Al-An'am · Makki · ayah 90 of 165

Al-An'am 6:90

أُو۟لَـٰٓئِكَ ٱلَّذِينَ هَدَى ٱللَّهُ ۖ فَبِهُدَىٰهُمُ ٱقْتَدِهْ ۗ قُل لَّآ أَسْـَٔلُكُمْ عَلَيْهِ أَجْرًا ۖ إِنْ هُوَ إِلَّا ذِكْرَىٰ لِلْعَـٰلَمِينَ

“Those are the ones whom Allāh has guided, so from their guidance take an example. Say, "I ask of you for it [i.e., this message] no payment. It is not but a reminder for the worlds."”

Saheeh International

Essence

The Prophet ﷺ is told to walk the track the earlier prophets wore down, ask nothing for it, and call it a reminder for all.

A reflection

Copy the knife-work, not the limp

A young chef spends two years beside a famous mentor. She learns his knife-work, his patience with stock, his habit of tasting everything twice. Then a colleague points out that she has started to limp the way he does. He has a bad knee. She has copied that too.

The command in this ayah is two words in Arabic: fa-bi-hudāhumu iqtadih. Most translations give 'follow their guidance', but the order matters. 'Their guidance' comes first, before the verb. Two classical commentators explain the effect. It makes their guidance the one thing to be followed, and limits the following to it. Not the prophets' clothes, their eras, or the particular laws each carried. Their hudā.

What was that guidance? The commentaries mostly answer: their way in faith, the oneness of Allah, and the roots of the religion. Their laws differed from one another, and some were later replaced. One concise commentary adds patience. Another commentator adds every fine trait of character. The core is the track itself, not the limp.

The verb deserves attention too. Iqtadih comes from a root whose plainest image is a horse keeping to the beaten track. The same root gives qidā rumḥ, a spear's length, a thing measured. A qudwa is a pattern you measure yourself against until you match it.

That clears away a common mistake. Many picture following as copying blindly and switching off your own mind. The root suggests the opposite. To follow is to measure, checking your step against a known track. It takes attention, not the surrender of thought.

So the question is never only whom you admire. It is this: which part of them is the track, and which is only their limp?

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.