Al-An'am · Makki · ayah 71 of 165

Al-An'am 6:71

قُلْ أَنَدْعُوا۟ مِن دُونِ ٱللَّهِ مَا لَا يَنفَعُنَا وَلَا يَضُرُّنَا وَنُرَدُّ عَلَىٰٓ أَعْقَابِنَا بَعْدَ إِذْ هَدَىٰنَا ٱللَّهُ كَٱلَّذِى ٱسْتَهْوَتْهُ ٱلشَّيَـٰطِينُ فِى ٱلْأَرْضِ حَيْرَانَ لَهُۥٓ أَصْحَـٰبٌ يَدْعُونَهُۥٓ إِلَى ٱلْهُدَى ٱئْتِنَا ۗ قُلْ إِنَّ هُدَى ٱللَّهِ هُوَ ٱلْهُدَىٰ ۖ وَأُمِرْنَا لِنُسْلِمَ لِرَبِّ ٱلْعَـٰلَمِينَ

“Say, "Shall we invoke[317] instead of Allāh that which neither benefits us nor harms us and be turned back on our heels after Allāh has guided us? [We would then be] like one whom the devils enticed [to wander] upon the earth confused, [while] he has companions inviting him to guidance, [calling], 'Come to us.'"[318] Say, "Indeed, the guidance of Allāh is the [only] guidance; and we have been commanded to submit to the Lord of the worlds.”

Saheeh International

Essence

To turn back to what cannot help or harm is to circle lost while friends call from the road; Allah's guidance is the guidance.

A reflection

The guidance, with a definite article

A yachtsman sets his course by the compass app on his phone. He has rested the phone against the steel housing of the engine. The reading drifts, a few degrees at a time. He follows it confidently for an hour, and finds himself miles off his line.

The ayah makes a bold statement: 'Allah's guidance is the guidance.' Not one guidance among several. One classical commentator explains the phrasing with an everyday example. When you say 'Zayd's knowledge is the knowledge', you mean it is knowledge in its complete and noble form. Another adds the other side: what lies beyond it is error.

This cuts against a quiet pride we all carry. We trust our own instruments. Our instincts, our reading, our sense of what feels right. They are real and useful. But they sit near steel. Desire, fear, upbringing and fashion bend the needle a few degrees at a time, and we never feel it move.

The ayah then names the One whose guidance it is: 'the Lord of the worlds'. The One who made the magnetic field, the sea and the sailor is not one opinion among the passengers. His direction does not drift, because nothing bends it.

Is this arrogance, a claim to sole truth? It would be, if a human said it of himself. Said by the Creator of every compass, it is simply accurate. And He gains nothing from our following. 'Allah is free of need of the worlds' (29:6). The insistence is a kindness to the sailor, not a demand for applause.

The humble response is not to throw away your instruments. It is to check them against true north, often, and to move the phone away from the engine.

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.