Al-An'am · Makki · ayah 82 of 165

Al-An'am 6:82

ٱلَّذِينَ ءَامَنُوا۟ وَلَمْ يَلْبِسُوٓا۟ إِيمَـٰنَهُم بِظُلْمٍ أُو۟لَـٰٓئِكَ لَهُمُ ٱلْأَمْنُ وَهُم مُّهْتَدُونَ

“They who believe and do not mix their belief with injustice[323] - those will have security, and they are [rightly] guided.”

Saheeh International

Essence

Real security belongs to those whose faith carries no second cloak of shirk: who have not put worship where it does not belong.

A reflection

'Which of us has not wronged himself?'

A sixth-former reads the exam board's notice the night before her first paper. 'Any malpractice will result in disqualification.' She lies awake over the ruler she borrowed from a friend in a mock last spring. In the morning the exams officer laughs gently. 'Malpractice means cheating. You are fine.'

When this ayah came down, the Companions read it the way she read that notice. Ẓulm is wrongdoing, and every one of them knew he had wronged himself at some point. So the promise of security seemed to close in front of them. The narrator says it weighed heavily on them. They came to the Prophet ﷺ and asked: which of us has not wronged himself?

His answer was gentle and exact. It is not as you think. It is what Luqmān said to his son: 'Do not associate anything with Allah; association is a tremendous wrong' (31:13). The wrong meant here is shirk, giving to another what belongs to Allah alone (Sahih al-Bukhari, Sahih Muslim).

This is why the ayah became famous. It is one of the few places where we watch the first hearers take a word too broadly, in fear. Then we see the Prophet ﷺ correct them with another ayah. The leading early commentator settled the dispute among later readers on exactly this ground. Whatever is soundly reported from the Prophet ﷺ decides the meaning, he said, and here it is reported that the wrong is shirk.

Notice what their alarm reveals, too. They did not shrug and assume the promise was for them. They took one word so seriously that it cost them sleep. Their worry was a kind of reverence. Most of us read the same ayah and feel nothing at all.

The Prophet ﷺ did not mock the worry. He answered it with Scripture, and sent them home secure.

The full entry has 6 more reflections, questions to sit with, and "Live it today" - with the words, the roots and the tafsir alongside. Free, no account, works offline.