As-Saf · Madani · ayah 7 of 14

As-Saf 61:7

وَمَنْ أَظْلَمُ مِمَّنِ ٱفْتَرَىٰ عَلَى ٱللَّهِ ٱلْكَذِبَ وَهُوَ يُدْعَىٰٓ إِلَى ٱلْإِسْلَـٰمِ ۚ وَٱللَّهُ لَا يَهْدِى ٱلْقَوْمَ ٱلظَّـٰلِمِينَ

“And who is more unjust than one who invents about Allāh untruth while he is being invited to Islām. And Allāh does not guide the wrongdoing people.”

Saheeh International

Essence

No injustice is named as greater than inventing a lie about Allah at the very moment one is being invited, simply, to submit to Him.

A reflection

Truth cut to a private shape

Iftarā grows from a root whose first sense is cutting. Farā al-adīm, to cut a hide, describes a blade that can go either of two ways: a careful, measured cut shapes the leather into a water-bag, useful and whole; a careless one tears and ruins the skin. From this same cutting comes firya, a fabricated lie, truth cut away from its real shape and refitted into whatever shape its inventor preferred.

That image sharpens what is being described here. A fabrication against Allah is not simply a mistaken belief, held in good faith by someone who was never taught better. It is closer to the second kind of cut: material that already had an honest shape, cut apart deliberately and reassembled into a private, invented version, more flattering or more convenient to the one doing the cutting than the original ever was.

The ayah follows directly on from the rejection described a moment earlier, where clear signs were met with an accusation of magic. That accusation was itself exactly this kind of cut: evidence that had an honest shape, relabelled as something else entirely, not because the evidence had changed but because the new shape was easier to live with than what the evidence actually showed.

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.