, do not stay. The minutes before remembering are not the subject of the command. Forgetting is named, and it is not condemned.

That is a mercy for anxious consciences. Many believers replay such moments for days. Why did I laugh? Why did I not see it sooner? The ayah does not ask for that replay. It asks for one thing, now that you see.

Notice too who is said to cause the forgetting. Satan does not need to argue you into the room. He only needs you absorbed. The banter, the warmth, the pleasant voices do the work. Forgetting here is drift, not decision.

The Prophet ﷺ spoke openly about his own forgetting. 'I am only a human being like you,' he said. 'I forget as you forget, so when I forget, remind me' (Sahih al-Bukhari, Sahih Muslim). Even the best of creation was spoken to with an 'if you forget'. The commentators add a firm limit. Most allow such forgetting in ordinary matters, but agree he was never left uncorrected in what he conveyed from Allah.

So the old man does not need to hate himself for the first chuckle. The question is the next minute. He says quietly, 'Not that one, lads.' The clock starts there.

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.